Meatless paella

 

This is based off of a recipe for vegetarian Paella I found online. I added some big prawns, but no meat, because I stopped eating meat. This recipe serves 3.

Ingredients:

• a medium zucchini
• 180g mushrooms
• olive oil
• a medium yellow onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• a pinch of saffron
• a tin of chopped tomatoes
• 150g short-grain rice (paella rice if you can get it; I used risotto rice)
• 150g (1 cup) of peas
• 150g roasted bell peppers (from a jar)
• 100g spinach
• 2/3s of a veg stock cube
• 250g big uncooked prawns in the shell (about 6-7 prawns)
• parsley
• a lemon

You'll need an oven, and preferably a large (about 30 cm diameter) ovenproof skillet.

Halve and then thinly slice the zucchini. Slice the mushrooms. Heat 1 tbsp oil in the skillet and fry the zucchini and mushrooms in it for about 12 minutes. Meanwhile, peel and mince the onions and slice the roasted bell peppers. Remove into a bowl. 

In a separate pan, start boiling 600ml water with the 2/3 stock cube in it. Preheat the oven at 220C.

In the skillet, heat another 1 tbsp of oil and fry the onion in it for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, smoked paprika and saffron. Stir briefly. Add the tomatoes and rice, stir to combine. Then add the peas, bell pepper and spinach. It's getting crowded now, so carefully stir the spinach until it's wilted. Finally, add the stock and bring to a boil.

If your skillet is ovenproof, place the prawns on top of this stew and then load the whole thing into the oven. Otherwise, transfer it to a baking tray first, then put the prawns on top, and then put it into the oven.

Bake this for 20 minutes. While you wait, chop some parsley and quarter a lemon. 

In my case, it was still quite stewy/soupy when I took it out, but the rice was done. If you want it drier, bake it longer. Serve topped with some parsley and with a lemon wedge on the side.