As many of you will know, Paella is the most famous spanish dish, and for cooking it properly you need to be sure what are you doing. We would love to share with you the Vegan Paella cooked by our spanish volunteers Àngela and Nacho!
INGREDIENTS (4-5 serves)
- Long grain rice: 500 g
- Vegetal broth: 1-1,5 Lt
- Garlic: 4 gloves
- Tomatoes: 250 g
- Onion: 1 big piece
- Artichokes: 2 pieces
- Red pepper: 1 piece
- Eggplant: 1 piece
- Green bean: 400 g
- Olive oil
- Saffron (Or if not, sweet paprika)
- Salt to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
One little spoiler TIP: Never, ever, stir the rice while boiling in the pan. Please don’t do it. Paella is not risotto. You are at risk of being expelled from Spain if you say so.
1. Cut 2 gloves of garlic and the onion in very small pieces. Cut the artichokes in 4 parts each piece. Cut the eggplant and the red pepperin long and thin strips.
2. Choose a proper pan: It need to be big and thin, so you can expand the rice all over the surface and leave only a small thin of rice. Try to use the bigger stove you find, so the heat of the pan is well distributed.
3. Put the pan in the fire, at the maximum level. Throw a generous quantity of olive oil. When the oil is hot, throw first 2 gloves of garlic. When they start to be burned, remove them. Throw then the artichokes and the red peppers. Remove when they are started to be burned (only starting, we don’t want carbonize veggies!), and then dothe same with the green bean and the eggplant.
4. After you all these veggies are cooked and removed from the pan, reduce a little bit the fire and throw then the garlic and the onion cut in small pieces. In another fog, put the broth in the pot. The quantity depends on several factors (the intensity of the fire, if you prefer the rice more or less rough…) I recommend you to put little bit more of the double of rice, so approximately 1,25 L.
5. When the onion starts to be transparent, grate the tomato and add it to the pan. Let it cook for a while. You can now add the saffron or the sweet paprika.
6. When the tomato is cooked, is the moment to add the rice. Distribute it through the pan and mix it with the onion and the tomato, so the rice starts to acquire the flavour of the veggies. Mix it for 1-2 minutes,until the broth you had in the other fog is almost boiling.
7. Now, first put the fire high. Then, throw the broth in the paella. Distribute the broth and the rice all over the pan. Add also the rest of the veggies. Once you have added the rice, and this is VERY important, don’t remove the rice again! If you remove the rice whilebeing cooked it will turn a sticky rice! If you want, you can use the handle of the pan to move all the paella at the same time (try to not do it many times), but don’t start removing the rice like you were cooking a risotto.
8. Keep the fire 8-10 minutes at its highest point. After that time, you will see that the broth starts to be mixed with the rice. Put then low fire, and keep it another 8 minutes. Finally, turn of the fire and cover the pan with a big tissue, and let it rest for another 5 minutes.
9. Now, the paella is… READY! You can serve it in different plates, or, if you want to do it in the traditional way, just take a spoon and eat it directly from the pan!
EXTRA TIP: You can squeeze some lemon above the paella at the end, the contrast between the rice and the citric flavor of the lemon will give you an exceptional final taste!
Enjoy your meal!!!
