BROCCOLI CHEESE CASSEROLE RECIPE

We're pretty sure everyone has had a broccoli casserole at one point or another.  They were ubiquitous in the 70's and 80's.  The recipe is pretty standard.

 

Here is the original:

1/3 cup chopped onion

1/3 cup chopped celery

2 Tbsp butter

1 pkg frozen chopped broccoli thawed and drained

1 cup minute rice

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 8oz jar cheez whiz

In the interest of making things a little different, 

Here is our recipe:

1 cup chopped onion and celery total

2 Tbsp butter

4 cups fresh broccoli florets

1 cup rice, cooked

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 15oz jar cheez whiz (melted 30 secs in microwave)

The pics below are ours that we increased the size of for Thanksgiving so we'd have lots of leftovers for the long weekend.  We used 1 1/2 cups chopped onions and celery, 6 cups fresh broccoli, 2 cups of rice (cooked), still 1 can of soup, and then two jars of cheez whiz.

OK so there are three ingredients that are somewhat controversial.  The original recipe uses Minute Rice.  Probably for ease of preparation and that was kinda the thing in the 70's.  2nd Man can cook up a pan of rice in no time and it's always amazing.  If you just do it the night before it's even easier.

Another controversial ingredient is frozen broccoli.  Fresh is so good.  Now in years past, chopping broccoli is a pain.  With today's convenience items, we pick up the bags of ready to go florets.  In this case you can microwave the bag and it cooks right up.

The last ingredient that is definitely controversial is cheez whiz.  Yes, processed cheese in a jar.  Yes, like Velveeta.  We've actually tried making this with cheddar and/or a combination of cheeses.  It's good but it's not AS good, ha.

In a skillet, melt the butter and then sauté the onions and celery.  Have your rice cooked and ready as well.  Remember it's one cup (or two as we used) BEFORE cooking (meaning the cooked amount is a bit more).

The broccoli needs to be cooked a bit, these bags allow it to be cooked in the microwave in the bag.  It worked great.  You can of course steam it or pop in the skillet that the other veggies were in.  Just get it cooked a bit so it's not raw in the casserole.

Then just get a big bowl and mix it all together. The sautéed veggies, the cooked broccoli, rice, soup and cheez whiz.  Mix it well.

Then put it all in a casserole dish. The smaller recipe should fit in an 8x8 casserole dish.  As I mentioned we made a large batch so we used this larger, deeper casserole dish.

Cover with foil and cook for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  Remove the foil and cook for 20 more minutes or until the top starts to brown.  For some reason I forgot to get a picture of it out of the oven.

Here is is on the plate.  Just cheesy and gooey and a great comfort food dish.

Enjoy!