Slow Cooker Plant Based Paella

Let me just out right say that my picky taster, my husband Bob, loved this and gave this dish two thumbs up. He did not even realized it was plant based.  When I served this to him, it was not even garnished with the lemon, chopped celery and olives shown in the picture and yet he ate with gusto.  I only told him it was meat free several days later.  The Tofurky sausage did the trick.  If however you do not have any, season the mixture with 1 tsp smoked paprika and one more tsp of cumin.

This can be a meal in itself with a side of salad or the garnishes and a piece of crusty whole wheat baguette. This can be a wonderful side dish with chicken or ham if cooking for carnivores.  As I said previously, a carnivore will not know the difference when serving this plant based paella to them.  My husband did not.

The trick with cooking rice in the slow cooker is knowing how much water to use.  If too little, you will have uneven cooking of the rice.  If too much it will be like rice soup.  This recipe gives uniformly cooked rice, a little bit on the risotto consistency.  It is good and comforting.  The test how good a dish is is when I hanker for it for breakfast the next day and I did with this one.  

Slow Cooker Plant Based Paella

• 1 -3.5 oz Artisan Tofurky Cajun Sytle Andouille Sausage, cut into bite sized pieces 
• 2 cups uncooked brown rice
• 5 cups water
• 1 vegetable bouillon cube
• 3 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1 large green pepper, chopped
•  1/2 tbsp garlic powder
• 1/4 cup minced dry onions
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp black peppercorn
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• salt to taste

Combine all the ingredients in the slow cooker.  Cook for 3 hours at high setting and 6 hours at low setting.  I cooked mine in an Aroma Brand rice cooker/slow cooker for 2 hours.  Serve with the following optional garnish shown in the photos: lemon, chopped celery with leaves and olives.