Easy Paella From Your Garden…Olé!

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Mary Moore

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Paella is a great dish to prepare for your family or guests. It’s easy, delicious and makes a lovely presentation.

If you’ve been to tapas restaurants, you’ll know what paella is: That delicious, savory rice dish full of all kinds of wonderful ingredients so typical of Spanish fare. One taste, and it may seem an intimidating dish – perhaps too hard to replicate at home.

Or is it?

Surprisingly, paella is actually an easy dish to prepare – so much so that you’ll want to make it again and again. And the best part is that you can include all kinds of ingredients fresh from your garden! Springtime dishes can include onions and peas, while summer or fall paella can be flush with tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. In fact, paella is a great way to show off just about any kind of homegrown vegetable!

In this recipe, I use packaged rice that contained saffron, but you can use any rice you prefer. White rice will give this dish a light and fluffy taste, while brown and wild rice will give it a heartier feel. You can season the dish with a few strands of saffron (which can be purchased at many health food stores) or with a packaged seasoning that contains saffron, such as Sazón Goya® con Azafrán.

How much seasoning you use depends on your personal taste and how many spicy ingredients you use. For example, if I use saffron rice, onion and/or garlic, I don’t add any additional seasoning. Feel free to experiment with hot peppers or cumin if you like your paella to have a bit more kick to it. (Hot sausage can also add a lot of zip.)

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Use whatever vegetables are in season from your garden for the freshest paella.

Easy Paella
Ingredients:
1 5-ounce package of long grain rice with saffron (or ½ cup of your rice of choice)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cans of chicken broth
¼ cup butter (optional for richer sauce)
2-4 cups of at least three of the following meats or fish: chicken, sausage, shrimp (thawed) or other seafood
At least 5 of the following vegetables (diced): 1 medium onion, 1 large tomato, 1 green pepper, 1 eggplant, ½ cup of mushrooms (without stems), ½ cup fresh peas
2 garlic cloves
½ cup almonds or cashews

Facts

Paella is a traditional Spanish rice dish that originated in Valencia. It’s cooked in a large, flat pan, often over a wood fire, and seasoned using saffron and sofrito (tomatoes, garlic, peppers and cilantro).

Tips

If you love shellfish, feel free to use it in your paella as well. Mussels and other seafood should be added around the time the shrimp is added back to the vegetables and then allowed to steam open. (Do not use any mussels that have chipped shells or that don’t open when they’re steamed.)

Faqs

Q: What are tapas?
A: Tapas are like appetizers. They’re small dishes of food that give you a taste of a variety of Spanish fare. Spanish omelettes, ceviche, empanadas, olives and Spanish ham croquettes are all lovely starters for a robust paella dish.

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