Recipe: Wild and Brown Rice Casserole (or Turkey Stuffing)

[sonia]

This casserole has a lot of ingredients and takes a while to prepare, but it makes a lot of delicious food! You can also use it as turkey stuffing rather than baking it in a casserole dish.

The recipe was given to me for a potluck dinner, not credited.

Ingredients
1/2 cup wild rice
1 cup brown rice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 med onion, chopped
3/4 cup diced celery, about 1/4 inch pieces (or Fennel Bulb, diced)
2 cups sliced crimini mushrooms
1 med green apple, diced about 1/4 inch pieces
4 med cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
6 dried apricots, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 TBS chopped fresh sage
3 TBS chopped fresh thyme
1/2 TBS fennel seeds
1/2 cup + 1 TBS vegetable broth
salt and black pepper to taste


Time
45 min to cook rice. 45-60 min to chop all the things and cook onions (while rice cooks). 45 min baking time after that.

Tools
A food processor would probably make this a lot easier.
Large casserole dish with lid. Barely fits in 2.5 Liter casserole.

Methods
Oven at 350 F.

Grease casserole dish.

Bring 3 1/2 cups of lightly salted water to a boil. While water is coming to a boil rinse the wild rice under running water in a strainer. When water is boiling add both wild and brown rice, cover, turn heat to low and cook for about 45 minutes, until tender. Do not overcook. You will most likely have excess water when rice is cooked properly. Put cooked rice in a strainer and drain out excess water. Set aside in a large enough bowl to mix everything together.

Heat 1 TBS vegetable broth (or oil) in a large stainless steel skillet. Sauté onion in broth (or oil) over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and celery and continue to sauté for another 2-3 minutes.

Chop all the things, then mix all the ingredients together in bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Place into greased casserole dish, cover and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove cover and bake an additional 15 minutes.

Serving
Side dish for large meal, or hearty enough to eat on its own.

Storage
Refrigerate in original casserole dish with lid or in storage container.

Notes
I saute in olive oil, not broth, and I use enough to keep the food from sticking rather than measuring it out. I removed the original recipe's label of sautéing in broth as "healthy" because that varies with the person eating the food.

Variations
I have used shiitake instead of crimini mushrooms. I tend to leave out the raisins and put in more dried apricots.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

My that looks exceptionally hearty and tasty--and a great use for fennel.

Also, my introduction to the concept of Healthy Sauté. Do onions caramelize with this oil-free method?

[sonia]

I posted the recipe as originally written, and then added the parentheticals about oil because that's how I do it. I think I tried it with broth the first time and it immediately evaporated and I had to add oil anyway.

I didn't mean to sound like I was endorsing broth rather than oil as "healthy" either.

Thanks for bringing my attention to that. I'll edit the Notes and recipe.

[runpunkrun]

Thanks for making that edit! <3