Sunday, July 02, 2006

Paella!

I have had paella once, back in my omni days, and remembered REALLY liking it . . . so when I stumbled across a recipe for "Quick Vegetarian Paella" in an old Cooking Light magazine, I decided to try it out!

However, the more I looked at the recipe, the more I really didn't quite like it . . . so I decided to make some major changes! Here's my version of Vegetarian Paella, inspired by Cooking Light:

Saute together:
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup sliced cremini mushrooms
1 clove garlic, minced

Add, bring to a boil, cover, then simmer for 15 minutes:
1 cup quinoa, rinsed well
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, crushed
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

Stir in and heat through:
1 cup chopped fresh tomato
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
7 ounces artichoke hearts, roughly chopped

End notes: this could use a little more salt, and also benefited from boiling off a little bit of extra liquid at the end. Otherwise, pretty good!

P.S. According to the recipe, it should have made about 2 1/2 servings . . . it looks more like four to me! Sheesh. I'm really glad I cut the recipe in half to begin with!

5 comments:

My Inner Geek said...

Hi Catherine,

I heart paella. I make a recipe from the Voluptuous Vegan--lots of steps but super tasty. It contains black olives and capers, just enough to get a nibble in each scoop. The saltiness of the pair add to the dish. I also make a tofu-garlic aioli to go on top which is fantastic! I'm going to add artichoke hearts next time.

KleoPatra said...

Looks great!!! Never tried this before...

Jody from VegChic said...

Interesting, paella with quinoa. The Spaniards would be horrfied, lol!

When I lived in Spain, paella was everywhere. Though I was not vegetarian yet, I'm not sure I ever tried it. The gambas (shrimp) were whole complete with eyes and tails. Even as a carnivore, I couldn't stomach that idea and there was always some kind of strange mystery meat in it.

Glad to hear that Voluptuous Vegan has paella recipe too. Between all these recipes, I should get to try some paella soon.

Sounds like you have been cooking up a storm this weekend. The spring rolls sound awesome and the fennel salad looks funky. I may give it a try sometime!

Crystal said...

Ooh - neato. This has a lot of yummy ingredients like artichokes and mushrooms. I don't think I've ever used cremini mushrooms.

-Crystal

Catherine Weber said...

Ann, unfortunately, I like neither olives nor capers! I actually omitted the olives from the recipe I made. Bah!

Kleopatra, definitely try paella, or something else with saffron in it. It is a very unique (albeit very expensive) flavor. Mmmmm!

Jody, I used quinoa because the recipe called for quick-cooking brown rice, which I do not have on hand nor could I find at the co-op, so quinoa was the closest thing I had to a quick-cooking grain. Extra protein, too! I'd like to try it sometime with rice, though. :)

Crystal, the artichokes definitely send the dish over the top -- it also called for olives, but, I don't care for olives AT ALL. I wish I did . . . alas. You could obviously use brown rice instead of the quinoa -- I just felt like bastardizing the recipe a little bit!