Well, it’s a paella of sorts. Is this an authentic paella? Of course not! You should know better than to expect that from me at this point. First off, paella is supposed to be made in a paella pan. I don’t have one of those and I doubt you do either. This recipe uses a Dutch oven and achieves a result that is fairly similar to a real paella. Theoretically, if you don’t have a Dutch oven, or a large oven-safe skillet with a lid, I’m sure you could also start this on the stovetop, and then transfer to a casserole dish before putting it in the oven.
I shamelessly stole this recipe from Cookie and Kate, with not many changes.
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 15 oz can diced tomatoes (preferably fire-roasted)*
- 2 cups brown rice
- 15 oz can chickpeas, drained
- 3 ⅓ cups vegetable broth (or 3 cups broth and ⅓ cup white wine)
- ½ tsp saffron threads or 1 tsp turmeric**
- 14 oz can quartered artichokes, drained
- Other veggies good for roasting (red peppers, green beans, asparagus, etc – together with the artichokes, you want enough to fill a baking sheet)
- Black pepper
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ -1 cup frozen peas
*The original recipe called for draining the can, which I did not do and noticed the instruction later. However, it came out wonderfully, and I am a strong believer in not discarding the flavorful liquid from a can of tomatoes.
**Gasp! What blasphemy! So here’s the thing – saffron is really expensive, and people seem to claim it’s only worthwhile if you get a really good quality one, otherwise it doesn’t taste like much. And I didn’t feel like spending tons of money on a spice that may or may not impact the flavor of the dish. So I used turmeric to get the nice golden color, and it tasted lovely. If you want the real deal, use saffron!
Start by arranging the oven racks so that you have space in between them for your Dutch oven. Preheat the oven to 350.
Meanwhile on the stovetop, heat two tbsp oil in the Dutch oven over medium, and saute the onion with a pinch of salt until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, paprika, and turmeric (if you’re using saffron instead, the original recipe has you add that later with the broth) and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomatoes and cook until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Add the rice and stir until well coated, then add the chickpeas, broth, and 1 tsp salt.
Increase heat to medium high and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Cover the pot and put in the oven to bake, undisturbed, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, about 55 minutes. I used long grain brown rice because it’s what I had, but if you use short grain brown rice (which would probably be better), it may finish slightly sooner, maybe 50 minutes. If you instead use a traditional bomba rice (a short grain white rice), it should take about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, throw your veggies on a baking sheet with a tablespoon of oil and a good sprinkling of salt and pepper. I also threw a little thyme on mine. Toss to combine and then spread them out. Roast on the upper rack until tender and browned, about 45 minutes. After removing from the oven, toss them with the lemon juice and do any further seasoning necessary.
Once your rice is done, you are free to attempt a socarrat. This is the crispy chewy rice at the bottom of the paella pan. Uncover the pot, put it on the stove, and cook over medium for about 5 minutes, rotating a few times. One tip I read was to poke a couple of holes and drizzle a little oil down those holes. I got a little nervous and didn’t let mine run as long as I should have, so I didn’t get much of a socarrat. Next time I’ll have to be a little bolder.
Sprinkle the frozen peas and roasted vegetables on top, cover, and let sit for another 5 minutes to cook your peas from the residual heat.
Paella, did you say?
Was that David Tennant at the end?
I think it was! He’s awesome. I saw a good movie on HBO, Einstein and Eddington, David Tennant was Eddington and Einstein was played by Andy Serkis.
This looks really good, I ordered my tofu coagulant and tempeh culture this morning [they already shipped it!]so maybe I’ll add that my paella!
I can do this as long as I swap out the chickpeas for pintos. I’d probably also add some shrimp or chicken. Another new thing to try!
Definitely. I think several people in the comments had good results swapping in Lima or canellini beans.
@BigDamnHeros, this looks delicious. As is for me, and I can throw so meat on top for the carnivore. Also @MatthewCrawley – do you own a paella pan?
I did almost qualify “well maybe MatthewCrawley does…”
I do not. It’s a skillet, although sometimes wider and shallower, and with two grips on either end rather than one handle. I’ve made paella. it’s a HUGE pain in the ass and leaves the home cook too exhausted to eat much, but it is quite delicious, if you’re an omnivore.
Also, not to hijack the thread, I am (or was, it seems to have fallen apart) active in one of three alumni organizations. I would have people over and I didn’t shake them down for money per se, but I would remind them that the university (theoretically) had directed giving, so the money wouldn’t go to athletics or a building campaign or anything, the money (theoretically) would go into the financial aid budget.
Do you think there would be a need for “Shitty College Cafeteria Food From the Early 1980s Updated and Improved”? A couple of times I re-created our diets but made the offerings much tastier and not like they were dumped out of a Soylent Green Scooper. I could call it something else but the original was awful. So much so that I…well, after freshman year I never ate there again. Half my fiends never did. And it’s from them that I learned how to cook for myself, and the alcoholic boyfriend, and then ultimately my entrapped roommate who became my Better Half.
What the hell, I’m going to do it anyway.
You’re welcome to hijack threads for storytime whenever you like.
You know, I’m often reminded of how grateful I should have been at my college’s cafeteria offerings, which were diverse and overall pretty good.
It was garbage. It was outsourced so it was basically warmed over airplane food on an industrial scale. I can’t remember who provided i. It wasn’t Aramark, this predated them, and for that matter predated any pushback from students or parents. A lot of us just slunk away and lived off-campus and fended for ourselves. This was a Top 30 school, mind you, and it wasn’t cheap but I got a lot of tuition assistance so I could afford to go. Then I just gave up on them and went on my own sort of self-created Junior Year Abroad and lingered overtime but the home university contacted my mother (she was a widow) and said, “Enough is enough, either he comes back and shows us some academic work and takes some of OUR classes or we can’t give him a degree.”
So my mother called me (this was extraordinary at the time) and said, “You have to come back and get your degree from an American university. It’ll only take a year to finish up. And then you can do whatever you want.”
In retrospect it might be the worst thing I’ve ever done. But I returned, I was ground down, I scrabbled for jobs, I applied for jobs back in Europe with no results, I met Better Half, and here I am. If I must live in the US it’s at least in NYC, the least American city (or at least the most polyglot) in the US, happily with the Better Half and The Faithful Hound.
@matthewcrawley my college had fucking horrible cafeteria food. Like Friday had gross baked fish and then Saturday had pizza with fish on it. The busiest dinner nights were “Baked Potato Bar!”
It was Sodexho for our food, and the argument everyone used was “quit complaining, at least it’s not Chartwells!” Chartwells had the contract for a few other state schools in Missouri as well as at least 1 prison.
I wish I could remember which conglomerate provided the food. I was a work-study kid and I was assigned a filing job at one of the graduate schools. A couple of friends of mine got work study jobs in the cafeteria kitchen. Or rather kitchens; there was a main one and then a smaller one that you could walk to but it was a remnant from the days when the university was all male with a separate section for women to learn “the practical arts,” like nursing. It was such a strange time. It’s no wonder that I can easily time travel culinarily from the 1920s to the 1980s and then, somewhat uneasily, to the 2020s.