Paella

I've thought of a million excuses to say as to why I haven't wrote an entry in yonks, but the truth is I have been making, finding and eating amazing vegan food all the time I'm usually just too lazy to write and tell y'all about it.

But now the Fridge festival, also known as 'Awesome August', has finished, work has slowed down, and 'Sensible September' has began, meaning less partying, more saving and a tonne of time to blog.

Last week I went to dinner at a Spanish tapas bar in Leith, imaginatively named Tapa, and I was with a group of friends, we were all having a set menu and I was really dreading being 'that fucking vegan' (that's what waiting staff call us by the way) but this place was really great, no fuss was made and they bought out a series of really yummy vegan versions of what everyone else was having. 

And it reminded me of a meal I had when I was walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain and we got to this one tiny little village in the middle of nowhere that cooked up a big vegan paella for a group of us, and I don't know if it was because I had walked thirty something kilometers that day, or because I'd been living off salad and bread, but I remember it being one of the tastiest meal ever.

So I decided to try out my own and gosh darn it vegan paella is pretty damn tasty. Here's the recipe:

Paella

Ingredients:

1 tbs olive oil

I onion, thinly diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

I red pepper, thinly diced

1 courgette, chopped

2 1/2 cups of vegetable stock

1 can butter beans

4 or 5 strands of saffron

2 tsp smoked paprika

225g arborio rice

1/2 cup parsley, chopped

How to:

Heat the oil in a large pan, preferably a proper paella pan if you've got one floating around, if not, just a normal one will do so long as its quite deep (you'll find out how necessary this is once you try and add stock), saute the onions, garlic and peppers for five or so minutes until translucent, add the rice and stir for a couple of minutes before adding the stock bit by bit and bring to the boil, stirring frequently, add the courgette, beans, saffron and paprika, and continue adding stock slowly and cook for roughly 20 minutes or until the rice and courgette is cooked. Add the parsley and season with salt and pepper.

And who said Spain is just all about the jamon eh?