I tend to veer away from recipes that require an entirely new spice cabinet. Call me boring, but when I start seeing more than two or three ingredients in that trademark italic font, I’m out for the count. No, I don’t particularly want to go find seventeen grocery list items in some random speciality store 15 miles away. Let’s be honest, if I see even one ingredient like that I’m apprehensive.
I have a comfort zone, as we all do. That being said, I’m willing to branch out…under certain conditions. I’m game for weird vegetables – celeriac, kohlrabi, dragon fruit. I don’t shy away from many East Asian foods – kimchi, shiritaki noodles. Some are things I’ve used before in my childhood, foods whose taste and smell and behavior I know. Others are simply the product of convenience – my local grocery store always has plenty of celeriac, so after seeing it week over week, I grabbed a head to buy and try for myself. Beyond this nexus, I find unfamiliar food can be…daunting. Take turmeric. This lovely, bright spice is called for in a huge number of Southeast Asian dishes…and up until this point, I avoided it like the plague. It sounded too weird, I didn’t know what it tasted like, I couldn’t find it at Safeway without dodging into the foreign cooking isle – I made a laundry list of excuses for any recipe that asked for it.
The first time I made this paella, I opted to skip the ingredients I was unfamiliar with: turmeric, of course, and saffron being the major contenders. I was disappointed with the results. Sure, the dish was tasty – vegetables perfectly cooked, texture was spot-on – but it was missing an earthy, spicy flavor that I love in paella. It also came in an unappetizing shade of brown…not exactly restaurant-quality over here in the test kitchen.
So I caved. I went and searched for a jar of turmeric (not as hard to come by as I had built it up in my mind – go figure). I finally made an investment in saffron threads (can I call it an investment? can a spice count as an investment if it’s ridiculously expensive? …please?). Wow, what a difference it made. The flavor of this dish echoes paellas I’ve had in Spain – you won’t miss the meat in this, if you’re anything like me. I’m sure that is sacrilege to traditional paella fans out that – I’m sorry! This paella also benefits from yellow spices. Gone is the baby food throw up look. Enter golden rice heaven. Thank you turmeric. Thank you saffron.
Vegetable Paella
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
1 fennel bulb, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup Calasparra rice
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon saffron threads
2 cups boiling miso stock (yes, boil it separately! this makes the rice cook much more evenly)
1 cup soybeans
6 plum tomatoes, quartered
1 container grilled artichokes, drained and quartered
1/4 cup capers
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Heat the olive oil in a shallow sauté pan and add the onions. Cook until the onions begin to brown. Add the bell peppers and fennel and cook for another 5 minutes.
Add the garlic, bay leaves, paprika, turmeric, and cayenne. Stir well, so that all the spices are incorporated. Add the rice and stir constantly about two minutes. Add the vinegar and saffron, stirring for another minute.
Add the stock and reduce to the lowest heat. Simmer uncovered and without stirring for about 20 minutes, until almost all the liquid as evaporated.
Remove the pan from the heat and top with beans, tomatoes, and artichokes. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes.
Mix the capers and parsley with the paella. Serve with lemon wedges.