Broccoli Cheese and Rice Casserole does not photograph well but tastes incredibly delicious!
Did you ever have broccoli, cheese and rice casserole at your family Thanksgiving? My Nana made it nearly every year – it was a favorite of most everyone’s but when she passed away in 1999, it was forgotten. Until this year. Sometime around October I began trying to find a recipe – her recipe – the one we all loved. I couldn’t find it until I casually mentioned to my mom who said she thought it was written in a cookbook of hers – and thank goodness she was right! It was fun to see my Nana’s handwriting and although it doesn’t photograph well, it was delicious. I made it before Thanksgiving to make sure it WAS the correct recipe and to try out a set of bowls that Le Creuset sent me to review. Let’s review the bowls first and then on to the recipe.
Le Creuset Black & White Collection
Le Creuset sent me the bowls in October asking that I review their usability – so I got the bowls for free but I’m pretty sure y’all are smart enough to know that. I thought about how to use these bowls – which are a part of Le Creuset’s Black & White Collection – for a while and decided that I would use them to make the casserole because if it could dress up Southern Broccoli and cheese casserole, then it could dress up any table – and it did!
The bowls are 19 oz, 1 and 7/10 qt., and 3 qt. – the outside is a beautiful white but the inside black is actually the star of the show – why? Because it is nearly non-stick. I made the broccoli casserole and put it into the biggest bowl and then baked it. Yes, I baked it – I also put two cookie sheets in the bottom of the oven because I was afraid the bowl would break and ooey-gooey cheese stuff would melt into my oven causing me great pain. The bowls are good at up to 500F or 260C – and they really are! They are dishwasher safe – true, freezer safe – true, and can be used in the microwave as well – all true. Back to baking it in the bowl. The recipe uses Velveeta – and it DID NOT stick to that bowl in one single place……..even though we left the remnants of the casserole in the bowl for a few hours before we cleaned it out.
Black & White Collection from Le Creuset
If you are looking for a Christmas present for someone who loves to cook, these are a wonderful choice! Thanks so much to Stephanie at Coaction PR, Inc. who contacted me. I am going to treasure these bowls for years to come as long as my daughter doesn’t try to get them away from me! Now on to the recipe:
Ingredients:
2 Bunches of fresh broccoli with heads cut off and those heads steamed until tender
3 Cups Instant Rice
1 (10.75 oz) Can of Cream of Celery Soup
1 (10.75 oz) Can of Cream of Chicken Soup
1 ¼ Cups water
1 (16 oz) package of Velveeta
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 Small Onion, chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions:
Steam the broccoli until tender
Cook the rice as package directions show
In a pan, mix and heat up the 2 cans of soup and the water
Melt the butter in a pan and cook the onion until tender
Cut up the Velveeta into cubes
Mix everything into the big Le Creuset bowl or put in a 9×13 Pyrex dish.
Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 45 minutes. Take it out and let it sit for about 15 minutes and then serve!
Happy Thanksgiving~! See you next week!