What to Serve With Gumbo: 5 Best Side Dishes (Updated 2024)

Name: 5 Best Gumbo Sides
Ingredients: Cornbread; Homemade Southern Hushpuppies; Cajun Fries; Okra; Rice

Updated Jan 30, 2023Recipe Marker

A delicious bowl of gumbo can be transformed into an amazing feast with the right accompaniments. Let’s find out what to serve with gumbo.

There’s nothing like gumbo in Louisiana for a quick and easy lunch. In fact, gumbo is a flavor of New Orleans.

This Creole cuisine contains a lot of meat, veggies, and flavorful spices. Traditional recipes include celery, bell peppers, onions, okra, sausage, chicken, and shrimp.

Best Side Dishes for Gumbo

1. Cornbread

Cornbread, like gumbo, is a Southern staple. The sweetness of this flaky pastry contrasts beautifully with the gumbo’s heaviness.

You can use it to soak up all that delicious soup. Cornbread is a great alternative to white rice if you’d rather serve gumbo with something other than rice.

All things considered, this side matches the gumbo’s zest and energy and will be a hit at the table.

Cornbread’s inherently spongy texture makes it great for sopping up the remains of the gumbo as well.

2. Homemade Southern Hushpuppies

Hushpuppies are yet another Southern side dish you’ll see paired with just about anything.

As such, these little, tasty cornmeal balls are equally at home in a fish fry or a gumbo.

You can picture the flavor combination of gumbo and hushpuppies if you’ve ever tried them.

3. Cajun Fries

Cajun fries and gumbo are a fantastic match for each other in terms of taste and texture. Spicy, smokey flavor coats the fries before they’re fried, leaving you hankering for more.

A combination of cold water, salt, sugar, baking soda, and black pepper should be used to soak the potatoes before cutting them into fry shapes.

Put a little butter and vegetable oil in the pan and heat until bubbles appear on the surface.

Finally, lay the fries in the pan in such a way that they do not come into contact with one another and decrease the heat to medium-high.

Also, don’t forget the Cajun seasoning, which elevates these fries to a whole new level of tastefulness.

4. Okra

Okra is another Southern staple that can be served with just about any food. Many from the South will also batter and deep-fry their food. Bite-sized okra “poppers” like these are a culinary treat.

Okra’s slimy texture may put some people off at first, but it’s actually quite delicious. You’ll also discover fern variations of okra in the vegetable area of your local grocery store.

This recipe requires around 30 minutes of prep time before frying them in heated oil for a few minutes on each side. Once you get through the difficult portion, they’re simple to prepare and ideal as an appetizer.

They can be used in a variety of cuisines, from soups to spicy sauces like gumbos, because they are so adaptable.

5. Rice

As the most typical side dish with gumbo, it’s hard to argue with rice’s provenance. The rich and flavorful stew of gumbo deserves nothing less than a robust and chewy starch to go with it.

Imagine the flavorful, rich sauce slathering each grain of hot, steaming rice with a generous dollop. I’m salivating just thinking about it.

How about gumbo-friendly rice? This question doesn’t really have an in my opinion. Simply follow the cues of your palate.

Long-grain white or brown rice is a good choice if you wish to stick to the old ways. Arborio, wild, and basmati rice are all popular choices, especially in gumbos that include okra.

Some people prefer dirty rice, which is white rice combined with bacon pieces, peppers, celery, and onion, as well as cayenne and black pepper, as an accompaniment.