Vegetarian Paella

Yesterday I had a pretty good visit with the twinnies (granddaughters). Yesterdays dinner was eaten with gusto. Except when I tried to feed them green peas. The youngest of the twins is quite talented in spitting them out but keeping everything else in her mouth. Besides that they were such good vegan eaters. Here, with me, they eat from my vegan dishes and drink soy milk. They listen to everything from salsa and merengue to music from Vacation Bible School and Mozart for Kids. I love them babies.

2 tbsps olive oil
1 medium size yellow onion, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, seeded and diced
4 ozs green beans, ends trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 28 oz can whole plum tomatoes, drained and chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 9 oz package frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
1 15 oz can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
3 cups vegetable stock
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp saffron threads
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper
1 cup white or valencia rice
8 oz vegetarian sausage links, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 oz oyster mushrooms, stemmed trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1 tbsp minced fresh parsley leaves
1 lemon cut into 4-6 wedges

heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a medium size skillet over medium heat.
add the onion, cover and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
transfer the onion to a 6 quart slow cooker.
stir in the bell pepper, green beans, tomatoes, garlic, artichoke hearts, kidney beans, stock, pepper flakes, saffron, and bay leaves and season with salt and pepper.
cover and cook on low for 4 hours
stir in the rice, cover and cook on low for another hour, until the rice is tender.
meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 tbsp oil in a skillet over medium heat. a
add the sausage links and cook until browned, about 5 minutes.
remove from the pan and set aside.
add the oyster mushrooms to the same pan and cook, stirring until tender, about 3 minutes.
about 10 minutes before ready to serve stir the sausage links, oyster mushrooms and peas into the paella.
cover and finish cooking.
serve garnished with the parsley and lemon wedges.


For all those who work outside of the home, you can do this!
Go to your local hardware store and purchase an electric timer. You can schedule the timer to turn on and off the crockpot. It is an added bonus together with the slow-cooker for easy healthy meals and so much cheaper in the long run when you add up all the restaurant/fast food you will order instead when you are too busy or tired to cook. You can even prepare everything the night before in the crockpot and in the morning you just remove from the fridge, plug it in and forget about it.

This, again, is from the cookbook Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. Go and get it from your local library!