Baked Brown Rice Paella – An Easy Indian version
Weekend dinner is a time when my family look forward to something exciting and delectable on our dinning table if we have no plans to eat out. The onus falls on me invariably 🙁 to think and cook something unusual and appetizing as well! And Paella (pi-AY-ya) an exotic rice dish from Spain, normally made with seafood and seasoned with saffron and other spices is selected for this weekend dinner menu. The recipe is quite easy to prepare and taste good with black olives. I could not get black Olives and made it with the veggies sitting in my refrigerator.
Saffron gives a unique flavor and dark yellow color to Paella which is prominent if you use the white Basmati rice, But with brown rice only the flavor of saffron is very distinct as the color does not show in the final dish.
Half cooked Brown rice
Brown rice gives a much healthy version of Paella besides giving a nutty and chewy texture to the dish. Though hard to cook as it takes longer than the white rice but the results are splendid! Soak the brown rice a day before preparing the dish for easy cooking.
Vggies to go in the Paella..
Ingredients;
- 1 cup of Brown rice
- 11/2 cups of Vegetables
- 2 tbsp. Olive oil
- 1 onion
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 2 dry red chillies
- 3 cups of vegetable stock/water
- 1/8 tsp/a few strands of Saffron
- 1 tsp. crushed black pepper
- Salt as desired
- 1 small tomato
- 1 tbsp. curd/Yogurt
Method: Wash and soak brown rice till you assemble all the ingredients, or better soak it overnight for better nutritive value. Peel and dice the onion.
I used frozen peas, 1 potato, 1 carrot, 1 capsicum, 1 tomato and a few beans for the veggie mix. Dice all the vegetables in small bite size pieces. Peel the garlic pods.
Crush the dry red chillies and the garlic cloves.
Garlic gives a distinct flavor to Paella
Heat oil in a thick bottom pan and add the sliced onion and the crushed garlic and the red chillies. Add all the diced veggies, salt, saffron, curd, crushed black pepper, brown rice and stir fry for 5-10 minutes.
Pour the vegetable stock or plain water into the rice mix and cook for another 5 minutes. You can cook the Paella on the stove top till the rice is done or can transfer the rice to a baking dish and bake it for 30 minutes at 200°.
Healthy mix of veggies and brown rice!
A healthy mix of veggies and brown rice with all the indigenous vegetables.
A cheesy version..
For a change I sprinkled grated cheddar cheese on top of the cooked Paella and baked it further for a couple of minutes. Let it stand for 5 minutes before serving.
A firm baked Paella..
Baked Paella is more firm and taste good. I added cheese and baked it for my son who is a cheese fan.
Notes;
- Replace white long grain rice with the brown rice for another variation of Paella.
- Saffron color comes out very well with the white rice Paella.
- Add veggies of your choice. Black olives, Artichoke and pepper makes an authentic treat.
- Replace a pinch of turmeric if saffron is not available.
- Brown rice gives a healthy and nutty Paella.
Wow paella looks utterly delicious..Thats too with brown rice, watelse we need more..
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Healthy n colorful rice!
I had prepared the same dish with brown rice and vegetables like black olives capsicum etc. and it was superb. I used brown rice because it has the same feel of an authentic paella rice, though they cook it with white rice.
Good to know you are also a fan of healthy food and use it liberally in your recipes.
OMG paella looks yummy as ever…The pictures are making me hungry now 🙂
The PAella looks so delectable and healthy sanjeeta. Would love to try this 🙂
This looks absolutely delicious and so healthy! Love your Indian twist on this classic!
I have heard about paella, but never saw the recipe and this vegetarian version sure looks superb and healthy with brown rice.
Your brown rice paella looks really good.
Paella looks yummy. Loved the use of brown rice in the dish, makes it healthy, nutty & yummy.
A vegetarian brown rice version – I love it!!!
This is sensational – I really am so happy to have found your flavourful and healthy recipes, Sunjeet! They are colourful, too! My students would also love this. I have not been using my brown rice enough!
Happy Heart Day to you, too – there’s a little love for all my friends, like you, in the blogosphere over at my site today.
🙂
Valerie
That is completely a new dish to me.. Looks really healthy….:)
Healthy recipe,drooling over the pics…
A veggie version and healthy- should be tasty too!
It looks really good and fulfilling. What kind of brown rice do you use?
@Sra, I used medium grain basmati rice with the bran intact for this recipe. The quick cooking brown rice variety (light brown color) is easy to cook, but has a portion of bran removed from it.
Healthy and delicious.
Looks fantastic. Just love your recipes.
I’m a huge fan of paella so this one is really interesting, brown rice huh, that would give it such a nice nutty flavour too. A cute twist on the original recipe, I love it Sanjeeta
Great interpretation of paella. Looks quite delicious….
What an original idea! Great and healthy
How healthy looks colourful though, you always bring interesting twist always 😀
This is so flavorful and healthy with all the veggies..
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