Cheesy Zucchini Rice
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My daughter, it seems, needs some help in the amphibian and reptile department.
You see, she plays Draw Something on my phone (I swear those drawings and misspelled guesses are from the 7 year old and not me!) with my friends and she seems to have issues with frogs and tortoises.
She held out the phone to me in confusion the other day and said “What the heck is this?”
It was green. It had big round bumps for eyes. It said “ribbit” above the photo.
“That’s a frog,” I replied in my best DUH voice.
“But frogs don’t say ribbit. Bunnies do!”
The child argued with me for a good five minutes before finally believing that rabbits do not, in fact, ribbit.
Yes, we homeschool. Why do you ask? 
That same friend that drew the frog just received a picture from Emma that said, “tortoise I do not know what tortoise is.”
Okay, first of all, that’s cheating. Draw Something is about drawing, not spelling things out.
Second of all, come on, child. You’re making me look bad.
So, in honor of my child and her new lessons on green slimy animal-like things, I thought I’d share this delightfully greenified rice. It’s so cheesy that you won’t even mind the shreds of veggies floating around in there.
If you have an abundance of zucchini this would be a great way to use it up!
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SaveCheesy Zucchini Rice
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup long-grain white rice
2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium or 2 small zucchini, grated (I used my food processor but a cheese grater would work well, too)
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper, to taste
splash of milk, as needed
Directions:
Heat the olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat.
Add the rice and stir to coat. Toast the rice, stirring often, just until it starts to turn golden.
Pour in the chicken broth, bring to a boil, turn heat to low, and cover.
Cook, covered, for 15 - 20 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed.
Remove from the heat and add the butter, grated zucchini, cheddar, and garlic powder. Stir until well incorporated. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes.
Stir again and add salt and pepper to taste and a splash of milk if you'd like to thin out the texture a little bit.
slightly adapted from Pink Parsley
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tried this tonight but added asparagus, celery, mushroom and shredded chicken. Even my husband ate it who is a terror at eating vegetables due to a bad experience with some boiled cabbage as a kid! Thanks mucho!
How is this recipe vegetarian. It has chicken broth?
Karly — November 1st, 2012 @ 2:50 pm
@Phyllis,
I didn’t say it was vegetarian, did I? Though you could swap the chicken broth for vegetable broth if you wanted to go that route!
Cool recipe, I’ll have to try!
Made this for lunch to day, and let me just say, I could have eaten the whole pot by myself
this was smooth and creamy and had just the right balance of cheese and veggie flavor.
I used minute rice, 3 kids waiting for lunch :0), so it did not take me as long , but I think it was still yummy!!
thanks for sharing
I can”t set my phone down without one of my littles grabbing it to play Draw Something. My daughter drew a taco for Tokyo so I feel your pain. We also homeschool
Recipe looks awesome. Regarding Phyllis thinking this was vegetarian, it may have been because someone tagged it as vegetarian in Stumbleupon.
I just made this for dinner with zucchini frozen from my garden. This was so good everyone in my family gobbled it up. I will defiantly keep this in my side dish rotation. Thank you.
This was excellent…thank you!!
I was wondering how this would work using frozen zucchinis. I have tons in my freezer that I need to use before summer comes.
Karly — February 18th, 2013 @ 1:55 pm
Honestly, I’ve never worked with frozen zucchini before, so I really don’t know. If you try it, please report back and let us know!
Could you make this with brown rice? Would the directions be the same? Thanks!
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