Vegetable Paella with Seitan Sausage

This is a dish that I have made for many years. In the past it would have included chicken, chorizo sausage, shrimp and mussels. It tastes just as good to me now without the meat or copious amounts of olive oil that I used to use in the dish. You can make this without the seitan sausage but I think that makes it a little more authentic. I used smoked paprika in this dish because I love the stuff but regular sweet paprika is also fine. Here is what I did:

Vegetable Paella with Seitan Sausage
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 red onion, peeled, cut into quarters and then ½ inch slices
5 cloves garlic, peeled and finally minced (be certain to let it sit for 10 minutes so the allicin can develop before adding it to the hot pan)
¼ cup water to sauté the aromatics
2 seitan sausages, cut into bite size pieces (Italian or Chorizo... I will try to post the chorizo recipe tomorrow)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika (sweet is also fine)
1 large pinch saffron
1 ½ cups brown rice (I used sprouted short grain brown rice)
3 cups water
2 roasted red pepper, diced
2 cups artichoke hearts, quartered (either canned and drained or defrosted from frozen)
¼ cup olives, pitted and sliced
½ cup chickpeas, to add protein (can be omitted)
½ cup peas (I was out of frozen peas but usually include them)
¼ cup fresh parsley, minced
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 lemon, cut into wedges for garnish
Salt and pepper for serving

Directions:

Water sauté the onion and garlic until soft. Add the seitan sausage, paprika, saffron, rice and water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Then add the peppers, artichoke hearts, olives and chickpeas and cook until rice is finished. Add the green peas, parsley, lemon zest and juice once the rice is done. Serve with lemon wedges on the side and season each serving individually.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 486.29
Calories From Fat (8%) - 37.97

Total Fat - 4.5g
Saturated Fat - 0.67g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 364.3mg
Potassium - 719.65mg
Total Carbohydrates - 89.22g
Fiber - 12.49g
Sugar - 2.8g
Protein - 26.56g

Comments:

If you are looking for a one pan dinner this is a winner. It reheats beautifully. I suppose you all know what is going in Dan’s lunch tomorrow. I serve this with a green salad so we get our raw veggies too. Because this is a rice based dish it is very filling in a healthy “stick to your ribs” sort of way. You could also add mushrooms to this and that would be great. I have made it with either fresh or dried mushrooms. Even time I make I think I should try adding cubes of baked tofu but never have. I think that would be wonderful in the dish. I used short grain rice in this dish since reading that the authentic versions are made with medium grain rice that is similar to Arborio in terms of texture. Short grain was a close as I could get with brown rice. I think this would also be good with barley in place of rice but I haven’t tried it yet. The fresh lemon juice and zest is what makes this dish, in my opinion. But I am a lemon fiend so that may be why I think that.

Each serving of this dish contains approximately 3,500IU of vitamin A, 140mg of calcium, 4.8mg of iron, 110mcg of folate, 65mcg of vitamin K, 325mg of phosphorus, 125mg of magnesium, and 25mcg of selenium.

You may have noticed that I didn’t add salt to the dish while it was cooking. I have been trying to reduce our sodium intake so we are trying to add salt to our servings instead of during cooking. I will let you know it that results in more or less sodium in our diet.

Unrelated note:

The weather was glorious today. We had a bright sunny day with a record breaking temperature of 87 today. I am certain that spring is here to stay now. The birds are outside singing and the bees are buzzing. It is the perfect weather day. Our overnight low is supposed to be 63 this evening. I am in heaven!

My latest goal is to make meals that are easy to reheat, or are best served raw. Dan’s schedule has been so unpredictable lately that I never know when he is going to get home from the office. To keep us from eating at 10pm I have decided to get our dinner made earlier so that it can be reheated when he gets home. This is not how I prefer to cook but it looks like it is going to be necessary for a while. I wanted to let you know since it may change the recipes you will be seeing. Tonight’s dinner was planned based on this notion. I made it in a short enameled cast iron pan with a tight lid so I could keep the entire dish (except the peas and parsley) warm in a 150 degree oven until Dan arrived.

Tomorrow I am going to try to get some work done in my garden. I have quite a muddy mess outside but if I don’t get out there soon the weeds will overtake the garden with the warm weather we have been having. I have a tremendous herb garden that I love. Herbs work well for me since they thrive on neglect. In the perennial herb garden I have: chocolate mint, lavender, rosemary, chives, pineapple sage, variegated sage, French tarragon, Greek oregano, Mexican oregano, variegated thyme, lemon thyme, fennel and dill. Additionally I plant a lot of parsley and basil each year. Normally I grow a few different veggies, but the bulk of our garden is really herbs. Since we belong to an organic CSA I find that herbs make more sense for us. Are any of you gardeners? What do you like to grow?