Summer Vegetable Paella is summer-holidays on a plate. A lazy summers day finished off with a wonderful dish of seasonal vegetable paella is heavenly. It has everything you want – in one dish. So great for washing up!
Summer Vegetable Paella is easy to make and takes less than 40 minutes (including standing time).
You can find the full Summer Vegetable Paella recipe here.
This is a super versatile dish that you can dress up or down for lunch, light dinner or dinner party standard. Serve with salads such as Endive Salad with Pears and Almonds.
There are lots of variety of paella rice. Paella rice is a short to medium grained rice that absorbs stock well without becoming too creamy. Most supermarkets sell generic ‘paella’ rice which is probably Bahia rice and is usually good. There are a number of varieties of paella rice one of the best known are Calasparra (which is Balilla rice grown under special conditions in Valencia and therefore quite expensive) and Bomba
You can adjust the vegetables in the paella to what is in-season or available. Frozen vegetables work great in this too.
Preparation
Difficulty easy
Preparation time 10 minutes
Cooking time 30 minutes (including standing time)
You can find the full Summer Vegetable Paella recipe here.
Allergens
Summer Vegetable Paella is gluten-free, vegan as well as…
Celery free
Coconut free
Garlic free
Lupin free
Mustard free
Onion free
Peanut free
Sesame free
Soya free
Tree nut free
About
Paella is often confused with risotto (and pilaff and jambalaya and…). Whilst paella and risotto both use short-grain rice the ingredients (spices and herbs) are different and the method employed is very different. Paella is Spanish and risotto is Italian but that doesn’t even begin to tell you all the local and regional variations of any ‘national’ dish. Paella originated in Valencia. There are arguments (discussions) galore about what paella should contain (never seafood apparently?!?!) however, I think most dishes originate from what is available, accessible and cheap!
Paella is cooked in a wide, shallow pan, without a lid and barely stirred. It uses saffron and paprika as spices. At the end of cooking the grains of rice should still be individual grains, rather than becoming creamy or melting in to each other. Cooking the dish without a lid allows a crispy coating to form on the bottom of the dish which is a ‘delicacy’. It tastes crispy and crunchy and of concentrated delicious toasted rice and spices. I guess it is a little bit like the layer of potatoes on the top of a casserole. They become rich, dark and delicious – and possibly the best part of the dish that everyone fights over.
There are lots of variety of paella rice. Paella rice is a short to medium grained rice that absorbs stock well without becoming too creamy. Most supermarkets sell generic ‘paella’ rice which is probably Bahia rice and is usually good. There are a number of varieties of paella rice one of the best known are Calasparra (which is Balilla rice grown under special conditions in Valencia and therefore quite expensive) and Bomba.