Soup, Stew, Chili and Gumbo Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between soup stew and chili? ›

If chili is prepared by braising meat, such as brisket or beef chuck, with beans and vegetables added toward the end of cooking time, it's considered a stew. If chili is made by browning ground meat, and then adding liquid, beans and vegetables, then it is a soup.

Louisiana gumbo is either a soup or a stew depending on your personal tastes, with a soup having a thinner consistency (less viscous) than a stew. In Louisiana, I've not heard it called either. It's just gumbo, a huge favorite down there and just about all around the US.

Gumbo consists primarily of a strongly flavored stock, meat or shellfish (or sometimes both), a thickener, and the Creole "holy trinity" – celery, bell peppers, and onions. Gumbo is often categorized by the type of thickener used, whether okra or filé powder (dried and ground sassafras leaves).

Creole cooks in Louisiana usually prepare some variation of three basic recipes: a ''Creole gumbo'' that includes sausages, beef, veal, ham, chicken, whole crabs or shrimp and is thickened with roux and file powder; a simpler ''okra gumbo'' thickened with okra and including a variety of shellfish; and a ''gumbo aux ...

Gumbo is a hearty stew made from combinations of seafood, meat (such as andouille, chicken and ham) or vegetables that's served hot over cooked rice. Gumbo can be thickened with okra, file, or a roux, a French and Creole method of cooking equal parts flour and fat.

Generally speaking, if there is so much liquid that the ingredients are fully submerged, it's a soup. If the chunks dominate the dish, it's a stew.

Thou Shalt Always Use a Bowl. If you use a plate, it is not gumbo it is rice and gravy! Thou Shalt Only Use a Wooden Spoon. There is only one kind of spoon that can enter a gumbo pot and that is a wooden one.

Turns out, your preference for tomatoes in gumbo comes down to whether you learned your skills from a Cajun cook or a Creole cook. (Learn about the difference here.) Cajun gumbo does not include tomatoes in the base, but Creole gumbo (typically shellfish or seafood gumbo) does call for tomatoes.

Making gumbo shouldn't be scary, but there are some tricks to getting that classic taste that defines it. It should be thicker than a soup. That's where thickeners like roux, okra, and filé powder come in. They also add flavor, but you don't need all three.

Great gumbo starts with roux, a flavorful thickening agent made from equal parts fat and flour. Once the roux is a deep golden color, add diced veggies and sausage to the mix. Then, incorporate beef bouillon, hot sauce, tomatoes, and seasonings to intensify the flavor.

What is the slimy vegetable in gumbo? ›

Love it or hate it, there's no denying that okra can get slimy. The so-called slime is mucilage, which comes from sugar residue and is great for, say, thickening gumbo, but not great when you're biting into a piece of sautéed okra and averse to that viscous texture.

Now, I prefer to grind up my own mix of seasoning (I use Emeril's ESSENCE recipe sometimes) because it keeps the flavour fresher, and I can ease up on the salt in favour of more pepper. Above all else, never add carrots (any recipe that tells you to do so is not an authentic New Orleans gumbo, even if it's delicious).

Gumbo is really a soup or stew that's often served over a little rice, while jambalaya is made with the rice cooked into the dish, making the grain an integral part of it. In gumbo, there should be more liquid than rice, while jambalaya should not be liquid-y or mushy. "Jambalaya is a way to cook rice.

Both dishes boast multicultural Creole and Cajun roots, so they are similar all the way up to the point they're quite different. The main difference between the two is the role of the rice, which is integral to both. Gumbo is served with rice that is cooked separately, but rice goes into the jambalaya pot.

"Gumbo" is a marijuana cigar laced with a dangerous co*cktail that sometimes includes ecstasy, synthetic marijuana and even cocaine in addition to phencyclidine, also known as PCP. While some users end up in a frozen state others become combative, uncontrollable and unable to feel pain.

Soup Uses More Liquid

In soup, the liquid is the primary ingredient. Soup can be completely liquified or it can consist of other elements (like meat and vegetables) that are fully submerged in water, stock, or broth. Stew, meanwhile, is typically "chunkier." It contains just enough liquid to cover the main ingredients.

Chili is considered a type of stew because of its low liquid content and is usually made with chilis or chili powder.

Chili is often considered a separate type of dish in itself, with many different varieties falling under its umbrella. But technically, it's a stew. No matter which ingredients you include, you'll never see a recipe asking you to puree a chili, like you often do with a soup.

Another way to look at it: Soup is any combination of ingredients cooked in liquid. Stew is any dish that's prepared by stewing—that is, submerging the ingredients with just enough liquid to cook them through at a simmer in a covered pot for a long time.