Spanish
Arroz a Banda (Valencian Fish Stock Rice)
Arroz a Banda (Valencian Fish Stock Rice) is Spanish home cooking, eaten at lunch. On the plate it is the dish at the centre. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
- 2 cups short grain rice
- 1 lb cod fillet
- 1 lb fish bones and heads
- 2 ripe tomato
- 1 onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 pinch saffron threads
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 6 cups water
- 1 tsp salt
How to cook it
- Simmer the fish bones and heads in the water for 20 minutes with a few slices of onion to make a light fish stock, then strain and set the stock aside.
- Heat the olive oil in a wide pan and cook the chopped onion and garlic over medium heat until soft, about 8 minutes.
- Stir in the grated tomato and paprika and cook for 3 minutes, then add the rice and stir until every grain is coated in the sofrito.
- Pour in the hot fish stock, crumble in the saffron, and season with the salt, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
- Nestle the chunks of cod into the rice for the final 8 minutes so the fish steams gently rather than breaking apart, then let the pot rest 5 minutes before serving; this everyday home version keeps the fish right in the rice, a simpler weeknight take on the fishermen's original.
Serve it with
A Spanish lunch is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Arroz a Banda (Valencian Fish Stock Rice), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
-
Something to sip
-
The cooked vegetable
-
What it is eaten with
-
Something cool and fresh
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Arroz a Banda (Valencian Fish Stock Rice) carries fish. It is free of the remaining 9 allergens on that list.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | No | |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | No | |
| Gluten | No | |
| Shellfish | No | |
| Eggs | No | |
| Soy | No | |
| Fish | Yes | Ajoblanco (Chilled Malaga Almond and Garlic Soup) |
| Sesame | No | |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Bands, not numbers. Dinejot does not weigh anybody's food, so it says light, moderate or hearty and stops there. This dish was read and set by hand.
- Calorie band
- Moderate
- Protein
- Medium
- Protein quality
- Complete
- Food groups it covers
- Grains and Meat or fish
- How this was set
- Hand audited
When to cook it
Arroz a Banda (Valencian Fish Stock Rice) takes about 60 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at lunch. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.
Watch someone make it
Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. Until then this is one still image, which is why the page opens as quickly as it does.
More to cook
Cooked from the same things
Other dishes built on rice, cod, and tomato.
From the same kitchens
More cooking from eastern Spain.
Does the same job on the plate
Swap any of these in when you want a meal the same shape.
Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.