Here’s a modern spin on wild rice casserole! It’s broccoli cheese flavor, easy to make, and a healthy spin that’s heavy on whole foods.
Here’s a modern spin on wild rice casserole that’s cozy and all about whole foods! Why relegate this healthy whole grain only to wild rice soup? There are plenty more ways to serve it, and this one is truly spectacular. It’s broccoli cheese flavor, flecked with savory bits of broccoli, gooey white cheddar, and a creamy easy-to-make filling. While it’s got a vaguely 1970’s vibe, this one is all whole foods and heavy on the plants. (Nope, there’s no cream of mushroom soup!) Ready to get cooking?
What’s in this wild rice casserole?
This broccoli cheese wild rice casserole is all about comfort food! At the same time, Alex and I have tried to keep a healthy spin: it’s got all whole foods, just enough cheese, and no rich roux sauce. Here’s what we’ve got in this vegetarian and gluten-free casserole:
- Perfect Wild Rice: Here we’ve used our favorite method of cooking this grain, simmered with vegetable broth, onion and celery. It comes out perfectly moist and tender!
- Broccoli: It’s chopped into small florets and sauteed simply on the stovetop with a few spices. It’s our favorite way to eat it as a side dish: which we stole here for this casserole!
- Sour Cream: Who wants to dirty another pan to make a cheese sauce? You’ll stir sour cream right into the rice to make it creamy. If you have it on hand, you could also use Creme Fraiche.
- White Cheddar Cheese: A sharp white cheddar cheese is perfect here. You can use aged cheese to get even more flavor.
- Parmesan Cheese: Adding shredded Parmesan brings just right right complexity!
Did you know wild rice isn’t really…rice?
Did you know that wild rice is not actually rice? (Mind blown, right?) It’s actually the seed from a native grass that grows in lakes and streams in the Northern US and Canada. But since it looks a lot like rice, wild rice is treated as rice in most cuisines! Wild rice was an important staple to Native Americans in the upper Great Lakes area of the US. I’m from Minnesota originally, so wild rice was part of the heritage and history of where I lived growing up!
Wild rice vs brown rice
Though they’re not truly related, wild rice is often compared to brown rice. They are often served in similar ways, and wild rice is a great substitute for rice (like in a wild rice casserole!). Is wild rice healthier than brown rice? Here’s how they stack up:
- Wild rice has less calories than brown rice, about 66% less! 1 cup of cooked wild rice has 166 calories and 1 cup brown rice has 248 calories. (Source)
- Wild rice has slightly more protein than brown rice. 1 cup cooked wild rice has 6.5 grams protein vs 5.5 grams in brown rice. (Source)
- Both wild and brown rice have the same amount of fiber, about 3 grams per 1 cup cooked.
Make ahead tips!
Wild rice takes about 45 to 55 minutes to cook…which is why Alex and I used to avoid it in our recipes! But we’ve learned it’s absolutely worth the time. To make this wild rice casserole seriously simple to prep, here’s what you can do:
- Make the wild rice in advance. Make the rice in advance and refrigerate until serving! The day of serving, mix it with the hot broccoli in a bowl, which should reheat it.
- The day of, make the broccoli while the oven preheats. Saute the broccoli while the oven is preheating, then mix it with the wild rice to reheat it.
How to serve wild rice casserole
This wild rice casserole can be served as a side dish or a vegetarian and gluten-free dinner main dish! What could you serve with it to make it into a meal? Here are some ideas:
- Lemony Steamed Green Beans These zesty steamed green beans are the epitome of an easy side dish: they take just 10 minutes to put together.
- Best Ever Sauteed Mushrooms This wild rice casserole doesn’t have mushrooms, so why not serve them as a side! They’re meaty and would add a nice contrast.
- Peas with Lemon Takes just 5 minutes! Cooking frozen peas with garlic and lemon makes them taste incredible. It’s an easy side dish everyone will love!
- Fennel Orange Salad Here’s a refreshing and easy side dish: fennel orange salad! It pairs juicy orange and the subtle licorice essence of fennel with a citrus vinaigrette. A few other favorite salad ideas? Try our Kale Salad, Tossed Salad or Arugula Salad.
- Want more? Here are our Best Side Dishes.
This recipe is…
Vegetarian and gluten-free.
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Wild Rice Casserole (Broccoli Cheese!)
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 6 to 8 servings 1x
Description
Here’s a modern spin on wild rice casserole! It’s broccoli cheese flavor, easy to make, and a healthy spin that’s heavy on whole foods.
Ingredients
- 1 full recipe Perfect Wild Rice (with onions and celery)
- 1 1/2 pounds (2 large heads) broccoli (about 4 cups small florets)
- 2 green onions
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¾ cup sour cream
- 1 ¼ cup (4 ounces) shredded white cheddar cheese (aged, if you’d like)
- ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- Kosher salt
- Fresh ground pepper
Instructions
- Make the rice: Make the full recipe of Perfect Wild Rice with celery and onions, making sure it’s very tender and most grains are burst. (Meal prep tip: Make this in advance and refrigerate until serving. The day of serving, reheat it to warm, or mix with the still-warm broccoli in step 2 to reheat it.)
- Cook the broccoli: Meanwhile, chop the broccoli into small florets. Thinly slice the green onions. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add the broccoli florets and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally (the broccoli will lightly brown in parts). Stir in the green onion, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt. Cover and cook for 2 to 3 minutes more, until crisp tender but still bright green. Taste and add a few pinches of salt if needed (make the flavor pop!) and fresh ground pepper. Remove to a large bowl.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mix the casserole filling: When the wild rice is done, drain it and add the additional salt to taste as part of that recipe. Then place it in the bowl with the broccoli. Mix in the sour cream and ¾ cup shredded white cheddar cheese. Taste and add additional salt if you’d like (we added ¼ teaspoon more).
- Bake: Pour the filling into a 9 x 13″ baking dish. Top with the remaining ½ cup shredded white cheddar cheese and the Parmesan cheese. Bake 10 minutes until the cheese is melted.
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Wild Rice Casserole
How fortuitous that I picked up a package of wild rice this past weekend!
I had some wild rice left over from the Wild Rice Mushroom Soup recipe and decided to give this a try. It was absolutely delicious! I didn’t change a thing except to halve the recipe for the two of us. We loved it.
So glad you enjoyed!
I have some leftover non-dairy plain yogurt, can I sub that for sour cream (I’ve never found a non diary sour cream that I like the tast of)?
thanks
Yes, I think that will work!
This was really delicious! However, I do have one observation, and this was totally my fault. When I read through the recipe I wasn’t paying enough attention and I interpreted one recipe “perfect wild rice” as I cup wild rice while in reality it’s two cups. (I always bake my wild rice so didn’t even look at your recipe). I was putting things together when I realized my mistake and quickly cooked basmati rice to make up the difference. It worked out perfectly but next time I’ll know better!