Yay for Bell Pepper Paella (pi-YA-yah)

Okay, so I had to take an entire week off of cooking because I had some epic events take place that were very distracting.  My poor horse had to have surgery. He kicked the fence accidently and got a puncture wound that infected his bone. Poor guy. My parents were kind enough to pay for the much needed surgery and then he had to go to the horse hospital (aka the vet) and spend over a week in intensive care.  Needless to say, time in a small box stall earned him lots of apples and carrots. Unfortunately, I didn't take the time to plan a weekly meal which means my health and blog suffered but my horse feels very loved: )

Thankfully I'm back on track this week and I chose red bell pepper as the star performer in the meal. To be honest, I don't usually use bell peppers very often unless I have some hummus on hand that transforms the bellpepper into a vehicle that downs the hummus (bad habit). But I'm discovering just how yummy they can be. I tripled the recipe this week which was risky but so far it is my favorite meal that I have posted so I'm not sorry that I did. Try it out.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 to 3 medium cloves garlic, minced
• 2 medium red bell pepper, cut into 2-inch-long strips
• 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes (try to get tomatoes with no salt added)
• 15-oz. can vegetable broth (low sodium if possible- if it needs salt you can always add it but taking it out is an issue)
• 2 cups uncooked brown rice
• 1 tsp. saffron threads, dissolved in small amount of hot water (warning!-saffron is very expensive. I substituted 1 t of turmeric to save some $)
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 14-oz. can artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tsp. salt

Directions

1. In large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Set aside half the red pepper strips for garnish. Add all remaining pepper strips to onion mixture and cook, stirring often, 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes (with liquid), broth, rice, saffron mixture, thyme and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 40 minutes or until brown rice is cooked.
3. Stir in artichoke hearts, peas, half the parsley and salt. Season with freshly ground pepper to taste and add a little water to moisten if needed. Cook, stirring, just until heated through, about 5 minutes.
4. Transfer paella to large, shallow serving dish and garnish with circle of reserved red pepper strips. Sprinkle with remaining parsley and serve hot.

My Final Creation

Since I used all low sodium products my taste-testers decided to add a bit of himalayan sea salt to theirs. Completely your call. 

I hope you get the chance to use bell peppers soon! If not in this dish, pick some up for some raw munching. You won't be disappointed as 1 bell pepper boasts 291% of your daily vitamin C intake and 104% of your vitamin A intake. Both vitamin C and vitamin A are powerful antioxidants that neutralize the free radicals that like to wreak havoc in your body. This might sound overly simplistic but its udderly true: the brighter the color the more nutrients. In bell pepper's case it couldn't be more true. My favorite color is the red (which is what I used in my paella) but all colors are delicious. Which color is your favorite?