Vegan paella

 

This is a great one-pot meal that's easy to bulk cook and is super customisable! It's good for using up any leftover veg or some tins from the cupboard. 

Traditionally, paella usually has seafood in but I just stuck to vegetables in this one, with some beans for protein. You could always add meat substitutes if you want, now days you can even find vegan prawns in supermarkets!

I used to cook this a lot as a student as it was pretty cheap to make, but I equally love it now! Using Tesco prices as a guide, this cost around £2.80 to make, or just 93p a portion!

This made 3 portions, and took around 30 minutes to make.

Ingredients

• 6oz dry rice (I used arborio but any rice will work!) [17p]
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes (~400g) [28p]
• 1 red onion [28p]
• 1 red bell pepper [45p]
• 200g mushrooms [62p]
• 1 tin black eye beans (~250g) [55p]
• 100g frozen peas [6p]
• 1 1/2 tsp tumeric [11p]
• 2 tsp paprika [10p]
• 1 tbsp olive oil [5p]
• 1 vegetable stock cube (I used knorr because they're vegan! Whichever one you use check they don't contain milk powder! Tesco's own does :( ) [13p]

Method

1. Heat up the olive oil in a large saucepan and fry the chopped onion until it begins to turn translucent.
2. Chop the pepper and mushrooms and fry those for around 5 minutes until they begin to soften.
3. Drain and add the beans and combine. Then add the tumeric and paprika and stir so it coats the veg.
4. Add the stock cube to a jug and add 500ml of boiling water and stir until the cube dissolves. Add it to the saucepan along with the rice and tinned tomatoes.
5. On a medium heat, simmer with the lid on the sauce pan, adding more water if the remaining water has evaporated and the rice hasn't cooked yet.
6. About half way through, add the frozen peas.
7. Once the rice is soft and the excess liquid has cooked off, it's done and it's time to serve! It goes amazingly with a generous squeeze of lemon juice, or with a handful of nooch.