The first attempt at this dish was an absolute flop. It was not the kind of flop that we could still enjoy, even if it wasn’t worthy of a blog post. The majority of this first round—a skillet full of burnt onions and bell pepper; an undercooked mess of rice that was supposed to simmer in broth and tomatoes but never transformed into something edible—filled the compost pail, not our stomachs.
Full disclosure: I was trying to do laundry and other chores while I made this dinner, which led to neglect of the vegetables. I can’t blame the recipe for that part. I was frustrated, but as with most things in life, it’s better to learn from rather than dwell too long in the past. I made a few changes to the recipe to streamline and simplify. I made sure to get shelled edamame to avoid an extra prep step. I committed to the cooking without trying to get too many other things done at the same time. I was ready to try again, armed with a revised recipe and refreshed optimism.
Everything was going along fine at first (the onions and bell peppers lightly browned, not burned to a crisp) until an almost-disaster struck. The rice once again would not cook. It simmered in a skillet with hot vegetable broth, and even as the broth evaporated, the rice hardly softened. I kept adding more broth and when I ran out of broth, I switched to water. Only when the rice was cooking in a bath of mostly water did it actually start to transform into tender grains. A quick Google search doesn’t indicate that this is a known issue. I’ve certainly never heard of it, but I changed the liquid from broth to water in the recipe to avoid this strange phenomenon next time.
After that hurdle, the recipe went along beautifully. Something I love about this dish—about all stir-fry-like rice dishes, really—is that it contains such a variety of spices and ingredients, and every bite is savored because of it. The turmeric gives the paella a curry vibe, but there’s paprika too, with its subtle smokiness. The artichoke hearts liven this dish up with their upfront flavor, and the edamame makes a nice stand-in for peas, for those of us (ahem, me) who don’t want peas in their rice but happily welcome other green things.
I still remember the frustration of having to toss out a meal that didn’t work, but somewhere in that frustration was a spark of resolve: this will work, I just have to figure out how. Sure, from an efficiency perspective it would be great if everything worked out the first time. But we all know that’s not going to happen. A recipe flop is a reminder that there’s more to try and learn. Cooking has no shortage of that.
Vegetarian Paella
Adapted from Plenty
3 cups water
1 cup uncooked brown rice
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
¼ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon turmeric
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
¾ cup shelled edamame
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1 13.75 ounce can artichoke hearts, halved
- In a medium saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Add the rice, reduce heat to medium, and simmer until all of the liquid is absorbed. While the rice cooks, prep the rest of the ingredients.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring every minute or so. Add the bell pepper and cook for an additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Stir in the paprika, turmeric, and cayenne. Add the edamame and tomatoes, allowing them to warm up.
- Stir the cooked rice and artichoke hearts into the skillet mixture.
The Food Beat 