Sure, you’ve had paella before, but this happens to be Shan’s Gran’s fifth (maybe more) generation recipe and the story of the distance it has travelled is really quite amazing. Shannon’s family, originally from Andalusia, Spain, responded to an ad on the front page of the local newspaper calling for Europeans to move to Australia – only tradespeople of specific skill need apply. Shannon’s granddad studied for two years to become a boilermaker. He graduated just in time as the very last Europeans were allowed to emigrate. They arrived in Darwin, five kids in tow. Now, compared to the luscious Andalusia, it was just red dirt as far as the eye could see, and while the end of this story is what you have here, you can be sure they were thinking ‘where are we and what have we done’?! If they knew their descendants would use this well-loved and travelled recipe to make vegan paella, they may have had the same reaction – what have we done?! That being said, you can add anything to this paella – prawns, sausage, squid, seasonal veg. Just cook separately and add to the paella at the end.