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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If a bunny ribbetted I would pee my pants. I think that’s the first sign of the apocalypse.
And I will totally make this rice. Anyway to fool my kids into eating zucchini…and if covering it up with cheesy carbs is what I have to do, then good on me.
What a cutie pie!!
I am all about this rice. I don’t even think I’d notice that demon vegetable hiding inside!!
I love zucchini – what a unique way to use it! And I love your daughter thinking that a rabbit should ribbit. It sort of makes sense. When my son was three he used to say things like “to-later” which also makes sense in a way: we say to-day, to-morrow, why not to-later
Rabbit, ribbit, I get what she’s thinkin!
Karly — June 28th, 2012 @ 11:50 am
@Kim @ The Family Practice,
I hadn’t thought of it that way! It does totally make sense!
And to-later…so cute!
KARLY!! your daughter is adorable! I have draw something on my phone but do NOT understand how to use it or how to play. I swear, I’m such a blonde sometimes. This cheesy rice looks like..umm…heaven. I can see myself eating a HUGE serving or two of this without a blink of an eye. i love cheese.
Karly — June 28th, 2012 @ 11:50 am
@sally @ sally’s baking addiction,
Thank you! She is pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself.
Ahhh your daughter is one cutie pie! In her defense, wouldn’t it be cute if bunnies COULD make noises and did ribbit? Sure it’d be a little disconcerting at first, but then you’d be like “OMGWTF that bunny ribbited!!” and then you could make millions on a ribbiting bunny.
Or if nothing else, you could make like, the cheesiest, best looking rice on the face of the planet!! Love me some cheesy rice and LOVE me some zukes!
hilarious!!!! rabbits ribbit. well i do like that logic!
I’m totally going to make this today!! I have some cooked chicken that I’m going to add!
I love how a kids mind works! Makes total sense.
Karly — June 28th, 2012 @ 11:51 am
@Sarah,
Oh, that’ll be delicious! Enjoy!
I love recipes like these–I’m eating a vegetable so I can shove the cheese & carb in my face even more!
Beautiful photos! And this rice – so perfect. Love the flavors!
I was reading through the recipie, when do I add the butter?
Karly — June 28th, 2012 @ 2:16 pm
@Sarah,
Whoops! You add it in at the end with the zucchini and cheese.
I just found this on Pinterest and it has my vote! I can’t wait to try it and look at your other recipes.
This dish has my vote! I can’t wait to try it and look at your other recipes.
KR Big Fish — June 28th, 2012 @ 6:31 pm
@KR Big Fish, Oops sorry for the duplicate post. You can delete this one, I thought it didn’t post at first.
Once it’s green and slimy does it really MATTER what kind of amphibian/reptile it is? I think not. Unless you live in Florida and have to avoid those crocs.
Love this cheesy delicious way to sneak in some veggies!
Mmm yes please! This sounds awesome!
Hi there. I have been “ricing” cauliflower and using it as rice in a lot of my recipes, would you use less liquid in this if I replaced the rice? Thoughts? Thanks!
Karly — June 30th, 2012 @ 7:19 am
@Debbie Cohen Smith,
I’ve never tried ricing cauliflower, so I would just prepare it with however much liquid you normally do and then add in the zucchini and cheese at the end while it steams for the last 5 minutes.
Dea — July 13th, 2012 @ 11:32 pm
@Debbie Cohen Smith, How do you ‘rice’ cauliflower?
I make something like this with brown rice and broccoli
Debbie Cohen Smith — July 14th, 2012 @ 12:20 am
@Dea, To “rice” cauliflower, you either shred it, or the way I prefer is with our food processor cut it up into smallish pieces and grind it up.
Depending on what I am going to do with it, is what I do next with it, if I am using it for a pizza crust, I cook it in the micro for about 8 minutes, if substituting it for rice, I just add it into the recipe.
If you have any questions, contact me and I will help you out with it.
Take Care,
Debbie
Love the cheesiness of this!! I could probably even get my husband to eat it!
These sound great! During the Summer we always have a surplus of zucchini in my house so you can bet I’ll be making this!
I already have too much zucchini coming out of my garden, this sounds like a perfect recipe for using some of it up!
thank you for this! I can’t eat broccoli now and have been missing the cheesy broccoli rice casserole I used to make. This should be a great substitution!
I made this tonight with pan seared pork chops and sauteed apples and it was SOOOOOO good! Thank you for sharing!
This looks wonderful. Can’t wait to try it!
I made this for lunch tonight with a little meat and salad and it was delicious. Will definitely be making it regularly.
Made it with orzo since that’s what was on hand, and it was wonderful! I boiled a couple of chicken thighs in with the pasta while it cooked, so it was a one pot meal. Delicious! Thanks!
I tried this over the weekend and it was GREAT! I added a little crushed rosemary and the flavor was amazing.
THANK YOU for not using any kind of nasty condensed soup in this recipe. It looks delicious.
)
Super yum! We just had this for dinner (I’ve already harvested 4 zucchini and one was gigantic!) and it was FAB-ulous!
Making it right now! I had zucchini on hand and I’m so excited!
Hmm this sounds delicious! Zucchini with rice? Not sure why I’ve never thought of it of it before – sounds like a winning combination!@
I understand the confusion. Kitty cat. Puppy dog. Bunny ribbit — er, rabbit. Right?
Yum. This looks so good. I might be drooling. This is definitely going on the make soon list!
I stumbled across your blog today and I have to say I’m in love! Your humor is right up my alley and I’m having a blast reading. Can’t wait to explore some more!
I have a feeling in a few weeks I will have an abundance of zucchini… can’t wait to try this!
You had me at Cheese … and then again at Rice and Zucchini! Mmmm …
I made this tonight and while the flavor was excellent, the rice was hard. I followed the recipe exactly, but the rice never softened up. Should I just have cooked it for 10 minutes longer? Or soaked the rice in water first? Ideas welcome! Thank you!
Karly — July 11th, 2012 @ 7:56 am
@Nikki,
Hmm, I would guess that your heat was too high and the water boiled away before the rice could soak it up. Did you remember to cover the pan? I probably would have added more water and cooked it a bit longer.
Also, be sure to use long grain white rice. You can check the package as well and make sure that the rice to liquid ratio is the same and change it up if you need to for your rice to cook properly. Generally, though, it’s 1 part rice to 2 parts liquid.
Nikki — July 11th, 2012 @ 8:32 pm
THank you so much, Karly! That is exactly what happened. I remember thinking “wow, that boiled so quickly.” Thanks for the great suggestion. I will try again for sure!
Karly — July 11th, 2012 @ 8:35 pm
@Nikki,
Oh, good! Glad we figured it out. I’m guilty of not turning the heat low enough myself sometimes.
Jennifer — August 12th, 2012 @ 12:23 pm
@Karly,
So we’re supposed to use instant rice then? Like Minute rice? I have to go to the grocery store today so I’m trying to figure it out. Thanks!!
Made tonight with yellow squash and pepper jack cheese. ’cause that’s what I had on hand… Really good!
I tried this today for dinner and it was ok. It seems like it may need something else. Maybe I’ll sauté the zucchini a bit next time and try it with something other than cheddar. I love cheddar but it just doesn’t seem to do this dish justice. Still I will give it 4.5 out of five because it was easy and still tasty.
Just made this with supper, it was a huge hit! I’m going to fancy it up by adding in fresh garlic in the beginning with the uncooked rice, the leaving out the garlic powder. And maybe adding other random veggies at the end too. Not because it was lacking, but because it would just be that much better!
Thank you for sharing this recipe. It was delicious and so easy to make. Definitely a repeat in my kitchen. Can’t wait for leftovers tomorrow.
This was great! I still had some leftover zucchini after making baked zucchini sticks and this was a perfect way to use that up! Great way to get the healthy veggies without the “eeew, vegetables” comments. And like you suggested, I just threw my zucchini in a little food processor to grate it up and it worked like a charm!
Thanks for the recipe!
Woahhhh I’m SO making this! Just found it on pinterest
Pinned this a few weeks back and was flipping through the food pics in my folder and came across this. I was considering rice with broc and cheese, but as I bought a bag of zuchs yesterday, I’ll have to use those instead…yum city for tomorrow’s lunch! I’m sure the 2 year old will eat it….it’s my 9 year old who’s fussy. Mac&cheese: no problemo…she would eat the entire pot if she could….but RICE? Ewww. I can hear it now…LOL
Tried the version of this over at Mel’s Kitchen Cafe and loved it. I’ll try toasting it in the olive oil next time, and letting the zucchini cook with the rice for just a few minutes because it was too crunchy for us when thrown in at the very end. Otherwise, fabulous flavor and a hit even with my kids!!!
Ha!!! I knew it was Emma!!! LOL! I love when she can’t figure out my drawings and gets mad at me!!! LOL!! This rice looks delish!
Has anyone made this with brown rice? If so…What kind and did you make it the same? THANKS
Hey! That’s me! I’m famous!! I really want to try this, but I’m almost certain my husband would turn his nose up at it… Stupid picky eaters!
Am going to try the rice tonight! Sounds DELISH!
Your daughter sounds adorable! When my daughter was about 3 yrs old, she stubbed her toe and said “Damn Rabbit!” Which at the time made no sense to me whatsoever but when I questioned her….she said “That’s what Elmor Fudd says to Bugs Bunny!” (Dag Nabbit) HAHAHAHHA I will NEVER forget that!!!!
Your daughter sounds adorable! When mine was about 3 yrs old, she stubbed her toe and said “Damn Rabbit!” UGH! That made no sense to me at the time but after questioning her she said “Thats what Elmor Fudd says to Bugs Bunny when he’s mad!” (Dag Nabbit) HAHA I will NEVER forget that conversation!
I will be trying the rice very soon! Sounds delish!
Karly — September 3rd, 2012 @ 9:51 am
@kris,
Haha! That is ADORABLE!
Found this recipe on Pinterest and immediately had to add it to tonight’s dinner!!! Even had to run out to the farmer stand to pick up zucchini – and it was WELL worth it. Thank you for sharing!!
If I were to use a large zucchini, how much should I use? 1 c? Thank you (:
I love this combination.of rice and vegetable..might be my new best side dish. This is COMFORT FOOD!!!…It is even fabulous heated up the next day. I will definitly serve this to guests!!.