Vegetable paella
Paella is a dish of festive spirit and marked Mediterranean character. It became popular in the Valencian Albufera and has since spread to as many places as there are versions of this delicacy.
This recipe is one of those unusual cases in which the food takes its name from the vessel it is cooked in: in Valencian, the word for 'frying pan' is 'paella', which comes from the Latin 'patella'. Although rice dishes were already widely eaten by the inhabitants of the Mediterranean coastal towns in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, it was not until 1900 that, in Valencia, rice cooked in the traditional wide iron pan with small handles began to be called 'paella'.
According to Lourdes March Ferrer, a writer on gastronomy and food, this dish symbolizes the union and heritage of two important cultures: the Roman, which gave us the utensil, and the Arab, which in the 4th century BC brought us from Asia what for centuries was humanity's staple food.
This vegetable paella is a very tasty vegetarian version thanks to the rich variety of ingredients, whose flavor and aroma the rice absorbs as it cooks. The result is a succulent, flavorful and delicate rice dish.
This dish is rich in carbohydrates, flavonoids and antioxidants such as quercetin, lycopene, glutathione, chlorophyll, isoflavones and beta-carotenes; inulin, alliin, omega-6 fatty acids and omega-9 fatty acids, lecithin, fiber, protein, tryptophan, vitamins C, E, K and B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 and B9 or folic acid), calcium, copper, chromium, phosphorus, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, selenium and zinc.
Categories
Measurement system
Tap on the ingredients to add or remove them from the shopping list
Notes
Tap on the steps to mark them as done
- Step 1Bring the water to a boil with the vegetable stock cube and the salt, then keep it on low heat for 20 minutes.
- Step 2Preheat the oven to 175 °C and, meanwhile, finely chop the garlic and onion with a knife.
- Step 3Heat the oil in a paella pan and, when it is warm, add the garlic and onion. Let them soften over medium heat for 5 minutes while you cut the green and red peppers into small pieces, setting aside a few strips of the red pepper for decoration.
- Step 4When the garlic and onion are softened, add the green and red peppers, both the chopped pieces and the strips. Sauté everything together for 10 minutes and, when ready, set aside the red pepper strips.
- Step 5Add the sliced mushrooms and the tomatoes cut into small pieces, stir a few times, add the sweet paprika and cook everything for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Step 6After that, add the rice and stir for a couple of minutes so it mixes with the sofrito. Next, add the peas and the green beans, washed and cut into pieces of about 3 cm, stir again and pour in the boiling water. Add the salt and saffron, stir a little and, finally, decorate the paella by arranging the pepper strips on top in a radial pattern.
- Step 7When the broth starts to boil, turn off the heat and transfer the paella to the preheated oven, placing it on the second rack from the bottom. Let it cook for 20 minutes.
- Step 8After this time, take the paella out of the oven and let it rest for about 5 minutes. Then it is ready to serve.