{It's been quite awhile since I have written on here, but I thought that perhaps I should give this recipe a share on this blog since this one is public :) Everyone needs access to this recipe!}
Ever since I've become a vegetarian I have really loved trying out new recipes - which I have sort of been forced to do since most of the recipes I grew up with were non-vegetarian (yet they were quite amazing because my mother is an excellent cook!). In the course of trying new recipes, I've discovered that it really doesn't take much to tweak a meat-ified recipe to be a vegetarian-friendly recipe!
I recently stumbled upon a chicken and wild rice casserole recipe that looked intriguing and decided it would be pretty easy to veggify - boy am I glad I took the time to try it out because it is AWESOME. In our home this casserole is now known as THE casserole. (As in: Mike: What's for dinner, honey? Me: I'm making that casserole again. Mike: THE casserole?! Me: Yep! That's the one! Mike: Yessssss!!!) So here is the first recipe I've shared on this blog! It is adapted from this recipe at Picky Palate.
Tofu Wild Rice Casserole
oil for browning tofu, sautéing veggies
1/2 onion, diced
4 stalks of celery, diced
2 cups "shredded" carrots (i think the bag might refer to them as matchstick carrots?)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 container extra firm tofu, cubed (don't buy pre-cubed tofu! it's a ripoff. cube it yourself :)
2 - 3 cups prepared brown rice
8 - 16 oz. prepared wild rice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
sauce:
4 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup shredded cheese
additional 3/4 cup shredded cheese to sprinkle on top
Prepare the rice ahead of time. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cube the tofu and cook in a frying pan until the sides of the tofu cubes begin to brown. Set aside. Sauté the onion, celery and carrots on medium heat for about 10 minutes or until they are soft. Stir in the minced garlic and cook for another minute or so, then add the tofu, both rices, salt, pepper and garlic salt. Stir all these ingredients together in the pan and reduce heat to low.
For the sauce begin by mixing the flour, salt and pepper together in a small bowl so it is ready to mix in once the butter melts. Melt the butter on medium heat in a medium saucepan. Whisk in flour mixture first (it will be very thick and clumpy) followed by the veggie broth - whisk continually so the flour mixture gets incorporated into the liquid and does not burn. Continue to whisk until sauce is thick and about to boil - add 1 cup shredded cheese and stir until cheese is melted.
Pour sauce over rice mixture, stir and pour into 13 x 9 dish. Sprinkle additional cheese on top and bake for 25 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly.
Eat the yummy casserole!!!!! And then go back for seconds because you didn't realize how amazing it would be! ;)
A couple notes:
- If you haven't ever tried tofu and you are tempted to just go with the original recipe's use of chicken, I would really encourage you to give tofu a shot!! it provides an excellent amount of plant-based protein and it's cheaper than chicken also ;) Plus it is tasty!
- Feel free to increase or decrease the veggie amounts to your liking. I don't always measure those exactly when I'm cooking - I just add until it seems like there is enough or substitute something else if I don't have enough of one ingredient :)
- Most recently I used coconut oil for cooking the tofu. It was my first time using it in a savory dish and it worked beautifully! And it did not leave the dish tasting like coconut as it tends to in baked goods :) I have also cooked the tofu and the veggies using no oil and simply relied on the juices/liquids that each have. That works great too.
- I love brown rice and used that because it is healthier than white rice. Last time I added some quinoa as well to up the protein-count and it was sublime!
- If you compare to the original recipe you will see that for the sauce I subbed veggie broth and cut down on the amount of cheese from the original recipe - I personally could not imagine using as much cheese as is called for in the original. yikes! It had plenty of cheese flavor this way and was better for us too. I've made it with even less cheese than what I have listed here, but this amount works well.
- I also decreased the salt in the rice mixture from the original. The finished product was plenty salty/peppery and I like to cut back on sodium too wherever I can.
Hope you get a chance to try this tasty dish and that you enjoy it as much as we did! :)
