Vegetable Rice Casserole
on May 01, 2025
This family favorite Vegetable Rice Casserole makes the greatest side dish for any occasion! You can’t go wrong with this classic favorite vegetable side dish.
Vegetable Rice Casserole
Any time I am asked to bring a side dish to a family gathering or holiday meal, this cheesy vegetable and rice casserole is what I bring.
Not only is it absolutely delicious, but it is filling enough to make a main course for any vegetarian guests that may be attending.
It’s hearty, packed with flavor, and everyone will be coming back for seconds!
It’s one of my favorite vegetarian comfort food recipes along with this creamy vegetable soup and broccoli cheese soup.
Everyone always raves about the flavor, and there are rarely any leftovers!
⭐️Review⭐️
Very versatile recipe! Great guide and easy to tweak with what you have on hand. Thank you very much. Will be going back to this one as it is an easy way to include lots of veggies in a side for the kiddos.
Ingredients and notes
The full recipe with instructions is at the bottom of this post, but here are a few things to note about the ingredients you will need.
- Instant brown rice: Make sure you measure this DRY. Otherwise you will end up with the wrong quantity of rice. Please also note that yields for instant rice are different than regular rice. You need instant rice for this recipe.
- Cream of mushroom soup: this is the creaminess that holds it all together.
- Frozen broccoli: make sure to buy florets or you may end up with a bunch of stems.
- Frozen peas
- Carrots: we are using fresh carrots for the best texture. You will peel and dice them into chunks.
- Fresh garlic and onion: don’t skip these! They are key for flavor in this dish.
- Fresh parsley: this really gives the casserole a depth and “wow” factor.
- Parmesan and sharp cheddar cheese: freshly grated is a must!
- Olive oil, salt, and pepper
How to make vegetable rice casserole
First, you will start with diced up garlic, onion, and carrots as a base. I love tons of fresh garlic and onion, and this casserole is so big that we use lots of it to add flavor.
Step 1: Cook the onion, garlic, carrots, olive oil, salt, and pepper in a large skillet or dutch oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the carrots and onion are softened.
Step 2: While the carrots are cooking, you will measure 3 cups of dry instant brown rice and cook it according to package instructions.
Step 3: Add the peas, broccoli, mushroom soup, 1 1/2 cups parmesan cheese, and 1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese to the skillet.
Joy’s Tip
It is very important to not skip the step of grating the cheese fresh from a block. Not only does it taste better, but it melts better too! It’s worth the few extra minutes it takes to grate it yourself.
Step 4: Once your mixture heats up, add in the cooked rice and the chopped up fresh parsley and stir until everything is all mixed up.
Your skillet should look like this photo – all creamy, cheesy, and ready for the oven!
Taste a bit and see if you want to adjust the salt or pepper if necessary. After that it’s ready to bake!
Step 5: Transfer your casserole to a large greased 13 X 9 casserole dish. Top the casserole with the remaining 1 cup of parmesan cheese and 1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese.
This makes a very large casserole, so be sure to use a big dish, as anything smaller will not fit it all. This casserole will easily feed 10 or more people as a side dish, it really makes a ton!
Step 6: Bake the vegetable rice casserole at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown.
Recipe Tip
If you want to you can broil the casserole for a minute or two at the end of cook time to really get that cheese nice and brown. Just be sure to watch it closely so that it doesn’t burn!
I made this tonight for dinner. My teenage daughter, who turns her nose up at everything, LOVED IT. in fact she made sure I kept the pin and said to rate it 5 stars – Tammi
This serves 6-8 people as a main dish, or more as a side dish.
Perfect for large gatherings, and I’ve even made it as a Thanksgiving side dish before!
Whether you just want a great side dish, or something vegetarian friendly for everyone to enjoy, this rice and vegetable casserole is it.
I have made this countless times over the years and it comes out perfect every time.
It’s my signature casserole dish and I want your family to enjoy it as much as we do!
For more delicious vegetarian recipe ideas, be sure to check out 25 best vegetarian recipes.
Be sure to pin this recipe for later and follow Build Your Bite on Pinterest for all the latest delicious recipes!
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a star rating below!
Vegetable and Rice Casserole
Ingredients
- 3 cups of dry/UNCOOKED instant brown rice, cooked according to package instructions
- 2 10.5 oz each containers of cream of mushroom soup
- 10 oz frozen broccoli
- 10 oz frozen peas
- 3 1/2 cups peeled and diced carrots
- 8 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 medium yellow onions, diced
- 3/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 1/2 cups parmesan cheese, freshly grated
- 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, freshly grated
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Measure 3 cups of dry instant rice and cook it according to the package instructions, then set aside. Please note that yields for other types of rice are different than instant.
- Combine the onion, garlic, carrots, olive oil, salt, and pepper in a large skillet or dutch oven.
- Sautee the carrots and onions for 10-15 minutes on medium high heat, until the carrots start to soften and the onions become translucent.
- Add the peas, broccoli, cream of mushroom soup, 1 1/2 cups parmesan cheese, and 1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese to the skillet.
- Stir the mixture over medium heat until heated through, about 10-12 minutes.
- Add the cooked rice and parsley to the skillet and stir to combine.
- Transfer the veggie casserole mixture to a greased large 9 x 13 casserole dish.
- Top the casserole with the remaining 1 cup of parmesan cheese and 1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese.
- Bake the vegetable rice casserole at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes , until the cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown
Nutrition
Do you add the frozen vegetables in while they’re still frozen or do you thaw them out first?
I add them in frozen!
I just made this today. I followed the recipe. Minus the peas, didn’t have any. And used frozen veggies. I didn’t realize one of the cups of cheddar was supposed to go on top. Oh well I made alot of rice, so I cooked in both cups with the veggie mushroom mix and then just topped it with graded parmesan. Looks and smells good. Used all the garlic as mentioned. It did smell garlicy but my husband loves garlic so, think it will come out good.
Looking forward to trying this recipe for my vegetarian daughter. She dislikes mushrooms, so do you think cream of celery soup would work just as well?
Hi Michelle,
You really cannot taste the mushroom in this recipe, but you could definitely try substituting cream of celery soup. I think the results should be similar. Enjoy!
This recipe is very tasty but the portions are completely off. This made 2 casseroles, not 1 – both in 13×9 casserole dishes. I even had rice left over. Even with the portions off, I would still recommend this recipe, I love the flavors very much. Please revisit – the taste is tremendous. I could salvage the recipe by splitting the recipe between 2 pans and adjusting the ingredients to fit 2 pans. I hope to see this recipe changed to be accurate. It really tastes so good, I forgot it was vegetarian.
Hi Tia,
I have made this recipe more times than I can count without issue. It is my go to side dish! Perhaps your baking dish was smaller than standard size, this recipe definitely makes a very large amount! I love it for family gatherings. Did you make the correct amount of rice? If you mix all of the ingredients together before baking there would be no need to adjust the ingredients, simply mix all together and divide into pans if you need more than one. I am glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Had everything on hand except for rice. Instead of panicking I roasted up a mess of potatoes and used those instead of the rice. I subbed cream of celery soup (I don’t like mushrooms) and my husband was quite pleased!
Very versatile recipe! Great guide and easy to tweak with what you have on hand. Thank you very much. Will be going back to this one as it is an easy way to include lots of veggies in a side for the kiddos.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I made this tonight for dinner. My teenage daughter, who turns her nose up at everything, LOVED IT. in fact she made sure I kept the pin and said to rate it 5 stars (I did).
I only swapped out brown instant rice for regular long grain white because that’s what I had on hand.
Thank you very much for this great recipe!
Love hearing this Tammi! So glad your family enjoyed the recipe!
Do you think this would freeze well?
Definitely! This would be a great dish for freezing.
Does the recipie mean 3 cups of uncooked rice, or 3 cups of cooked rice?
3 cups uncooked 🙂
I’ve made the half-size version of this several times already, it’s a huge hit with the husband! Used 1 can (18oz) Progresso cream of mushroom soup, and added about 1.5 cups diced rotisserie chicken breast for more protein. Making it again tonight with different veggies! So good, thank you!
So glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe Kate!
I made this with white rice because of temporary dietary issues – it was wonderful and so easy. It seemed a little dry when I mixed everything together so I added some cream I had in the refrigerator – about 1/4 cup for half the recipe.
I will try it again with brown rice soon!
@Sarah, doesn’t say to add water or milk to the condensed mushroom soup, right? Just straight condensed mushroom soup?
@Dina Meitner, I was just wondering the same thing