I love paella. I have very happy memories of it from Spanish holidays and restaurants, but I have always really wanted to make a version of it at home. The trouble is, it’s not a particularly easy peasy recipe. There are usually a lot of ingredients and steps and special pans involved and some of the recipes I’ve looked at seem to take forever! Really not my kind of recipe. So I decided to work on the recipes I had, to make a paella that was much easier and quicker to make and didn’t involve lots of pans (it’s usually me who does the washing up in our house so this is important to me!)
The result is a simple one pot meal that is ready in less than 45 minutes but which tastes of all the flavours of a traditional paella. To make things simple, I have chosen to use prawns which just take a few minutes cooking at the end, but if you would prefer a meaty paella just add in some cooked chicken and/or chorizo at the end. And obviously if you prefer a vegetarian paella just leave out the prawns and use vegetable stock instead. Incidentally, this is a great dish to do if you are cooking for a mixture of vegetarians and non-vegetarians (the kind that get grumpy if there’s no meat or fish in the meal). Make the paella using vegetable stock and don’t put the prawns in at step 4. Take the veggie portions out and then thrown in the prawns and/or whatever cooked meat you like. Cook until the prawns are done and the meat is piping hot and then serve the non-vegetarians.
I do think it is important to use paella rice in this recipe – it’s pretty easy to get hold of in the supermarket and is fairly cheap. I used Tesco Ingredients Spanish Paella Rice. Strictly speaking a paella is not supposed to be stirred, but I can’t quite cope with the idea of burnt on rice (there’s me thinking of the washing up again), but do keep stirring to a minimum or you will end up with more of a risotto than a paella (though at least the washing up will be easy!)
This recipe will serve 2, but is really easily multiplied if you are cooking for more. A word of warning though: if you are cooking this for lots of people you will need a very big pan!
I like to serve my paella with a glass of Spanish Garnacha rosé and some crusty bread.
Easy Peasy Prawn Paella
Ingredients
- 800 ml chicken stock from cubes is fine, I use 2 Kallo organic chicken stock cubes
- Pinch of saffron
- 1 onion sliced
- 1 red pepper sliced
- 3 cloves of garlic crushed or finely chopped
- 2 medium sized tomatoes finely chopped
- 200 g paella rice
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon chilli flakes or to taste
- 50 g green beans trimmed and cut in half
- 50 g frozen peas
- 250 g frozen uncooked prawns defrosted
- Juice of half a lemon the other half cut into wedges for serving
- 1 tablespoon parsley plus extra for garnish
Method
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First make up your stock using 1 chicken stock cube and 800ml boiling water. Add a pinch of saffron to the stock and stir.
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Put a drizzle of olive oil in a wide, deep sauce pan and add the sliced onions and peppers. Cook on a low heat with the lid on for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened but not brown.
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Add the chopped garlic and tomatoes and cook for another minute with the lid off, stirring occasionally.
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Add the paprika and chilli flakes. Stir and cook for another minute.
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Add the rice, stir everything together and cook for 2 minutes.
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Add the stock and bring to the boil. Give everything one last stir and cook for 20 minutes on a low heat, with the lid off, avoiding stirring as best you can!
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After 20 minutes add the green beans, prawns and peas. Give everything a quick stir and cook for 5 minutes, until the prawns are pink and cooked through.
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Add the lemon juice and parsley. Stir one last time and serve garnished with more parsley and lemon wedges.
I am linking this up to Recipe of the Week, Cook Blog Share, and Tasty Tuesdays
It looks delicious, I will have to try it for my kids, they love rice and are bound to like this 🙂
My kids loved this! Hope yours do too!! x
Yum, not had paella for ages and you make it look lovely
Thanks, Alison! x
Oh yum, one of all my all time favourite dishes. Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays
Thanks, Vicki! It’s one of mine too – can’t believe I’d never made it before. I’ll be making it lots more now, though!! x
I used to live in the Canary Islands and fell in love with all Spanish food but paella was and still is a favourite of mine. This looks delicious, I would love this for dinner! Thank you for sharing with #CookBlogShare x
Wow! How long did you live in the Canary Islands for? That sounds lovely! Spanish food is amazing, isn’t it? Thanks for commenting!! x
I love a good paella and was very disappointed when I lost the recipe for one I used to make. So a replacement has always been at the back of my mind! Knowing that picky eater 1 does not do shellfish – but was dining elsewhere, I took the opportunity to make this for husband and I this week. Another success! I am in awe of you Eb! The whole family has been eating from your recipes this week and they have been a huge success almost without exception. I made a small error and put in a qtr teaspoon of crushed chillies, but to be honest it gave a little pep without too much heat. I thought this would be too generous for 2, but we both cleared our plates and had very satisfied tummies! Thanks for a lovely meal
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this lovely comment! I am so pleased you enjoyed my Paella and all the other meals you tried 🙂 And now you will never lose the recipe for it will always be here! This could be very easily adapted to make a veggie paella or you could sub in some leftover roast chicken, if that would work better for your picky eater 🙂 Eb x