Beef & Wild Rice Casserole
From a West Texas church recipe cookbook, circa 1962.
This is a recipe I found in an old church recipe book that my mother had in her cookbook collection which I inherited. It ended up being real comfort food on a night when I guess that's what My Number One Fan and I needed most. The cookbook was one of those where parishioners contribute their favorite recipes, which are assembled by meal course and amateurishly printed and spiral bound; then sold as a fund-raiser. This recipe dates from the early1960s and came from a West Texas Catholic who, I'm sure, never ate this on a Friday.
There could be infinite variations on this recipe and in fact, if you conduct an Internet search for its name, you will find a wide variety of ingredients; many topped with cheese. Personally, I found the simplicity of ingredients and the ease of preparation such that I made no changes. This paired beautifully with the Kitchen Tapestry recipe for Waldorf Salad.
Beef & Wild Rice Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 cup wild rice
- 3 cups beef stock (like, Swanson's or Kitchen Basics)
- 2/3 cup uncooked wild rice
- 1/2 cup long grain white rice
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1- 1/2 lbs ground beef
- 3-4 stalks celery, diced
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
- 2 tsp garlic, minced
- 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup (like, Campbell's)
- 1 packet dried onion soup mix (like, Lipton)
- 1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- non-stick cooking spray (like, Pam)
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.
- Bring the beef stock to a boil in a medium sauce pan over high heat.
- In a large casserole dish that has a tight-fitting lid, combine the wild rice and hot beef stock and allow it to sit covered while you finish preparing the dish.
- Over medium high heat in a large skillet, bring the olive oil to a shimmer, then brown the hamburger, about 5 minutes.
- Add the onion and celery and sauté until they have become slightly caramelized, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute.
- Add the mushroom soup, the onion soup mix, the long grain white rice, salt and black pepper. Stir well to combine.
- Add all of the skillet contents to the casserole dish with the beef stock and wild rice, and stir until all ingredients are evenly distributed.
- Cover and bake 1-1/2 hours.
Notes
- In altitudes above 5,000 feet where water boils at a slightly lower temperature, raise the oven cooking temperature to 360°F and add 10 minutes to the cooking time.
