Vegetable Rice Casserole

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Vegetable Rice Casserole from Counting My Chickens

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Vegetable Rice Casserole: The inspiration

The fall garden gave up the rest of its bounty last week.

With six to eight inches of snow in the forecast (it ended up being nine), I harvested the remaining broccoli, cauliflower, and celery. And with temperatures set to plummet, my thoughts turned to comfort food.

End of season broccoli and cauliflower can be bitter, but creamy, cheesy rice is the perfect foil. My version of vegetable rice casserole doesn’t use canned cream o’ soup, like so many out there. Instead, I make homemade cream of celery soup that I combine with cooked rice, cheddar and cream cheese, and blanched broccoli and cauliflower florets. I top the whole thing with my husband’s signature bread crumb topping.

Vegetable rice casserole makes a great Thanksgiving side dish. It also could serve as a meatless main dish with a green salad on the side.

Ingredients for vegetable rice casserole

Ingredients from the fall garden: Broccoli, cauliflower, and celery

Vegetable Rice Casserole: The recipe

To save time, use whatever leftover rice you have on hand. White basmati rice is a good standard choice, but brown rice would work just as well in this recipe.

I have a thing about yellow cheese. Seriously, I don’t like it. (It just seems so fake to me, especially that pre-grated stuff that comes in bags.) So I use white cheddar that I grate myself. But yellow cheddar cheese can be substituted, if you don’t share my yellow cheese hang-up.

Herbes de Provence is one of my favorite seasoning blends. Its delicate, floral flavor and earthy undertones provide a nice balance to the dish. If you don’t have any on hand, don’t worry. You can leave it out or substitute some dried thyme, rosemary, or marjoram if you like.

The recipe serves about eight as a side dish.

 

Vegetable Rice Casserole

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