Recipe: Rice and easy... a cheats Paella

Cheat's Paella by Di Curtin
RICE is one of the most convenient foods to grace the larder. In the last few decades, this humble grain has gone from being an exotic ingredient you only ever ate in a Chinese restaurant, to becoming an everyday mainstay of the European kitchen cupboard, consumed as regularly as spuds in many households.

CHEAT’S PAELLA
Ingredients (Serves 4)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
75g chorizo sausage, skinned and cut into chunks (or to taste)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 bunch scallions trimmed and chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
100g mushrooms, wiped and sliced
2 tsp piquant smoked paprika
350g cooked rice
150mls rustic passata
Few drops Tabasco sauce (optional)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra olive oil and finely chopped parsley to serve
- Heat oil in a pan and cook the chorizo, garlic and scallions till chorizo is browned and its juice beginning to run.
- Add pepper, tomatoes and mushrooms with a little extra oil and cook over medium heat till beginning to soften.
- Stir in the paprika and cook for a further minute.
- Add the cooked rice, passata and Tabasco if using, then stir gently to combine without breaking up the rice grains Season and stir till everything is heated through.
- Serve in warmed bowls, drizzled with extra olive oil and scattered with parsley.