Summer Paella

This recipe is from the Mouth Watering Vegan blog. It's got such a  mix of flavours that you could really add whatever vegetables you liked. For once though I was pretty strict with the recipe.

Ingredients1½ cups of Basmati Rice, cooked and set aside
1 tsp turmeric powder
4 large mushrooms sliced
4 cloves garlic very finely chopped
1 tbsp tomato puree
small red pepper finely chopped
3 tomatoes finely chopped
1½ cups of frozen spinach (thawed first)
1 tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 cup of vegetable stock
8 black olives chopped
Juice of ½ a lemon
1 tsp dried garlic
handful of flat leaf parsley finely chopped
olive oil for frying

MethodFirst, pre-boil the rice, adding 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder to the water. I just used the rice cooker.

Next, fry your mushrooms in a deep, non-stick pan, or a wok if you have one with a lid.  Then add the garlic and stir for a minute or so, making sure you don’t burn it.

Now add the tomato puree, and continue to mix for a minute or so. Then add the red pepper and chopped tomatoes, the herbs and paprika, and stir around for the next 10 minutes or so.

At this point stir in the pesto and the thawed spinach.  Mix for a minute or so and then add the vegetable stock.  Cover and allow to cook on a low heat for 10-15 minutes.

Finally, add the rice, and mix around until ingredients are properly blended.  Then add the black olives and the rest of the ingredients.