Vegan Paella
A great party dIsh and one of my favorite things to cook on my birthday, paella is a one-pot, flavor-packed rice dish that’s easy to customize and tailor to your preference. We often dress ours up, slicing king trumpet mushrooms and grilling sausage to serve on top—the mushrooms look a lot like scallops and have a great, meaty texture and flavor. You can treat this recipe as a bit of a template in the sense that any vegetables will fly—use whatever’s in season or easily on hand. I would recommend serving the paella outdoors if the weather permits, preferably with a crisp vinho verde or rosé—or a cold glass of beer.
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups vegan vegetable stock
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 yellow onion
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 2 carrots peeled and diced, ¼-inch
- Large pinch saffron threads
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 yellow bell pepper cut into strips
- 1 red bell pepper cut into strips
- 3 king trumpet mushrooms cleaned, stems cut into ¾-inch rounds and tops sliced
- ½ cup white wine
- 1 teaspoon sea salt plus more for seasoning
- 1 ½ cups Arborio rice
- 2 links Field Roast Mexican Chipotle Sausage
- 3 firm, on-the-vine tomatoes sliced in half
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- leaves from 6 sprigs parsley roughly chopped
- 1 cup English peas
- 1 lemon sliced into wedges
Instructions
- In a pan over high heat, bring the stock to a boil, then lower the heat to low.
- In a medium-size paella pan or large skillet over medium heat, heat the oil and add the onion, garlic, carrot, saffron, and paprika. Sauté the mixture, stirring occasionally, for 7 minutes. Add the bell peppers, sliced mushroom tops, wine, salt, and rice. Stir to combine, then sauté, stirring occasionally, for another 5 minutes.
- Pour the stock over the rice and increase the heat to high. Bring the rice to a boil, then lower the heat to low, while stirring. Cover the pan with foil and allow the rice to cook over low heat for 18 minutes, then turn off the heat. Leaving the foil on the pan, allow the rice to steam with no heat for another 15 minutes.
- While the rice is cooking, brush the sausage, mushroom stem rounds, and tomatoes with oil, and top with additional salt and black pepper. Grill over high heat. The tomatoes will take about 5 minutes, and should only be grilled on the flat side. The sausage and mushrooms will take about 8 minutes, and should be turned halfway through. Remove the items from the grill, slice the sausage, and cut the tomatoes into quarters.
- Remove the cover from the paella and arrange the sausage, mushrooms, and tomatoes on top. Garnish with the parsley, peas, and lemon wedges.
Notes
Chef's Note: No paella pan at home? A large skillet will work fine – ultimately you just need something that’s large and shallow.
Recipe from Field Roast by Tommy McDonald. Reprinted with permission.