The Easy Shortcut To Get Paella On The Table Faster

Paella has a reputation for being a difficult dish that takes time and hard work to get right. A steaming bed of golden rice takes up a whopping 60-inch paella pan when it's traditionally served up with vegetables, lime wedges, and all kinds of meat. While recipes vary for different paella versions, saffron is the uncommon spice you should be cooking with to achieve the unique earthy and musky flavors that make this dish taste authentic. It's a stir-fry and a stew in one, usually showcasing seafood like clams, prawns, and shrimp. You might picture a chef slaving over the giant pan for hours of preparation and stirring as flavors slowly blend, but paella doesn't have to take forever to make. There's a way to cut down on paella's cooking time, and it has everything to do with using leftovers — as many leftovers as possible.

Much like you can repurpose leftover pork tenderloin into a quick stir-fry or turn your leftovers into a hearty soup, you can also use leftover ingredients like chicken and steak to make a quick paella. You can use leftover vegetables as well, but remember paella does simmer for a while, even when you're making a quick version. The longer vegetables simmer, the mushier they get, so they might not be the best option. Use leftover cold rice to get that paella on the table faster and to create a flavorful bed of earthy, spicy, lime-laced goodness as a bed for the rest of your ingredients.

Add cold leftover rice to your paella just like you would if you were using regular rice after your pan is already simmering with white wine and sauteed onion, garlic, bell peppers, tomato, bay leaf, paprika, saffron, salt, and pepper. As the cold rice simmers and rehydrates, it will soak up the juices from the paella. The rice will transform from leftovers to a flavorful golden base for a fragrant and delicious dinner, perfect for parties. Grill your paella alongside some shellfish for a memorable twist on your next backyard barbecue.

Paella is traditionally made with Spanish rice, and the cold leftover version works great for a fast version of the traditional dish. But you don't have to restrict yourself to Spanish rice to make a fast paella. Short grain rice types like Arborio rice, Calasparra Rice, Japanese rice, Korean rice, and Bomba rice are all good for paella because they absorb flavors very well.