Having guests over for Christmas dinner that do not eat turkey or meat but love seafood? Seafood paella is a great choice! It’s easy, quick to make, colorful, and absolutely delicious! This Christmas we will be celebrating at my parents house, we’re a huge group of 11 and as you can imagine, we all have different tastes when it comes to food. Most of us do eat turkey, but 2 people do not eat any poultry or meat, only seafood, and vegetarian options. As it’s my Mom and me who will be cooking this year (and every year!), we had to sit down and plan the menu. We thought about a few seafood options and seafood paella was the winner. So I thought I’d share this recipe with my readers, as this is what will be on the menu in our house in less than 2 weeks time. Paella is a traditional Spanish rice dish, and there are many different variations. There is a vegetarian paella, a seafood paella, chicken paella, and a meat paella. I also really like mixed paella which means that you can add anything that you like to it, for example, chicken, chorizo, beans, or whatever your heart desires! I love how easy is this dish to make, but the result looks like you put a lot of effort into this. It only takes me 20 minutes to whip this up! One more reason why we chose a seafood paella, is because of how colourful this dish is, just perfect for the festive season! One thing I always like to do is have a good store of frozen food. It means that I can just throw things together, whenever I need to. Frozen food is much fresher than “fresh” food – having been frozen fast, rather than sitting for ages till I get round to using it. To make this paella, start by chopping up a yellow onion, and saute in a paella pan on medium heat (if you don’t have a paella pan, use a wok or a frying pan). When the onion is tender and translucent, add peas, and the seafood with the sauce, and let it cook on medium heat for a few minutes. Add water, 1 tsp of saffron, and 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika, and let it simmer until reduced. Meanwhile, microwave the steamed rice then add it to the pan to simmer for about 5 more minutes. You can add thin slices of red bell pepper at the end to make it more colorful and festive, salt to taste and garnish with chopped fresh parsley. To make things even more interesting, we will be serving this with cranberry sauce on the side. Makes an interesting combination doesn’t it? © Little Sunny Kitchen
