- 2½ cups vegetable broth or chicken broth
- Kosher or sea salt
- 1/8 teaspoon crumbled thread saffron
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ½ cup frozen baby lima beans, thawed
- 8 baby carrots (about 3 ounces), scraped and chopped
- 8 shiitake mushrooms, brushed clean, stems trimmed, and coarsely chopped
- ¼ pound green beans, preferably broad flat beans, ends trimmed
- 2 medium red bell peppers (about ½ pound), cut into ½-inch dice
- 1 medium zucchini (about 6 ounces), cut into ½-inch cubes
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup chopped whole canned tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika, preferably Spanish smoked
- 1¼ cups Valencian short grain rice, or Arborio
- Combine the vegetable broth, salt to taste, and saffron in a pot. Cover and keep warm over low heat. Preheat the oven to 400°F for a gas oven, 450°F for an electric one.
- Heat the oil in a paella pan that measures 13 inches across the top. Add the limas, carrots, mushrooms, green beans, peppers, and zucchini and stir-fry over high heat, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes more, then add the tomatoes and paprika and cook over high heat for another minute. Taste for salt (the mixture should be well salted) and pour in the broth. Bring to a boil, add the rice, and boil until the rice is no longer soupy but enough liquid remains to continue cooking the rice, about 10 minutes.
- Transfer to the oven and cook, uncovered, until the rice is almost al dente, 10 to 12 minutes in a gas oven, 15 to 20 minutes in an electric one. Remove to a warm spot, cover with foil, and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes, until the rice is cooked to taste. To make the socarrat crust, uncover the paella and return to the stove over medium-high heat. Cook without stirring for about 2 minutes, until a crust of rice forms on the bottom of the pan (be careful not to let it burn). Serve, scraping up the crust with the edge of an inverted metal pancake turner.