Broccoli Cheese Rice Casserole
And so begins my official Thanksgiving recipe countdown. First up is our favorite holiday side dish. I don’t know why we only serve this at holidays, probably because it makes a ton and everyone loves it. A creamy concoction of tender broccoli, rice, and crusty cheese-what’s not to love?
I really like to hear about different family traditions at Thanksgiving. I think it is interesting to see what the must have dishes are with each family. What’s your must have Thanksgiving dish? With both our families there is always a version of this casserole.
Broccoli Rice Cheese Casserole
serves 12, prep 10-15 min, cook approx 45 minutes- 1 pound broccoli florets (fresh or frozen)
- 1 cup onion, diced
- 1/2 cup celery, diced
- 4 cups cooked white rice (2 cups uncooked)
- 2-3 cups shredded Colby cheese (or whatever)
- 2 cans cream of soup whatever flavor (mushroom, chicken, and/or celery work best)
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 3 quart casserole dish with a lid.
- Saute onion, celery and fresh broccoli if using (you don’t have to saute frozen broccoli since it is usually parboiled) until soft.
- In the casserole dish, stir together veggies, rice, 1 to 2 cups of cheese and soup.
- Cover with remaining cheese and bake, covered, for about 45 minutes or until hot.
- Remove the cover to brown cheese.
The nice thing about casseroles like this is that they can be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen until ready to cook. Be sure to give the dish adequate time to defrost/warm-up or anticipate a longer baking time. It can really vary depending on how cold it is going into the oven, how many other dishes you are baking at the same time, etc… but it is also very forgiving.
Actually, the whole casserole is really forgiving. You can use any flavor or combination of cream soups you like or it is especially delicious with the real cream soup. I have also made it without bothering to use the onions and celery-and so skipped the entire cooking step and it tastes just fine. We have even mixed it together with uncooked instant rice and baked it that way, letting the rice cook in the casserole while it is baking. I prefer the fully cooked version only because I know it will be edible at any point even if I screw up the baking time.
Posted in Easy, Pantry Challenge, Sides
November 17th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Katie, that is just ridiculously good. Steve wouldn’t necessarily want it to replace the sides I already make, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make it some other time. Cheese-tastic.
November 17th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Oh man. Another recipe that I’m going to be making for Thanksgiving dinner! Or maybe I’ll just make it and put in two smaller dishes and freeze one for a later date. Either way, I’m definitely making this!
November 17th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Mmmm…. we don’t usually serve any rice dishes at Thanksgiving. But I think my family would love that!!
November 17th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
My husband must have pecan pie and we always have to have both a ham AND a turkey!
Your casserole looks delicous!
November 17th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
That looks yummy.
November 17th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
darling! I do not celebrate Thanksgiving but I will make sure to bake this rice casserole since it sound so comforting, the perfect main dish (at least for me) for a cold winter evening.
I’m looking forward to read the rest of the Thanksgiving recipes series!
November 19th, 2009 at 8:06 am
Thanks for this post. I just printed it to make for Thanksgiving this year. I’m hosting a large group for the first time, and I haven’t even started thinking about what I’m going to make, so your countdown is really going to help me out!
November 20th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Looks awesome. And what’s more American than a casserole? Seems perfect for thanksgiving.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
You must have read my mind because I’ve been looking for a good recipe for this dish that did NOT use Velveeta. I’m going to make this for Thanksgiving. Back at home, we eat this all the time (it might be a southern or Texan thing…idk!). Thanks again!
November 25th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Thank you!!!
I have been searching and searching for a broc/cheese/rice recipe that did NOT have cheez whiz or velveeta!!!! this sounds like exactly what I want – cant wait to try it.
I cant add this to my thanksgiving line up because we already have too many sides for our little family of 6… but it will definitely show up on our table
btw – my thanksgiving must haves … Turkey (ham only if we have a lot of extra people), mashed potatoes, cornbread stuffing (fam recipe!), green bean casserole, corn, rolls, gravy, apple pie. (this year I am testing Paula Dean’s toffee banana pie as well) I LOVE THANKSGIVING!
November 25th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Thank You so much!
You rescued my Thanksgiving.
For me, This was always my favorite Childhood Memory /holiday. I loved how my family would all come together & there would always be a variety of food to choose from. ( Seeing as how I have a huge Family and all.) My dad is a Kitchen Chef , therefor my mothers family would have him do the Turkey, stuffing , mashed potatoes, cornbread, gravy, & all the different pies each year from scratch. The little that was left to make would be done by one of my 7 aunts. Besides my dad’s cooking the only other thing that was memorable and I absolutely looked forward to each year was my aunt Mary’s Broccoli rice & cheese casserole. This leads me to where I am now: Ten years in the present, Pregnant & craving, 1,651 mi away from all family, living in the middle of the Mojave Desert on a small Army Base with just my Husband & daughter, and trying to think of what I can make to gratify my all time favorite Thanksgiving dinner memories. So began my mission to find a Broccoli rice & cheese recipe that would substitute the casserole my aunt made every Thanksgiving. Only I was disappointed seeing most recipes I found added Velveeta cheese or Cheese Whiz. That is until I found this one. It looks just as delicious as I remembered it. Can’t wait to try. I will then let you know how good it was.
December 14th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
This looks great. I have been looking for a broc/cheese/rice casserole recipe that did not include Velveeta. Thanks so much. Can’t wait to try it!
December 24th, 2009 at 9:25 am
This recipe looks awesome. I have fond memories of my granny serving this dish at the holidays and I wanted to share a comfort food dish with the people that are having hard times. I just multiplied the recipe by 5 and made a giant batch of your recipe to donate to the dinner for the homeless today. Thanks for sharing and know that your recipe was brought to life for many.
December 26th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
I made this on Christmas Day, and it was the best I’ve made yet. I used colby jack cheese, and topped it with sharp cheddar. I used cream of chicken-mushroom soup. I grabbed 2 cans from a bin at the store, and when I got home – one of the cans was “light” Italian Wedding soup. Luckily, I had a can of cream of mushroom soup in the pantry. I would have added an additional can of either cream of mushroom or chicken if I had it,but the extra cheese made it taste great. It was a big hit, and this is now my “official” broccoli cheese rice recipe.