Vegan paella with chorizo tofu with brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and peas is a delectable Spanish-inspired plant-based meal.
Don’t worry for a minute that you’ll be overwhelmed with the cruciferous flavors of brussels sprouts and cauliflower with this flavorful dish. There is so much happening, so many satisfying bites to be had. It’s kinda got something for everyone.
What is paella?
Paella is a rice-based dish best associated with Spain. When you take a close look at paella (or even a random one), it becomes clear that the rice part is the one consistency. That’s good news for us because this paella recipe is entirely plant-based.
Keeping with tradition, I used paella rice, characterized as short-grain white rice. Plant-based? Yes. Whole food? Not strictly.
The Campbell Center for Nutritional Studies emphasizes that we should strive to eat grains, including rice that are 'intact.' So what does this mean for rice?
Rice (Oryza stavia), our favorite starchy grain cereal, is a food staple for roughly one-half of the world's population. That’s a lot of rice! And we love it so much that 95% of all rice grown is consumed by humans.
Generally, folks who are strict about whole food eating try to stick to brown rice. Brown rice is considered a whole food because it contains all parts of the grain. That’s the fibrous bran, the nutritious germ, and the carb-loaded endosperm. White rice has the bran and germ (the most nutritious parts) removed.
When it comes to paella, short-grain rice or Arroz Redonda (round rice) such as senia, bomba, bahfa, and thaibonnet are traditionally used. This means that so-called 'paella rice' may not be on the preferred list of whole foods, although it's most certainly, plant-based.
I’m calling all the 'rice talk' to your attention so that you are fully armed to make decisions as you move along through this recipe.
It’s recommended that you don’t rinse it first (a rice-‘first’ for me) as it detracts from the texture.
Whole food options
Paella is plant-based (it’s rice); however, for those of you who incorporate as many whole foods as possible, here are a few options:
Brown rice – it will take longer to get the rice tender in the oven (another 15 minutes)
Whole wheat orzo
Quinoa (a gluten-free option)
Barley
Farro – a whole grain similar to barley with slightly larger grains
Freekeh – another whole grain, similar to barley and farro
If you substitute for the paella, use the same amount (1 ½ cups) and 3 ½ cups of vegetable broth. Check after 20 minutes if the grain is tender and if you need to add more liquid.
Tips for making chorizo tofu
This is a further perfected recipe for chorizo than I first used for supreme taco salad. It’s still tofu, just a few ingredients have been changed. That’s me, always evolving. Or maybe never quite satisfied. Either way, I think this is actually better than my original, although you can use them interchangeably.
Start with the tofu. Get it pressing for 20 minutes before you prep anything because you want to marinate it as long as possible. Once you get the tofu pressed, it’s easy-going, so you can do this one overnight.
The marinade is a combination of spices and vinegar that mimic the chorizo sausage that is often used in Spanish paella. This includes:
1 Tbsp. soy sauce or Tamari
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ - 1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. oregano
1 tsp. of cumin
½ teaspoon coriander
½ tsp. salt (optional)
¼ tsp. cinnamon
Pinch of ground cloves
½ tsp. date paste or 1 pureed date
Get that all whisked up as the tofu presses, then crumble the tofu and use your hands to mix it with the marinade. Your hands will already be covered with tofu crumbles, so you might as well dive right in.
Before you start assembling the paella, it’s easiest to dry fry the tofu. It will take about 10 minutes. The longer the tofu cooks, the more it will shrink and get crumbly. It will also darken up when you bake the final dish. Speaking of a day before, you could potentially fry your chorizo up and store it in the fridge. That will free up the 15 minutes you’ll need to get the paella oven ready.
There isn’t a lot of time between sauteing the onions, adding the tomato paste, paprika, and paella before you drop the vegetable broth and veggies in. For this reason, let’s return to one of my most favorite cooking tips – Mise en place, aka, be prepared. Get all the veggies prepped and ready. You can even measure out the frozen peas.
Before you light a burner, heat the oven. This ensures that you won’t interrupt the cooking process when you slide your oven-proof pot from the stove into the oven. Bring the pot to a slow boil as you add the tofu chorizo. Then slip it into the oven uncovered.
If you are using paella rice, it takes about 25 minutes. The trick is cooking the dish until the liquid is absorbed. I ended up using a knife to ease a bit aside and peer into the bottom. There’s probably a better way to go about this, but it was starting to smell really good, and I got overly anxious.
I had one experience making this in which I got it out of the oven, realized the rice was tender, but there was more liquid than I liked in the bottom. My trick? I brought it back to the stovetop and cooked it for another 5 minutes. It was a bit of cooking improv. And it worked.
My motto: no published recipe goes untested. I know like that’s a burden (insert laugh here). Seriously, I am not exactly a casserole person, nor am I a rice aficionado, but I have to admit, this dish captured my full attention. The only recipe tweaking I did was to adjust the amount of vegetable broth by ½ a cup.
I also left the salt to the tofu and the small bit that’s in the brand of vegetable broth I used. My best advice is to leave any extra salt on the table.
Final recommendation - sliced scallions for the garnish. It’s not imperative, but it makes this special paella all the more special. Toss a few on the casserole, then serve them on the side so you can add them as you dig into the final paella morsels at the bottom.
Final Thoughts
After years of making rice as a side dish, it is never front of my mind to cook it in the oven. Personal tradition, I suppose. But traditions, like mindsets, can yield to new ways of doing things. That sums up my personal plant-based journey. Realizing new approaches, experimenting, tweaking. Always aiming for new flavor combinations, trying different foods, or returning to ingredients I thought I didn’t like. And when you discover something great? Shout it, share it, serve it. That’s what it’s about. Peace.
Printvegan paella with chorizo tofu
Vegan paella with chorizo tofu with brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and peas is a delectable Spanish-inspired plant-based meal.
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Main Courses
- Cuisine: Spanish
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
Chorizo Tofu
- 1 block firm tofu, pressed
- 1 Tbsp. soy sauce or Tamari
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ - 1 Tbsp. chili powder
- 1 Tbsp. oregano
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- ½ tsp. ground coriander
- ½ tsp. salt (optional)
- ¼ tsp. cinnamon
- Pinch of ground cloves
- ½ tsp. date paste or 1 pureed date
Paella
- 1 small onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, pressed
- 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
- 1 tsp. smoked paprika
- 1 ½ cups paella rice (medium-grain rice or use brown rice)
- 3 ½ cups cauliflower florets (cut the florets relatively small and cut the larger ones in half)
- 2 ½ cups Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed and cleaned (cut larger sprouts in half if necessary)
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 3 ½ cups vegetable broth
- 3-4 scallions, thinly sliced for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- To make the chorizo tofu, first, press the tofu using a press or between 2 flat surfaces, placing something heavy on top to weigh it down. Allow the tofu to press for 20 minutes.
- In a medium dish, combine the remaining ingredients to make the marinade. When the tofu is pressed, crumble it directly into the marinade dish. Then use your hands to cover the tofu. Allow the tofu to marinate for at least 30 minutes, if not longer.
- Dry fry the tofu on the stovetop (a non-stick skillet works best for this). Fry the tofu until it starts to shrink and dry out. It will darken more once it goes into the oven with the paella.
- To make the rest of the paella, first, pre-heat the oven to 4500F (2300C).
- On the stovetop, heat an oven-proof pot or casserole dish over medium heat.
- Add the diced onions and garlic and sauté them for about 3 minutes.
- Add the tomato paste and smoked paprika and stir so the onions are covered.
- Add the paella and toast it for 2 minutes by stirring it continuously.
- De-glaze the pot by adding the vegetable broth. Use a wooden spoon to stir the ingredients to pick up bits stuck to the bottom.
- Mix in the cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and frozen peas.
- Raise the heat so that the pot begins to simmer. Then add the tofu chorizo on top.
- Cut the heat on the stove and then add the pot, uncovered, to the oven, and allow it to cook for about 20 minutes until the liquid is absorbed.
Notes
- Paella is traditionally made with medium-grain white rice. You can substitute brown rice; however, you will want to allow an additional 15-20 minutes for it to get tender.
- The longer you can marinate the tofu, the better. Ideally, overnight is best. Press the tofu, mix it with the marinade, then place it in an airtight container in the refrigeration. This can be done up to 2 days before you fry it.
- If you add other vegetables like carrots or broccoli, you may need to adjust the vegetable broth. You can also add more broth as the paella cooks in the oven.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: a plateful
- Calories: 275
- Sugar: 8.7 g
- Sodium: 667 mg
- Fat: 4.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 47.3 g
- Protein: 13.6 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
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