Method:

1    Fry vegetables: Heat oil in a large, non-stick frying pan. Add onion, capsicum, garlic and bacon, and cook over low heat 5 minutes. Add tomato and cook 2 minutes.
2    Add rice and saffron:Add rice and stir to coat in the oil. Add saffron threads and heat for a few seconds, then pour in hot stock. Bring to the boil, stir lightly and simmer 5 minutes.
3    Add seafood: Mix in seafood, return to a gentle simmer and cook 10 minutes or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed, stirring occasionally. Serve with lime wedges, if you like.

Serving Information:

Each serving provides:
• 2346 kJ
• 36 g protein
• 16 g fat of which 4 g saturates
• 68 g carbohydrate

Shopping tips:

• Always use saffron threads; powdered saffron loses its flavour more quickly, and can also be adulterated with cheaper spices such as turmeric. Although saffron is expensive, just a pinch is enough to flavour a dish

Swaps:

For seafood mix, use your own choice of seafood, such as ready-prepared mussels, raw prawns, fish and calamari • Or use 250 g chicken stir-fry strips, fried with the vegetables at step 1


...More ideas

Golden chickpea paella
Cook a mixture of chopped vegetables in the oil at step 1, such as 1 bulb fennel or 3 sticks celery, 1 yellow capsicum, and the onion and 1 crushed clove garlic. Omit the bacon. Add the tomato, rice and saffron as for the basic recipe and 1 teaspoon ground paprika. Add 1 chopped zucchini, 875 ml hot vegetable stock and 125 ml white wine, and cook for 5 minutes as for step 2. Add a 400 g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed, instead of seafood, and simmer 10 minutes as for step 3.

Chorizo and pork paella
Replace bacon with 150 g sliced chorizo and use 250 g pork stir-fry strips instead of seafood. Fry the pork and chorizo with the vegetables at step 1 or until the chorizo is crisp and the pork lightly browned. Instead of the green capsicum and saffron, add 1 teaspoon paprika, if you like (the chorizo may be sufficiently spicy). Stir in 125 g frozen peas 5 minutes before the end of cooking. .