Here’s a quiz for you.
Q: Is there such a thing as a comfort food that isn’t fattening?
A: This Creamy Chickpea, Kale, and Wild Rice Casserole is comfort food at its best. Not only will it not contribute to weight gain, but with its high dose of fiber, it will actually help with weight loss.
Q: How long will it take you to whip up this delicious casserole?
A: Less than 10 minutes if you have leftover rice on hand and use the pre-cut kale you can find in just about any grocery store.
Q: What is one food you can almost always find in my frig?
Leftover cooked rice.
It comes in handy to make all kinds of delicious meals.
Q: How do you cook rice?
A: Here’s a super easy tutorial for cooking rice. Once you cook rice this way, you’ll never look back!
Q: What is one food that I do not like that somehow finds its way into lots of my recipes?
Tahini. It’s a unique (and healthy) ingredient. You should get some.
Q: Should you try this casserole?
Yes. : )
Creamy comfort food, amazing nutrition profile, 10 minutes to make, pantry ingredients, leftovers for lunch the next day. Mmmmmm! What more can you ask for?
Chickpea, Kale, and Wild Rice Casserole
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 4 servings
A comfort food that isn’t fattening? Coming right up! This easy, warm, and comforting casserole is full of nutrition and goes straight from the oven to your table in minutes. Delicious served as a main dish with a large salad on the side.
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 cups cooked wild rice blend - see note at end of post
- 2 1/2 cups chopped raw kale
- 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
- 3/4 cup raw cashews
- 1 3/4 cups water
- 2 1/2 teaspoons granulated onion
- 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1 pinch dried sage
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon tahini
- 1 1/2 cups seasoned bread crumbs (use gluten-free bread crumbs to keep this casserole gluten-free)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together cooked rice, chopped kale, and chickpeas.
- Place cashews, 1 3/4 cups water, seasonings, lemon juice, and tahini in blender and blend until very smooth. (A heavy-duty blender works best for this recipe; other blenders may not get the mixture smooth enough. Mixture should be very smooth with no graininess.)
- Stir blender mixture into rice mixture.
- Transfer to a 1 1/2-quart, oven-proof casserole dish. Distribute bread crumbs over mixture.
- Bake uncovered for 15 minutes or until bread crumb topping browns lightly. Serve hot.
Notes
I recommend washing cashews in a colander under very hot water before using.You can use either canned chickpeas or those that you cook in a crockpot or on the stove.
About the Wild Rice Blend
This recipe uses a wild rice blend. You can easily make your own by mixing 1/4 cup wild rice with 3/4 cups long-grain brown rice. Or you can go the even-easier route and buy this mix already mixed.
These must be canned or precooked garbanzo/chickpeas. There is no mention about soaking or being cooked in the recipe.
Yes, thank you Yolanda. I have made a note of that in the recipe so others aren’t confused.
Thanks again,
Jennifer
Could i just use cashew butter?
Hi Sandra,
If you are wanting to use cashew butter to replace all of the sauce ingredients, it wouldn’t work well since the cashew-water-seasoning-lemon-tahini mixture makes a creamy and slightly tangy sauce that cashew butter doesn’t really duplicate.
If you are thinking to use cashew butter to replace only the cashews, that may work, but I haven’t tried it. My guess would be that you would use a heaping 1/3 cup of raw cashew butter to replace the 3/4 cup raw cashews – and then blend it with the other sauce ingredients.
Let me know if you try this. 🙂
Jennifer