Vegan & Gluten Free Winter Stew

Official Taster and I just got home from a week in Hawaii. Yep, Hawaii. Yep, it was awesome. Yep, that's all of us I'm going to show you. But, on the plus side, there will be lots of pretty flower pictures in the future.

It was warm, it was sunny, there were sea breezes and surfers. Pretty perfect. You may now be understanding why posting was kind of thin last week. Sorry, Blogger, but I had better things to do! There were rain forests, waterfalls, beaches, volcanoes, mai tais, and luaus. We also ate and drank a lot, visited with family, saw a rainbow, napped, absorbed some Vitamin D (to make up for cloudy Seattle), read, slept in, and admired the ocean. It was an actual vacation.

So when we arrived back in Seattle, I wanted to cook. After a week of excesses I wanted healthy, delicious, and not over the top. Because we came back to cool, rainy weather, I wanted warm and filling. This stew type thinger seemed like a good solution, and it goes over rice or pasta, and I also made some bread to go along.

Apologies for the lack of photos, but the weather is not cooperating properly with my work schedule (it's only been good light when I'm unavailable for photography).

Vegan & Gluten Free Winter Stew
olive oil
1 extra large onion, diced
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 bunch celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 vegan sausages, sliced
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 C tomato sauce
1/2 C vegetable broth
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried Italian spices
bay leaf
salt to taste

In a medium or large stock pot or Dutch oven, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until starting to become translucent. Add garlic, celery, carrots, and vegan sausages. Stir occasionally. When the vegetables start to soften, add the remaining ingredients to the pot. Let everything simmer until heated through and serve over rice, pasta, mashed potatoes, or anything else you can think of. The stew will have more flavor the longer it sits in its own juices, so cooking it in the afternoon and waiting until dinner to serve it will impart more flavor.

Notes:
As I've said over and over and over again, experiment with ingredients, flavors, spices, etc. and you can make the same general dish over and over again without it tasting the same.