Fideuà is a pasta seaweed paella that I veganised with calamari king oyster mushroom rings, seaweed tofu as prawns and carrots as langoustines.
Hola!
Today I bring you a plant-based twist on a traditional seafood recipe: a pasta seaweed paella called fideuà. The seaweed brings the sea breeze right to your door, and the “calamari” rings made with king oyster mushrooms have such a convincing chewiness. The carrots provide the visuals as the langoustines’ replacement, and they add another layer of texture to this wonderfully balanced dish.
‘A pasta paella?!’ You may be thinking, confused. Fideuà is a popular recipe from the Spanish Mediterranean coast, and it means “a lot of noodles”. It’s colloquial for fideuada. It’s not as well-known as rice paella, which I think is a travesty, so I’m here do it justice. It is cooked in a paella pan and the main ingredients for the original recipe are whole seafood (not peeled) and pasta. The kind of pasta used comes down to personal preference and regional variation, and it goes from curly, thick and hollow, like macaroni, to just plain vermicelli, which are thinner and not hollow. Some other people may use the short straight but thick noodles. I personally prefer what I am used to, which is the short curly ones, because they feel chunkier when chewing on them. All of these kinds of pasta are widely available in Spain. In the UK, you can get macaroni pasta or whatever the pasta you like.
There are several stories that pinpoint the origin of this recipe to Gandía (Valencia, Spain). According to Wikipedia, the cook of a boat swapped rice for noodles to discourage the boat’s captain from eating all of the arròs a banda (seafood rice paella with all the seafood peeled and served with alioli) so that there was something left for the crew. It seems that it actually backfired, because the captain loved it. The recipe spread quickly in Gandía and then to the rest of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. Another source says that a chef was preparing arròs a banda and he realised that he ran out of rice so he broke some spaghetti into smaller pieces and tossed them onto the paella. I like the first story better.
When we used to ask my iaia what to cook for lunch, fideuà or paella, she would always choose fideuà because she used to say that pasta is a lot easier to cook, and it cooks evenly, unlike rice in paella. I appreciate now how right she was and I would also choose it over rice paella. Controversial, I know. If you feel that cooking rice paella is daunting, maybe try with a fideuà first.
PLANT POWER, MAKE UP!
I had been craving this dish for a while and I didn’t want to make it with vegetable stock, since that would have changed it dramatically. Then, I found out that you can use seaweed to give a fishy flavour to vegan dishes and it has become a staple in my cooking. I’ve improved the recipe over the years and I learnt that the more different kinds of seaweed you use, the rounder the sea flavour is. Miso paste always helps to bring out the umami that linger in your mouth. Watch out with the salt, since seaweed and miso tend to make a salty stock.
To make the “calamari”, king oyster mushroom have a very mild mushroom flavour and a thick stalk. If you slice them into coins and then cut the centre out, you get the rings. I thought this would be more for the visual effect, but when I tried them, I was surprised of how close to the real ones feel. And without those nasty strings that calamari have and that I almost choked on back when I was an omni. If you have an apple corer, this makes it much faster and easier than trying to cut tiny circles with a paring knife. You could use regular mushrooms and just use the mushroom caps to make the rings, but they will give a stronger mushroom taste.
Vegan shrimp has become more easily available in the UK in the last few years. Back when I made this recipe, I couldn’t find it, so I used tofu covered with seaweed, and it did the trick for me.
VEGAN FIDEUÀ
Prep: 45 minutes
Cook: 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS
3 king oyster mushrooms
Seaweed stock: 6 cups water + 2 veggie stock cubes + 1 nori seaweed sheet + a couple of pieces of wakame + 1 tsp. miso paste
1/8 tsp. saffron powder (or 1/4 tsp. of artificial yellow colouring)
2 small and thin carrots, peeled and sliced in half lengthwise
250g tofu + 1 tsp. soy sauce + seaweed flakes or vegan prawns
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 ripe tomatoes, blended
1 tsp. paprika
250g macaroni pasta
INSTRUCTIONS
- To make the “calamari” rings, slice the king oyster stalks to make 1cm-thick coins. Cut a circle inside each of them with an apple corer or a paring knife to make rings.
- Make the seaweed stock and add the saffron to it, blend it and then simmer until use. Taste and adjust salt before use. Add the carrots, and simmer for at least 5 minutes before adding the stock to the paella pan.
- Slice the tofu into thick sticks, spray some olive oil onto the paella pan and fry the tofu over a medium-high heat, adding the soy sauce and some seaweed flakes on top. Alternatively, fry the vegan prawns.
- Push the tofu/vegan prawns to the sides, spray a bit more of oil to the centre, let it get hot, add the garlic and cook for one minute. Add more oil, add the blended tomato, season with salt and pepper and cook until fragrant. Add the paprika and stir for one more minute.
- Add the seaweed stock up to the inner paella pan screws or just twice the volume as the pasta amount. If you have made enough stock, you should have a bit left that you may need later. Add the pasta and mushroom rings, and distribute evenly, leaving the carrot halves making a cross, tips pointing out. Cook over a high heat for 5 minutes. Then reduce to a medium heat for the remaining 5 minutes or until no stock left.
- Turn off the heat and cover the paella for 5 minutes with a couple of newspaper sheets or anything else that retains the steam. This will finish cooking the pasta on the top, which had less boiling time.
Serve immediately or keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Bon profit!