Print This Post
When the oven is on because I am baking something, I usually look around to see if there is something else I can bake as well, to be efficient.
A few times a year I crave this comforting, cheesy chile rice dish, and I usually have everything on hand for it so I can pop it into the oven easily. With leftover rice, it stirs up in just a minute, and offers eating pleasure far in excess of the effort put into it.
It is more than the sum of its parts.
When the people at Kerrygold sent me a package of excellent cheese, and asked if I could lighten up one of my favorite cheesy dishes by using their Reduced Fat Dubliner, I knew exactly which recipe to pull out.
Serve it as a side dish for dinner, or all by itself as a bowl of comfort for lunch.
It’s all about food and mood.
Recipe: Dorothy’s Lower-Fat Cheesy Green Chile Rice
Summary: Cheesy rice, spiced with green chiles, garlic and cumin, and topped with a smoky dusting of paprika, is a comforting side dish or lunch.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup uncooked brown rice; this = about 1 1/2-1 2/3 cup cooked brown rice
- 1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles (I used Hatch chiles I had roasted and frozen from September)
- 1 cup light sour cream (Daisy brand preferred) (I have also used Karoun Lite Labne Kefir Cheese with great results)
- 1 (7-ounce) package Kerrygold Reduced-Fat Dubliner cheese, shredded
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided use
- 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 garlic clove, pressed or finely minced
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- Grinding of black pepper
- Garnish: Smoked paprika or regular paprika
Instructions
- Cook rice according to directions on package. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9- by 5-inch baking dish (loaf pan) with nonstick spray and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine cooked rice, chiles, sour cream, cheese, 2 tablespoons Parmesan, oregano, cumin, garlic, onion powder and a few grindings of black pepper. Turn mixture into prepared dish, and sprinkle top with remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan and a sprinkling of paprika, if you are using it.
- Bake 60 minutes, until casserole is toasty brown on top.
- Serves 4-5.
- (Chile heads may wish to add a splash of hot sauce to their dish.)
The cheese
Dubliner is the flagship cheese of the Kerrygold brand, and the reduced-fat version has all of the flavor with 30 fewer calories and 33% less fat per 1-ounce serving. That works for me! If you’ve never tried Dubliner, now is a good time. Here is their description of this complex cheese: “It has a natural hint of sweetness, elements of a mature Cheddar, the deep, nutty taste of a Swiss and the piquant bite of an aged Parmesan. It is at once crumbly yet creamy with the aromas of fresh-baked bread layered with fresh buttermilk.” Swoon. All Kerrygold cheeses and butter is made in Ireland with milk from grass-fed cows that are never given growth hormones. The cows are raised on small family farms (average herd size is 60).
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hours
Diet type: Vegetarian
Diet tags: Gluten free
Number of servings (yield): 4-5
My rating
Disclosure: Kerrygold sent the cheese for recipe development.
Welcome to my kitchen!
At ShockD, you’ll find scrumptious, tried & true, "scary good" recipes, tips and coaching to make YOU a fabulous home cook! Don't blame me if you need a 12-step program to wean yourself away!
E-mail me: Dorothy.Reinhold@gmail.com
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
I love this cheese! I honestly have never tried it with a green chile rice though! Sounds like I have a side for dinner tonight!
I’m excited to try this! Love that you gave it a low fat makeover!
I can’t wait to try this recipe! Yum!
I’m putting this on the dinner menu! It looks perfect for a crisp fall day!
I gotta try this cheesy rice dish this fall!!
Jocelyn,
You do, you do! It’s such an all-purpose dish!
Oh I can’t wait to try this for dinner!!!! YUM!
This looks like the perfect rice dish!
Such a great version of green chile rice. Loving all the cheese in it.
This is the perfect weeknight dinner!
I love lightened up comfort foods!
I love how you lightened this up! I crave this at times too but have been trying to eat not as heavy.
This was shockingly delicious!! I made some substitutions, which all worked out extremely well. I did not use rice, instead I used 1.5 cups of cooked wheat berries and 1 cup of cooked brown lentils. I also substituted 1/2 cup of nonfat Greek yogurt for the sour cream and used skim-milk mozzarella instead of cheddar. This recipe is a keeper!
Susan,
Fantastic! I love all your tweaks, and yep, I say use what you have hanging around. I adore wheat berries and lentils, Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, and sure, mozz instead of cheddar works. It’s ALL GOOD!
I love baked cheesy casseroles like this. Do you know if it freezes well? I’d love to have something like this stashed in the freezer for those nights when cooking is just not something I want to do 🙂
Trish,
We ate it for dinner and then lunch the next day, so didn’t attempt to freeze it.
Oh my goodness, my mouth is watering. This looks so very good, hard to believe it is low fat!
Shannon,
You absolutely won’t know that it uses lower-fat sour cream and lower-fat cheese.
Thank you Dorothy for the nice recipe. Have a good weekend!
With a freezer full of Hatch green chile, I’m all over this one. Sounds delicious Dorothy.
Lea Ann,
So glad to hear I am not the only one with Hatch in my freezer!