Vegetable paella with butter beans

A smoky, saffron-scented Spanish paella packed with peppers, green beans, peas and butter beans. Don't stir once the rice is in, so you get the prized crispy base, the socarrat.

Ingredients

• 45 ml Olive oil
• 1 Onions, chopped
• 2 Peppers, sliced
• 0.2 Garlic, 3 cloves, sliced
• 5 g Smoked paprika
• 0.2 g Saffron, a good pinch, soaked in 2 tbsp hot water
• 2 Tomatoes, grated, skins discarded
• 300 g Paella rice
• 2 Vegetable stock cubes, made up to 1.1 litres, hot
• 200 g Green beans, in short lengths
• 400 g Butter beans, drained
• 150 g Frozen peas
• 3 g Salt
• 1 Lemons, in wedges
• 15 g Fresh parsley, chopped

Method

1. Heat the oil in a paella pan or your widest frying pan. Fry the onion and peppers until soft and starting to colour.
2. Add the garlic and paprika for a minute, then the grated tomato, and cook until thick and jammy.
3. Stir in the rice to coat it, then pour in the hot stock and saffron with its water. Add the green beans and butter beans, spread everything out evenly and season. From now on, don't stir.
4. Simmer briskly for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down. Scatter over the peas and cook until the rice is tender and the liquid has gone.
5. Turn the heat up for the last minute or two until you hear the rice crackle. That's the socarrat forming.
6. Take off the heat, cover with a clean tea towel and rest for 5 minutes. Serve from the pan with parsley and lemon wedges.