Love your heart!

Heart healthy meal for Valentine’s Day!

When my husband and I were first married and for years after, we never went out for Valentine’s Day. I always made him a special dinner at home. The recipes were actually from a Betty Crocker Dinner for Two cookbook that is completely dog-eared and worn. The dinner I always cooked was a simple paella, an orange avocado salad and flan.

Paella is one of the original one pot dishes that hails from Spain. You can make a seafood paella with shrimp, clams and mussels, or one with chicken and chorizo or a vegetable paella. The only limit is your imagination. I have a wonderful cookbook by Penelope Casas called Paella. It has every imaginable paella recipe and is a great read and resource. The recipe that follows is a vegetarian paella. You can change it by using white short grain rice instead of the brown short grain rice and chicken broth instead of the vegetable broth. I am also including a pork, garbanzo and red pepper paella from Penelope’s Paella cookbook. It has a few more calories, but is delicious! If you don’t have a paella pan don’t fret you can use any shallow pan. I used a cast iron frying pan for the vegetarian paella. If you like paella and will make it a lot, please do invest in a paella pan.

One of the main ingredients in paella is saffron. This you do not skimp on. If you use too little of it your rice will not be the lovely yellowish color and the flavor won’t be the same. Saffron is expensive because it is from the stigmas of the crocus sativus flower commonly known as the saffron crocus. It is handpicked and to get 1 pound of saffron requires the harvest of 50,000-75,000 flowers.

Saffron originated in Greece and is grown in the Mediterranean region. You can buy it online at amazon.com, tienda.com or spanishtable.com and you can also get the Matiz paella rice and pans from those three places also. Sometimes you can find saffron at a grocery or a gourmet food store. I have been lucky to find the saffron and the pan at TJ Maxx on a rare occasion… but I’ll never stop lookin! It usually runs around $12.50 for 2 grams of saffron.

Vegetarian Paella

Makes 7 servings

Ingredients
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 tsp minced garlic
2 cups vegetable stock
salt & fresh ground pepper to taste
1/4 tsp saffron threads
1 cup brown basmati rice, dry
1 cup diced carrots
2 cups cooked garbanzo beans, drained
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
1/4 cup roasted red peppers, cut into thin strips

In a paella pan or skillet, heat the oil. Saute over medium heat the onions for about 2 minutes.

Add vegetable stock, garlic, salt, pepper and saffron. Bring to a boil.

Stir in rice and carrots

Return to a boil then reduce heat.

Cover and simmer 35 to 40 minutes or until rice is tender.

Add garbanzo beans, peas and red peppers to pan and replace lid.

Simmer for another 2 minutes until liquid has been absorbed. Remove from heat and stir to fluff up rice and distribute vegetables. Garnish with red pepper slices.

Calories per serving: 230, Total fat 5 g, saturated fat 1 g, dietary fiber 6 g

Orange Avocado Salad

Makes 6 servings
2 orange, peeled and sliced
2avocado, peeled and sliced
1 small onion, sliced and separated
crisp salad greens
orange dressing

Orange Dressing

1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp grated orange peel
4 Tbsp orange juice
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dry mustard
Shake all ingredients in tightly covered jar.
Makes 1 cup

Calories per serving: 217.9 Total fat 20.2g, Saturated fat 2.8 g, Carbs 10.9g, Dietary fiber 1.4g

Pork, Garbanzo and Red Pepper Paella

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients
1 pound pork tenderloin cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 cloves garlic, mashed or pressed, plus 10 cloves minced
3 Tbsp minced parsley
6 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 1/2 cups cooked garbanzos, drained
4 cups well seasoned chicken stock
1/2 tsp saffron threads
2 large red bell peppers, cored, seeded and cut into 3/4 inch squares
1 slice 1/4 inch thick Serrano ham or prosciutto, diced
1/4 cup finely chopped roasted red pepper
2 tsp paprika
2 cups short grain rice, preferable Spanish

Combine pork with the mashed garlic, 1 Tbsp. parsley, 1 Tbsp oil and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside for 20 minutes.

Place 1/2 cup garbanzos in food processor with 1/2 cup stock; puree. Place remaining stock in saucepan, add garbanzo mixture to it. Add saffron, bring to a simmer and keep on low heat.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat remaining oil in 13 inch paella pan. Lightly brown pork, then remove to warm platter. Pork will not be fully cooked.

Add red peppers to pan and sauté over medium heat 1 minute. Add minced garlic, ham roasted red peppers and remaining parsley. Sauté 2 minutes.

Stir in paprika, browned port and any pork juices. Add rice and stir to coat. Add broth and remaining garbanzos. Salt to taste. Bring to a boil and cook fairly rapidly, about 5 minutes, until rice is no longer soupy, but there is still liquid in pan. Stir.