The Quick and Easy Paella was a hit in Sharon’s test kitchen. Paella recipes would generally have a greater amount of rice and chorizo sausage. The rice is reduced to keep the flavour of other ingredients whilst making smaller serves and the chorizo reduced to limit the fat (particularly saturated fat) content. The end result is tasty and according to Sharon, quite filling and satisfying!
Serves 4
Oil spray
A pinch of saffron threads, soaked in 1 tablespoon hot water
1 medium red onion, sliced
3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
½ chorizo sausage
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1/3 cup Arborio rice
300g chicken breast, skin removed, diced
½ red capsicum, chopped
400g can no added salt diced tomatoes
Chilli flakes, to taste
1 cup salt-reduced chicken stock
12 pieces of green prawn meat (approx 100g)
½ cup of frozen peas
1/3 cup flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped, to serve
4 lemon wedges, to serve
Peel the papery skin off of the chorizo sausage, slice thinly and cut each slice in half. Spray a little oil into a non-stick frying pan (or electric frying pan). Add onions, garlic and sausage and cook over a medium heat for 3 minutes, or until onion has softened. Add paprika and rice and cook for a minute until the rice is well coated. Add the chicken and capsicum and cook for 2-3 minutes until chicken has started to brown. Pour in the tomatoes, stock and saffron. Sprinkle with chilli if desired. Stir and bring to the boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium low and simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. (The rice may stick to the bottom of the pan – this is normal in paella, but just give it a stir to move it.) Add the prawn meat and peas to the paella stir and cook for a further 3 minutes or until the prawns are cooked and rice is tender. Serve sprinkled with parsley and a lemon wedge.
Nutrition Information (per serve): energy 1130kJ, protein 25g, fat 9g, saturated fat 2.5g, carbohydrate 19g, fibre 4g.
