This seafood paella is so easy and quick to make! Perfect for a date night or dinner on a special occasion!
Having guests over for Christmas dinner that don’t eat turkey or meat but love seafood? A seafood paella is a great choice! It’s easy, quick to make, colorful and absolutely delicious!
This Christmas we will be celebrating at my parents’ house, we’re a huge group of 11 and as you can imagine, we all have different tastes when it comes to food. Most of us do eat turkey, but 2 people do not eat any poultry or meat, only seafood and vegetarian options.
As it’s my Mum and me who will be cooking this year (and every year!), we had to sit down and plan the menu. We thought about a few seafood options and seafood paella was the winner. So I thought I’d share this recipe with my readers, as this is what will be on the menu in our house in less than 2 weeks time.
Paella is a traditional Spanish rice dish, and there are many different variations. There is a vegetarian paella, a seafood paella, chicken paella and a meat paella. I also really like mixed paella which means that you can add anything that you like to it, for example, chicken, chorizo, beans, or whatever your heart desires!
I love how easy is this dish to make, but the result looks like you put a lot of effort into this. It only takes me 20 minutes to whip this up! One more reason why we chose a seafood paella, is because of how colourful this dish is, just perfect for the festive season!
One thing I always like to do is have a good store of frozen food. It means that I can just throw things together, whenever I need to. Frozen food is much fresher than “fresh” food – having been frozen fast, rather than sitting for ages till I get round to using it.
To make this paella, start by chopping up a yellow onion, and saute in a paella pan on medium heat (if you don’t have a paella pan, use a wok or a frying pan). When the onion is tender and translucent, add peas, the seafood with the sauce, and let it cook on medium heat for a few minutes. Add water, 1 tsp of saffron, 1 tsp of smoked paprika and let it simmer until reduced. Meanwhile, microwave the steamed rice then add it to pan to simmer for about 5 more minutes. You can add thin slices of red bell pepper at the end to make it more colourful and festive, salt to taste and garnish with chopped fresh parsley.
To make things even more interesting, we will be serving this with cranberry sauce on the side. Makes an interesting combination doesn’t it?
If you make this recipe, please don’t forget to rate it and share a picture on social media. Tag #LittleSunnyKitchen in your posts as I would really love to see what you make!
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Seafood Paella
Print Pin RateIngredients
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil for frying
- 40 grams peas frozen or fresh
- 450 grams mixed seafood Mussels, Squid, Clams & Shrimp
- Tomato and herb sauce
- 250 ml water
- 1 tsp saffron
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 450 grams steamed rice
- red bell pepper optional
- salt to taste
- chopped fresh parsley leaves to garnish
- lemon wedges to serve
Instructions
- In a pan saute the onion.
- When the onion is tender and translucent, add peas, the seafood with the sauce and let it cook on medium heat for a few minutes.
- Add water, saffron, smoked paprika and let it simmer until reduced.
- Microwave the steamed rice then add it to pan to simmer for 5 more minutes. You can add thin slices of red bell pepper at the end.
- Salt to taste and garnish with chopped fresh parsley. Serve with lemon wedges.
Karen (Back Road Journal)
Your paella looks delicious. Wish we had a company that sold such a nice selection of products like that.
Sabrina | The Tomato Tart
Yum! This looks delicious. I bet it tastes pretty amazing. Cant wait to try!
Diana
Thank you Sabrina, it does taste great! Enjoy!
Debra C.
Love this meal and your shortcuts. Looks so delicious and it looks so savory and amazing, like you’ve cooked it for hours!
Diana
Thank you Debra. Iceland foods really make life so much easier with the convenient frozen foods that they offer, like the steamed rice and the mixed seafood selection that I use to make this paella.
valentina
What a fantastic idea for a holiday dish! It’s a beautiful centerpiece & so delicious, I’m sure.
Diana
It’s also great if you have guests coming over that love seafood.
Elizabeth @ SugarHero.com
This looks incredible. I had no idea paella could be so easy–I’ve been intimidated to try because I was sure it was really difficult!
Diana
Thanks Elizabeth. Paella is very easy and quick to make, and the result always looks like you put so much effort into making it!
Lisa | Garlic + Zest
I am a total sucker for paella! The more seafood, the better!
Diana
A seafood Paella is my favourite! I’m a huge fan of seafood.
Kate
SUch a great Christmas alternative. The frozen seafood mix musts make it sooo much easier. I love the carrot baubles too.
Diana
The carrot baubles are really really good! I could eat the whole pack on my own haha
Evi
Seriously am now tempted to make this on Christmas Day!! I LOVE seafood paella!
Diana
You totally should! We will be making this again on Christmas day 🙂
Claire Jessiman
LOVE this! Those wee individual cooked pouches of rice are so handy! I’ve had the Iceland Frutti Di Mare with Pasta but definately going to try using it to make a Paella now, although not sure how well it would go with Cranberry sauce. That might be a step too far for me!
Diana
I LOVE the steamed rice, it is so convenient and tastes great too! I added cranberry sauce to go on the side if anyone is feeling extra festive and adventurous!
Luci {Luci's Morsels}
I love paella, but usually don’t have the patience to wait hours while it cooks. This easy to make recipe is perfect for me!
Diana
This paella can be ready in under 20 minutes!
Julie
I love seafood and this dish sounds delicious and very doable.
Diana
It is very easy to make!
Platter Talk
I’ve seen similar packaged seafood like this before but never dared to buy them, being afraid that they me be dry or fishy tasting. Your dish has proved that theory not correct. Beautiful photo.
Diana
I always buy this seafood mix and it tastes really good! You need to try it 🙂
Kathryn @ FoodieGirlChicago
Paella is such a great dish for entertaining. This looks wonderful!
Bintu | Recipes From A Pantry
Oh my gosh, what an awesome use of Iceland Foods seafood mix. So totally brilliant
Diana
I love this seafood mix, instead of having to buy each kind on its own I buy the Frutti De Mare mix which is great for dishes like this paella.