Could you help me modify my dinner recipe?

Replace it with carrots and celery or, as you said, rice. I would choose the vegetables because you already have a few kind of starchy things in the gumbo (the corn and potatoes). A cup of diced or chopped carrots and a cup of diced or chopped celery would do it.

Sounds good! Great find, @chad. I might try this myself.

If I were doing this, I would certainly cut the pepper in half (at least) and let guests add to it if they want more. Some people, including me, are really put off by anything too peppery.

@EmpressPixie, do you think it could possibly work to have some onions sauteed on the side and let other guests add them at serving time? Or would the aroma of cooked onions alone be enough to offend the one friend?

@Jeruba: That would certainly work. You probably need some sort of veggie base so you’d still want to replace them with something. Onion, celery, and green pepper are the three things most commonly used as a base in cajun cooking. But carrots are often subbed in and peppers can be icky in a soup/stew, I think. Another good sub would be okra, but I didn’t suggest it at first because it isn’t as straightforward for subbing and many people do not like it. Fools, all of them!!

Oh, sure, I understand. I was assuming that chad follows the main recipe with your substitution, carrots and celery. They would be good in any case. So the onions on the side would be an extra for onion lovers. The gumbo wouldn’t be as tasty as if cooked with the onions, but it would still approximate the intended flavor.

Okra is an acquired taste for many, and I sure wouldn’t foist it on someone who wasn’t expecting it! (I do like okra, but I understand why it doesn’t appeal to everyone.)

I just wanted to pop back in and personally say thank you, for the help and suggestions! I ended up using 3 cups of rice, along with all of the other ingredients in the video (aside from onions, of course), and I also took out the flour. I replaced the shrimp with a rib-eye, cut into squares just like the chicken. (I had next-to no time to run to the store and get vegetables, as I was not making this at my house, so I’m planning on substituting those for next time, haha.) Overall, it turned out to be somewhere between a chowder and a thick soup, and extremely filling! Needless to say, the amount of food made was exponential; if you follow the directions, make sure you have a big enough pot to put all of these ingredients in (mainly due to the expanding rice)! Wow, super-long reply… thank you again for your help!

@chad, glad you solved it! How did it go over?

And what happened to your question for two days?

It was stuck in editing/moderation for a few days.

Yes, I know. I was wondering what was wrong with it. It looked totally fine to me, specific and nonsocial and inoffensive and not readily Googleable. Like a lot of other flutherfolk, I am still trying to figure out how the new guidelines are being applied, and I could not detect a potential problem here.

IIRC, it started with “HELP!” which we are trying to cut down on and may not have been phrased as an actual question.