I’ve been making a lot of soups lately and not being very diligent about chopping and freezing my leftover vegetables, so I found myself this week with a refrigerator full of vegetables and wondering what to do with them. I also remembered that I had bought a wild rice mix from Aldi a few weeks back, so I decided to combine the vegetables with the cooked rice medley and some yummy creamy sauce to make a delicious Wild Rice and Vegetable Casserole. And OMG I can’t stop eating it!
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What Type of Rice Should I Use?
You can use any type of rice mix for this, just make sure you use 3.5-4 cups cooked rice. The rice mix that I had was a mix of wild rice, brown rice, white rice, and I think another variety. Buying a mix like this instead of straight wild rice will definitely be more cost effective. Stores like Aldi and Trader Joes usually have these rice mixes for a decent price and you may even be able to find something similar in the bulk bins at Whole Foods.
Topping Options
I topped my casserole with the leftover fried onions from my green bean casserole and they really took the dish up a level. If you don’t like fried onions, you could always make a tasty bread crumb topping by mixing seasoned bread crumbs, some grated Parmesan, and a little melted butter.
Love casseroles? Try our Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole!
Wild Rice and Vegetable Casserole
Servings 6 about 1 cup eachIngredients
- 4 Tbsp butter ($0.52)
- 1 onion ($0.28)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 2 carrots ($0.22)
- 2 stalks celery ($0.37)
- 8 oz. button mushrooms ($1.80)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- Freshly cracked pepper ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme ($0.03)
- 1/4 tsp dried sage ($0.03)
- 4 Tbsp flour ($0.04)
- 1 cup vegetable broth ($0.13)
- 1 cup whole milk ($0.31)
- salt, to taste ($0.02)
- 4 cups COOKED wild rice blend ($1.20)
- 3 oz. fried onions* ($1.75)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Finely dice the onion and mince the garlic. Add the butter, onions, and garlic to a large pot and sauté over medium heat until the onions are soft and transparent.
- While the onions and garlic are sautéing, Slice the carrots and dice the celery. Add the carrots and celery to the pot and continue to sauté.
- While the carrots and celery are sautéing, wash and chop the mushrooms. Add the mushrooms to the pot along with the salt, pepper, thyme, and sage. Continue to sauté until the mushrooms have turned brown and completely wilted.
- Add the flour to the pot and continue to stir and cook for about 2-3 minutes more, or until the flour coats the bottom of the pot and begins to turn a light golden color. Whisk in the vegetable broth, making sure all the flour dissolves from the bottom of the pot. The mixture should thicken fairly quickly.
- Once thickened, whisk in the milk and allow it to come up to a simmer again. Once simmering, turn the heat off, taste, and add more salt or pepper if needed. You want the sauce to be slightly on the salty side so that the flavor doesn’t dilute too much once the rice is added.
- Stir the cooked rice into the pot with the sauce and vegetables. Transfer everything to a 2 to 3 quart casserole dish and top with the fried onions. Bake the casserole in the preheated 350ºF oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbling up around the edges and the fried onions have turned deep golden brown. Serve hot.
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Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Wild Rice Casserole – Step by Step Photos
This is the wild rice mix that I used. You can pretty much use any rice mix, just make sure you have somewhere between 3.5 and 4 cups cooked rice.
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Dice an onion and mince two cloves of garlic. Add the onion, garlic, and 4 Tbsp butter to a large pot and sauté over medium heat until the onions are soft and transparent.
While the onions and garlic are sautéing, Slice two carrots and dice two stalks of celery. Add them to the pot and continue to sauté.
While the carrots and celery are sautéing, wash and chop 8oz. mushrooms. Add them to the pot along with 1/2 tsp salt, some freshly cracked pepper, 1/4 tsp dried thyme, and 1/4 tsp dried sage. Continue to sauté until the mushrooms have completely wilted and turned brown.
Add 4 Tbsp flour to the pot and continue to stir and cook until the flour coats the bottom of the pot and turns golden brown.
Whisk in 1 cup vegetable broth until all of the flour is dissolved off the bottom of the pot. The broth should thicken very quickly in the hot pot. Once thickened, whisk in 1 cup whole milk and then allow the mixture to come up to a simmer again. Once it reaches a simmer, turn the heat off and add more salt and pepper if needed. You want it to be slightly on the salty side so there is enough salt to flavor everything after the rice is added.
Finally, stir in about 4 cups cooked wild rice medley. The amount of rice is a little flexible, so if you have a little less or a little more than 4 cups, you’ll be okay.
Transfer the mixture to a 2-3 quart casserole dish and top with 3oz. fried onions (that’s half of a 6oz. container). Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbling up around the edges and the onions are golden brown. This photo is AFTER baking.
😍 Seriously. I’m about to go dish out some more of this Wild Rice and Vegetable Casserole for lunch today! Leftovers reheat very well. 👍
I’m so glad you posted this recipe right before Thanksgiving/Christmas. I made this on Christmas with the standing rib roast, and this was raved about. More so than the rib roast. :) Even with our picky eaters and non vegetable eaters, this recipe was a hit, they even had second helpings. And the leftovers were almost non existent.
This is the kind of recipe that I like to keep on hand for special occasions and Sundays dinners.
Are the fried onions essential? If so could you suggest a substitute? I can’t get them in my area. Recipe looks great!
They’re not essential, but they are REALLY good on this. In the intro to the recipe I suggest using a mixture of breadcrumbs, Parmesan, and butter if you don’t have the fried onions. :)
Love, love, loved this recipe! I made some adjustments, nixed the celery, added corn, peas, and broccoli instead, and made the whole thing vegan. Truly delicious and perfect for slightly dreary weather in Dallas right now!
So good!! I used almond milk and whole wheat flour and no French fried onions. Love it!!
Hey Beth – if I’m trying to get away from dairy, have you any suggestions for substitutions for the milk? Do you think some kind of cornstarch slurry would thicken it similarly and do you think it would be just as good w/o the creaminess?
You can use two cups of broth instead of 1 cup broth and 1 cup milk. It should still thicken the same way, but it just won’t be creamy.
Could you please add nutrition/calorie count to your recipes?
I’m sorry, I do not have a reliable source for nutrition information. The calculators online that most websites and bloggers use are very inaccurate and I don’t feel comfortable posting numbers that I can’t verify.
If I used almond milk instead of whole milk.. would it throw a wrench in the works?
Probably. I don’t find almond milk to be nearly as creamy as whole milk, so the sauce probably won’t be as good.
Try soy milk. It’s a bit heavier. I use it in mushroom soup and I believe it’ll be just as good in this recipe
This was so delicious! One of the best recipes I’ve tried on your site. I’m going to try using half french fried onions and half french fried jalapeños next time. Thanks for another great recipe!
I have a feeling that if I bought those jalapeños they’d be gone before I ever had a chance to use them in a recipe! Hahah
Our new favorite comfort food recipe! The crispy onions on top are a perfect contrast to the wild rice. Very flavorful, too. Thanks for the great recipe :)
This was so good! I had to make it gluten free so I used GF flour and subbed your recommended breadcrumb (GF)/parmesan/butter topping for the french onions. Just delicious!
This is my new fav comfort food casserole. I just popped this baby out of the oven and it’s delicious and so easy to make. Thanks for the great recipe!
Can this be made ahead and baked the next day?
In theory I think that would work, but I’ve never actually tried it. Just don’t put those onions on until just before it goes in the oven so they don’t get soggy. :)
I made it ahead, and just didn’t add the french fried onions until I was ready to bake the casserole. It worked really great!
Made this the other night and loved it! Left out the mushrooms and celery (because I hate them), but added broccoli, green beans, and corn. Easy to make gluten free with my flour. I’ll make it again!
Thank you I was wondering if I could leave mushrooms out cause they’re gross.
I made this tonight without the celery and it was a hit! I, too, missed that the rice was supposed to be cooked before beginning. I parboiled the rice while I was mixing the sauce up and then poured the rice in to my braising dish and put it in the oven for 30 minutes with the lid on. Then I took it out, took the lid off and added the onions. Then I baked it for 10 minutes more.
Guys, so my boyfriend and i were so excited for this casserole. He picked up all the ingredients, got it all ready and placed it in the oven. Finally the timer goes off and I go with him to check out this new awesome dish. We take it out and let it sit a few minutes then dig in except, something is very wrong…. the rice doesn’t look cooked at all. I asked him if was supposed to cook the rice first (as its usually the case for rice casseroles) but he reassured me that the recipe did not say that. 2 hours, a half cup of water and 1 cup of milk later and still the rice is way undercooked. He takes some to work the next day for lunch, and I take to the internet to find this recipe. Two seconds into reading the ingredients and instructions I gasp as Im reading the recipe calls for COOKED RICE and I let out a sigh of relief and a loud laugh.
He ended up eating it anyway. 😂😂😂
Oh no! I’m so sorry!! I’m glad you can laugh about it, though. :)
Beth, you are so wonderful. He made this dish again and was so pleasantly surprised to see you’ve made it foul proof, highlighting “cooked” rice. Haha thank you so much for that. And wow. My goodness, this casserole is DELICIOUSLY SATISFYING. He was incredibly proud and happy of how it turned out and how much we LOVED IT!