I didn’t really start getting into paella until this summer when I visited Spain. I was still eating both chicken and fish then, and although I’ve never been a fan of seafood, I ate it pretty much every day. I had a random craving for paella a few weeks ago so came up with this dish. Instead of using standard paella rice, I used brown rice and I swapped seafood for quorn chunks and mushrooms. It was a delight!

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• 200g frozen peas
• 200g frozen green beans
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 red chilli, diced
• 1 green/red pepper, sliced
• 1 pinch saffron
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp tumeric
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 veg stock cube
• 2 cups water (approx 420 ml)
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 100g button mushrooms, halved
• 150g mock chicken pieces (e.g. quorn)
• Lemon wedges to serve

Method:

1. Place green beans and peas in a bowl and cover with boiling water then set aside
2. In a frying pan (that has a lid) heat 1/5 tbsp of the olive oil and fry the garlic and onion for 3-4 minutes, then add the chilli and pepper
3. Fry for about 5 more minutes, then add the saffron, 1 tsp paprika, tumeric and cayenne pepper along with the rice
4. Continue to fry for a 1-2 minutes, and in the meantime make up the stock cube with 2 cups of water. Once 2 minutes is up, add the chopped tomatoes and 3/4 of the stock mix. Bring to a boil then cover and simmer for 30 minutes
5. Once the rice has cooked, drain the peas and green beans and add to the rice pan along with the remaning stock. Cover again for 10 more minutes.
6. In the meantime, combine quorn and mushrooms together in a bowl and coat with 0.5 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp paprika
7. In a seperate frying pan, fry on medium for approx 10 minutes, stirring regularly
8. Add quorn mixture to the rice and serve with fresh lemon wedges