Comments on: Spring Vegetable Vegan Paella

By: Melissa

Melissa — Fri, 09 Dec 2016 12:41:37 +0000

In reply to Lauren. Oh great, so happy it worked with short grain rice, it can be hit or miss when substituting. Thanks for your lovely comment!

By: Lauren

Lauren — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 14:31:04 +0000

Just made this last night and it turned out great! I couldn't find tomato puree at the grocery store so I used tomato sauce instead - the texture may have been a little off, but still tastes delicious. I also couldn't find bomba/paella rice so I used short grain rice and it cooked perfectly.

Will definitely make this again. Thanks for sharing!

By: Melissa

Melissa — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 08:36:07 +0000

In reply to Danielle. The recipe calls for bomba rice because it was written to demonstrate the cooking technique of this specific variety of rice and how we use it to make paella in Spain. Substituting other varieties of rice is not appropriate as they cook differently and I cannot guarantee that this technique will work with all other varieties of rice. Wikipedia has a pretty good explanation of what tomato puree is. If you can't find it in a can, it's really easy to make at home. Here's a good instructional from The Kitchn. Laurel and bay is the same plant.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 15:01:22 +0000

I made this last night, and while the flavors turned out well, the recipe is really poorly written.
A) Couldn't find tomato puree in the store. I googled it and apparently other people get confused by this too. I took a tomato and put it in the food processor.
B) In Step #5 it mentions laurel? Not in the list of ingredients. What is that?
C) I couldn't find bomba rice. At Whole Foods. They had different types of rice I had never heard of. The internet told me to use short grain rice.
D) You didn't list quantities for artichoke hears or sun-dried tomatoes. I winged it.
E) AND THIS IS THE BIG ONE. I followed the timing in step 6 to the letter. And then it took me an extra 45 minutes of cook time afterwards to get the rice to not be raw/al dente. And then my veggies were soggy, which is what you said you didn't want to happen in the beginning. I used a risotto type technique to get it cooked. My dinner guests were starving. Ended up serving it still not quite done. What a disaster. When you make this, add another 45 minutes to the prep time, and make sure that your rice is almost finished before adding your veggies for a final 6 minutes.