Cheesy broccoli rice casserole
This one is fast and easy, and surprisingly hearty if you use enough broccoli and cheese. You can add chicken if you feel the need, but try it without. My kids rave about it!
- 3 cups rice (we like parboiled)
- 6 cups water or broth
- 2 tsp. salt
Cook rice as usual. While it’s cooking, saute:
- 1 onion, finely chopped
and steam:
- 3-4 heads of broccoli, broken into small florets
You’ll also need:
- 1# grated cheddar
- 1 large can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup (yes, there it is again. I know, I know…)
Now stir it all together in a 6 quart crockpot. If you feel the need for meat, add:
- 2-4 cups chopped cooked chicken
Heat thoroughly and serve with a salad. Yum.
A lesson learned the hard way:
Don’t take a shortcut and decide that since you like your broccoli crisp-tender, the broccoli will get cooked enough when you heat it in the crock pot. Bad idea. Bad, bad, bad. Remember the smell of cooking broccoli? That smell will be trapped in the rice.
To everyone who tried my cheesy broccoli rice casserole at church last Sunday: Sorry, y’all.
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Filed under: Huh? Category?
What is parboiled rice? Is it a brown rice? How long does it take to cook? Why do you prefer it? Is the canoe wood or aluminum?
Parboiled is (I think) the same as converted rice. It has the husk removed, so it’s not brown, but it’s not as refined as regular white rice. It retains most of the nutrients of brown rice.
It also cooks up in nice, separate grains - never sticky or gooey. It takes about the same amount of time as regular white rice.
Thanks, I think I’ll give it a go.
Ha Ha, Mother Hen:
You do a great Archibald Asparagus!! lol!
This recipe sounds delicious! I’m trying to think why the rice would taste bad with the broccoli not cooked first? Maybe my sniffer doesn’t work? Cooked broccoli just smells like, well, cooked broccoli. What am I missing?
Evidently your olfactorially-challenged reader,
Jill J
OK, now I don’t need to shop for supper; I have the ingredients for this. Your casserole + salad + ice cream + grapes. You’re my accidental heroine today!
Ah Jill, I have been using that line since the first time I heard it and now you are the first person to even acknowledge it. Thank you very much! (said in my best Elvis voice)
I tried this a few days ago, and no one liked it.
I have picky children who don’t ‘do’ casseroles. But I thought it was all right. Glad it works for you.
This is my first time to your site. I found it from NobleWomanhood.com .
It is so encouraging to read the blog of someone else who is in a small home. I live in a small, 2-bedroom, single wide mobile home. I have four children and a wonderful, hardworking husband.
I read about how you have bunkbeds, with a child on top, and two sleeping on the full bottom bunk. We have a bunkbed like that too, but we put two twin-sized mattresses on the bottom bunk - which fit. So, we converted the bunk bed into a three bed bunk-bed system. Here is a picture:
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii298/prayzgod3/016-1.jpg
In fact, here is a picture tour of my little home:
http://myblessedhome.blogspot.com/2008/09/pictures-of-my-home.html#article
Anyhoo, I also make a cheesy rice casserole. I use brown rice, fresh brocolli, etc. Instead of the COM soup, I mix some flour, butter, milk, salt and pepper, and use that. I get 2 tablespoons of flour and butter mixed together and bubbling in a skillet, then I mix in the salt and pepper, then pour in a cup of milk. I bring it to a boil - stirring constantly, for a few minutes. Then I turn the heat off, and mix in the brocolli and rice. Next, I put that into a casserole dish, sprinkle some bread crumbs on top, then bake it in the oven.
Kim,
Do you have a good/ cheap source for the parboiled rice? I prefer it too since I have so much trouble getting brown rice to turn out right. Parboiled comes in small packages at the stores I’ve seen and seems expensive. Thanks for the info.
Christy,
I get mine at WalMart for $1.98/2#. That’s quite a bit more than regular white rice, but we love it and are willing to pay the price. I would love even more to find a cheaper source, so if anyone knows, please speak up!
Candy,
I clicked over to your picture and it looks like a great idea! Did you use mattresses made for bunkbeds, with the built-in support?
Something we used to do when we had bunkbeds with twinsize top and bottom was to slide a third mattress under the bed. We pulled it out at night and called it a trundle bed - that way we had 6 small children in one bedroom: 2 on each twin bed, all in the amount of floor space used by a single twin bed.