Wednesday 21 May 2014

Rice bake: a recipe for National Vegetarian Week

As this week is National Vegetarian Week, I am sharing a vegetarian recipe some of you might like to try; rice bake. It's a family favourite in our household, it's relatively quick to make and it's a great recipe for adapting to whatever vegetables you happen to have around. 

In a nutshell, you cook some rice, some veg and combine with a sauce. Top with cheese and breadcrumbs and bake in the oven. The veg can be of one type only (even frozen peas!) or a mix of whatever you have to hand. 

The sauce can be whatever you like too, I usually make a bechamel sauce and tweak it in some way (make it cheesy / add some tomato/pesto/mustard) but you could use any kind of homemade or ready made sauce, as you would for pasta for example. A tin of soup could even be used, something like a cream of mushroom soup would work well.
Most recently I made a rice bake with mushrooms, courgette, green pepper and asparagus with a cheese sauce. My children seem to like and eat courgette if it's grated (not when it's diced or sliced) so I grated it for the bake. They don't like asparagus so I made two separate bakes, one with asparagus for my husband and I, the other without for the children. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the completed rice bake - we were in too much of a hurry to tuck in!
Rice and veg cooked, ready for sauce and topping to be added
You will notice that I have not specified quantities in the recipe below. Simply cook the amount you think your family will eat and enjoy - there's no risk of the recipe not turning out, I promise!

Rice bake 

Ingredients 
  • Rice
  • One or more vegetables, finely diced/sliced/grated
  • Fresh breadcrumbs
  • Cheddar cheese, grated
  • Sauce (see note above)

Method
  • Preheat oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6
  • Cook rice. 
  • Gently cook your vegetables if applicable (ie. steam/boil asparagus, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli etc, lightly fry courgette, pepper, aubergine, mushrooms etc).
  • Make your sauce unless you are using a pre-prepared sauce  / tin of soup.
  • Combine rice, vegetables and sauce in an ovenproof dish.
  • Top with breadcrumbs and cheese.
  • Bake for 15-20 mins until bubbling and golden on top.

Do you have a family favourite vegetarian recipe in your household?

I'm linking up with this week's #recipeoftheweek

Link up your recipe of the week

10 comments:

  1. Great idea for a speedy week night meal!

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    1. Thanks! Yes it's a good one for weekdays, with not too much preparation needed.

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  2. I'm drooling - a good sign.
    I'd like to try this out. x

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    1. Ha ha! Glad you like the sound of it - do give it a try! x

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  3. Funny, I still have to grate courgettes too here, and my children are almost grown!! :) This looks yummy. I would need to tweak it a bit to make it gluten and dairy free...worth a shot. Thank you! And great to see that you still find the time and energy to cook.

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    1. That is funny! Definitely worth tweaking to make it gluten and dairy free - you could certainly skip the cheese on top and could maybe use toasted nuts instead of breadcrumbs as a crunchy topping.
      I do enjoy my cooking so yes, although finding the time is definitely a challenge at the moment, I'm doing my best ;-)

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  4. Yum! Can't wait to try it! I would love the recipe for the sauce you like make

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    1. Great, I hope your family enjoys it too! I've linked to the basic sauce recipe I generally make in the post - so click on 'bechamel sauce' and you can see it there :-)

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  5. This is a great recipe - I am veggie but have never made a rice bake! Grating courgettes is a grate (groan!) idea. Thanks

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Jess, hope you give it a go and enjoy! And another fellow veggie, I didn't know that about you... :-)

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Thank you for reading. I'd love to have your comments and thoughts!