Vegan summer paella with seaweed twist and “socarrat” aka delicious “burned” rice bottom.
Vegan seaweed paella uncooked.
In sweet memories of Barcelona.
The summer I lived and worked in Barcelona will always stay in my heart as a very special year. I just love the food tradition in Spain, the small tapas, having a glass wine in the streets and some conversations in the beautiful evening hours after work. And the colorful paella is just another example of the wonderful food traditions in Spain. However, since I’m vegetarian and have been always picky about meat and also seafood, this dish never really stroke me. When we shared it in groups I took little bits of the rice and wished there would have been more veggies in there. So when I had the first Alaria esculenta in my hands and we tasted, we enjoyed the slight ocean taste and Fabian said: “So now you have the seaweed for your vegan paella” and I went into the kitchen and cooked the first vegan paella without missing any flavor depths.
Recipe summary:
Time: 60 mins.
Flavour Intensity: Medium
Featuring: Alaria esculenta aka Wakame of the North @Algenladen.de with the discount code: “juliecooksgreen” you get 10% off your order if any product on the shop. Go discover some seaweed!
Ingredients: 4-6 servings
2,5 cups short grain / paella rice (ca. 400g)
1 liter vegetable broth
Juice of 1 lemon
Black pepper
Rosemary
10g Alaria whole leaves
120g roasted cashews
Olive oil suitable for frying
Vegetables:
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
1 tbs. grounded turmeric or fresh one
2 zucchinis
small broccoli
5 tomatoes
Prepare the vegetables:
Clean the broccoli and cook the small florets covered in water for approx. 10 minutes. Lightly salt the water.
Set the cooked broccoli aside. Save broccoli cooking water. Make up to 1l of water and add vegetable broth to taste.
Peel the onions and garlic and cut into small cubes.
Soak alaria leaves in cold water for 5 minutes and then cut into small pieces (if you use Alaria flakes: these can be used directly without soaking and can then simmer briefly for the last 10 minutes).
Wash the zucchini and cut into slices.
Wash the peppers and cut into fine strips.
Wash tomatoes and cut into large cubes.
Roast the cashews in a pan without fat on medium heat until they are browned.
Cook the paella.
Most important: Do not stir or move the rice!
Fry the onion cubes and garlic until translucent with a good splash of oil. Add rice and turmeric and fill up with the broccoli water until the rice is covered and then let it cook on high heat for about 10 minutes. Please do not stir the rice.
Add the alaria (soak the whole leaves 5 minutes beforehand, then pour away the water), put in the rest of the vegetables, except for the broccoli that has already been cooked.
Close the pan with the lid, do not stir and add liquid every now and then. Cook for a good half an hour with the lid closed and lower the heat. Add the broccoli for the last few minutes so that it gets nice and warm again.
Turn off the heat and let the rice rest for 5-10 min.
Garnish with the roasted cashews as a topping and serve hot.
If you are lucky some delicious “socarrat” the slightly burned rice builded at the bottom of the pan.
Enjoy and feel free to share!
Cooked vegan paella with roasted cashews.