Green enchilada rice casserole

Hey look, it’s another freezer and pantry meal!

I made a ton of enchilada sauce (A TON) last summer because our CSA was shoving peppers of every shape and kind down our throats and all I could do to keep up was make sauces to jar up and save.

So I decided to invent an enchilada casserole dish. Everyone loves a one pot meal, especially when you are busy home schooling your kids all day long 😛

I started by baking brown rice in the oven and browning ground turkey on the stove.

I rubbed olive oil all over the casserole dish and then added ~1 1/2 cups rice and ~3 cups stock (a mix of home-made veg and chicken broth because that’s what I had).

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I let it bake in the oven for almost an hour at 350 degrees F and then once it was done, I layered on the ground meat, followed by riced cauliflower, enchilada sauce, mozzarella cheese, and corn kernels.

I left it mostly layered so that the bottom would still have a layer of rice but I did mix it up ever so slightly.

I wanted the cheese to be distributed so it would get melty and ooey gooey throughout.

Ta-da!

Those crispy edges!

Green enchilada rice casserole

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups rice
• 3 cups + 1 cup stock
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 12 oz riced cauliflower
• 3 cups green enchilada sauce
• 2 cups shredded cheese
• 1/2 cup corn

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease baking casserole dish and add rice and broth.

Bake for 45-60 minutes – checking periodically to make sure there is enough liquid.

Meanwhile, brown the meat in a skillet with salt. You could use whatever ground meat you want- pork, beef, tempeh/faux meat.

Once the rice is cooked, layer on the ground meat, followed by the cauliflower, enchilada sauce, and cheese. Add the remaining portion of stock if it’s dry. You want it to be plenty wet, so the rice will continue to cook and soak up liquid.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Top with corn and a little bit more cheese for the last 5 minutes.

Scoop and serve!

Feel free to jazz it up – topping with avo, cilantro, sour cream, or whatever you want!

I wasn’t sure if the kids would love the enchilada sauce, because it was home-made and I had NO CLUE what level of heat it would have. They both really loved it, though, and even though the sauce had a tiny kick to it, the rice, cauli and turkey were enough to mellow it out without sacrificing any flavor.

You could also try this with black beans instead of meat to keep it veggie. And/or swap a non-dairy cheese to make it vegan.

Truth be told, I completely forgot about the cauli in it! I couldn’t even figure out which part was which as I was eating it. I think riced cauli is a great way to add veggies to casserole types of dishes. It’s a pretty neutral ingredient, so I could see it working well in a number of recipes.