Omar Allibhoy's Green Paella

We at LatinoLife are embracing Veganuary or Veganenero as we say in Spanish. Come on its only one month! So we asked our favourite Spanish chef Omar Allibhoy for recipes and he gave us his delicious Green Paella: a paella version of the world-famous Green Juice. It's vegan, super healthy, super easy and bursting with veggie goodness! A twist on one of Spain’s most famous dishes, but just as tasty. Buen provecho!

by Omar Allibhoy

INGREDIENTS:

120ml olive oil
2 spring onions
1 courgette
Half a broccoli
2 sprigs parsley
2 sprigs thyme
100g baby spinach
1 tsp salt
7 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tomatoes
1.5 litres vegetable stock
0.5g saffron
400 Spanish paella rice

PREPARATION:

Before you start cooking your paella put your saffron with your vegetable stock pot and leave it on the lowest heat so it infuses and stays warm while we start cooking the paella.

Roughly chop the spring onion, dice the courgette and the stem of the broccoli and separate the tops in florets. Finely chop the garlic and the parsley. Blitz or grate the tomatoes.

Place your paella pan over the highest heat, pour the olive oil, level your pan so stays flat and start adding from the hardest vegetable to the softest (in case you are using other alternative green vegetables). In this case it will be the spring onions and followed by adding your broccoli, sear it on all sides for 4 minutes and set aside for later, as it will overcook otherwise and break apart.

Add the stems of the broccoli and let it all fry for another 4 minutes. Add the garlic and fry it carefully by stirring the pan constantly for no longer than 30 seconds. Add you paprika, give it another good stir and pour your tomatoes straight away so the garlic and paprika doesn’t burn. Cook them for 4 minutes until reduced and they start splitting from the oil. Season with salt and add your rice. Keep stirring it so the rice sears for 3 minutes, this will help give the rice a better texture after the cooking.

Pour your saffron infused vegetable stock, stir so all the grains of rice distribute evenly through the pan. Bring your heat to the highest setting and let it cook on high heat for 10 minutes.

Lower down the burner to medium heat, add the fried broccoli florets, fold through the baby spinach, the parsley and let it cook for a further 3 minutes before topping it with the sprigs of thyme and letting it finish cooking for an extra 5 minutes until is ready. Buen provecho!

Find more recipes and and spanish goodies to buy visit https://www.thespanishchef.com/