Roast Fennel & Aubergine Paella | Healthy Diet

Roast Fennel & Aubergine Paella

This hearty vegan dish is so filling and delicious, it’s bound to impress even meat-eaters

Healthy Diet

By Healthy Diet

Serves: 4  Cooking Time: 1 hour
Roast Fennel & Aubergine Paella

Ingredients

  • 4 (approx. 200g) baby fennel, quartered lengthways
  • 6-8 (approx. 200g) baby aubergines, halved
  • 1 red or yellow (bell) pepper, cut into 2-3cm wedges
  • 1 medium courgette, thickly sliced
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 300g paella rice
  • 1 tsp hot smoked paprika
  • 200ml white wine
  • 800ml hot vegetable stock
  • 100g frozen peas, defrosted
  • 1 lemon, cut into wedges
  • Olive oil
  • Decent-sized pinch saffron
  • Handful chopped parsley
  • Flaked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

  1. Put the fennel, aubergine, pepper and courgette in a roasting tray. Add a glug of olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toss around to coat the vegetables in the oil. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes, turning a couple of times until the veg are pretty much cooked through and turning golden.
  2. Meanwhile, heat a paella pan or large frying pan over a low-medium heat and add a glug of olive oil. Sauté the onion for 8-10 minutes until softened. Increase the heat to medium and stir in the rice, paprika and saffron. Cook for around 1 minute to start toasting the rice, then add the white wine. Reduce by about half before stirring in two-thirds of the stock. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes without a lid, stirring a couple of times.
  3. Stir in the peas, add some seasoning, then gently mix in the roasted veg. Pour over the remaining stock, arrange the lemon wedges on top and cover with a lid or some aluminium foil. Cook for a further 10 minutes.
  4. To ensure you get the classic layer of toasted rice at the bottom of the pan, increase the heat to high until you hear a slight crackle. Remove from the heat and sit for 5 minutes before sprinkling over the parsley and serving.

Recipe taken from The Flexible Vegetarian by Jo Pratt.