This delicious, paella-inspired dish is pure magic! Whether you cook it right away or freeze it for later, and whether you cook it on your stovetop or in your Instant Pot, the ease and speed with which you get dinner on the table will amaze your friends and family. On those days when you’re too tired, busy, or hurting to cook, it’s such a relief to have a real meal that takes so little effort. If cooking from fresh, you’ll need a mere ten minutes of prep (most of which is just measuring) and will have only one pot to wash. If you’re cooking from frozen, “prep”  consists of waiting a few minutes for the block to melt, and you’ll still have only one pot to wash! Either way, you’ll have dinner on the table about half an hour from when you walked in the kitchen. 

I wrote this recipe as a freezer meal to have while my kitchen and hip were both being renovated. It would be easy to cook on the stovetop, too. You’d need to wait until part-way through the rice’s cook time before adding the shrimp, but the process is otherwise the same. I’ve used Uncle Ben’s brown rice because it’s parboiled. That means you still get the whole grain benefits, but only need twenty minutes of cook time. Which in turn means you can substitute white rice if you prefer, without having to change any of the cooking directions. 

You’ll find printer-friendly Instant Pot and stovetop versions of the recipe at the bottom of this page. 

Ingredients:

2 cups Homemade Vegetable Broth or water

⅛ tsp saffron

1 Tbsp sweet paprika

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp onion powder

½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes (“crushers”)

¼ tsp oregano

¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

⅛ tsp smoked paprika

1 lemon

1 bunch fresh parsley

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 lb. large shrimp, frozen, tails on

1⅓ cup Uncle Ben’s Brown rice (may substitute white rice)

¾ cup frozen peas.

Preparation:

1.) Using a mortar and pestle, grind the saffron into a fine powder.

2.) Pour the broth or water into a freezer container. Stir the saffron and the next 7 ingredients (paprika through oregano) into the broth.

3.) Zest the lemon, then squeeze its juice. Add the zest to the broth. Add the juice, too, using it to rinse out every last speck of saffron from your mortar into the freezer container. Chop the parsley for about ½ cup and add it to the mix. Stir in the olive oil. Freeze.

4.) Place the rice in a ziptop freezer bag, and the peas in a separate one. Once the liquid has frozen, place the bags in the container so they will be handy. Cover the container again and return it to the freezer.

5.) When you’re ready to cook, remove the bags of rice and peas; set aside. Pop the frozen liquid out of the container and into the Instant Pot’s inner pot. Set for “Sauté” and cook until the liquid melts. Press “Keep Warm/Cancel to turn the pot off.

6.) Stir in the rice.

7.) Layer the shrimp, still frozen, on top.

8.) Close and lock the lid, and set to “Manual” for 5 minutes at high pressure.

9.) Carefully quick release the pressure and check the shrimp and rice for doneness. If it’s not quite done, just put the cover back on and let it sit for another 5 minutes. When it’s done, stir in the peas and let the residual heat warm them for a minute or two before serving.