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GRAB THIS BADGE!
No Whine With Dinner For me, the best part about Thanksgiving is the spread of savory side dishes … and of course, the time spent with family and friends. This year, I brought our MMM Sweet Potato Casserole — a healthy makeover of a recipe I found in the New York Times Cookbook — and our Better-For-You Brussels Sprouts Gratin. Not that I’m bragging or anything, but these two health-ified side dishes have quickly become Turkey-Day staples and are now considered “keepers” by the family.
On this week’s Cooking with the Moms podcast, Janice and I share stories from our Thanksgiving dinners and we serve up this hearty and healthy recipe for Turkey Wild Rice Casserole. It’s the perfect dish when you have leftover turkey.
My sister, Marian, makes a mean turkey. I always make the sweet potato casserole and the Brussels sprouts casserole, and the last photo in this set shows how much food my 17-year old son, Josh, took before going up for seconds!
My other job at Thanksgiving is to make the gravy. I use a gravy separator to remove the fat, and then I thicken the gravy with flour. I consider my gravy separator an indispensable kitchen gadget, which is why we are giving one away (read on for details)!
I traveled back from Connecticut with some turkey leftovers, so I decided to use them in a wild rice casserole. For the recipe, I drew inspiration from two fellow food bloggers: Kalyn from Kalyn’s Kitchen and Jenny from Picky Palate. What I came up with was a cheesy mixture of wild and brown rice, sauteed carrots, onion, garlic, and mushrooms, chicken broth, and reduced-fat Cheddar cheese.
The mixture of wild and brown rice in this dish proves how easy it can be to get more whole grains onto the family table. If you’d like to learn more about whole grains, check out my video series, now showing on the LetsMove / MyPlate website.
Turkey Wild Rice Casserole
Makes 8 Servings
Since half of your grains should be whole grains, I chose a mix of wild rice and brown rice … instead of going for white. The wild/brown rice combo added a nice nutty flavor and chewy texture to the casserole. I chose carrots, onions, and mushrooms for my veggies; celery would be nice too. To keep the saturated fat in check, I opted for reduced-fat Cheddar cheese.
- 2 cups wild rice mix (I used a mix of wild rice and brown rice that I found at Whole Foods)
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 3 carrots, cut into 1/4-inch dice
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 8 ounces button mushrooms, roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- Pinch celery seed
- 2 cups all-natural chicken broth
- 1/2 cup 1% low-fat milk
- 1½ cups shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese, divided
- 2 cups chopped cooked turkey
- Kosher salt and pepper
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cook the rice according to package directions and set aside. You will have about 6 cooked cups.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large non-stick skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the carrots and onion and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue to cook until the vegetables are tender, 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 additional minute.
3. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons oil, flour, thyme, and celery seed and cook for 1 minute. Whisk the broth and milk slowly into the flour mixture. Raise the heat and bring to a low boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat and continue to simmer and stir gently until the mixture thickens, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in 1 cup of the cheese until melted. Stir in the turkey and season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Stir in the rice until well combined. Transfer to a 9 x 13-inch baking pan or dish. Top evenly with the remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Bake until the cheese melts and the casserole is a bit bubbly, about 20 minutes.
Nutrition Information per Serving: 320 calories, 7g fat (3g saturated), 330mg sodium, 44g carbohydrate, 4g fiber, 24g protein, 80% vitamin A, 20% calcium, 10% iron
GIVEAWAY NEWS: We’d never survive Thanksgiving without a gravy separator, so we’re sharing the love and offering one lucky winner a gravy separator they can call their own. Our winner will become the proud owner of the Oxo Good Grips 4-Cup Fat Separator. And to make the giveaway even more special, we’re tossing in a signed copy of our cookbook, No Whine with Dinner! (U.S. only please.)
TO ENTER: Leave a comment here or on Facebook and tell us about the best thing you ate at your Thanksgiving dinner this year … or tell us about the on-location Thanksgiving job you always get assigned.
We will enter you into the giveaway additional times if you …
> Subscribe to our RSS feed.
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Please be sure to leave us a new comment every time you do something extra, and GOOD LUCK. The giveaway ends on December 7 at noon, and as always we’ll use Random.org to pick our winner.
For more photos from my Turkey Day dinner, visit our Flickr page.
58 Responses to “A Thanksgiving Leftover Recipe for Turkey Wild Rice Casserole and Highlights from My Family Celebration … PLUS a Giveaway for a Must-Have Gravy Separator and a Copy of No Whine with Dinner (Podcast 206)”
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I’m a mashed potato fan…always my favorite at Thanksgiving or any time! Do you know how much difference a gravy separater makes in fat content? I was wondering if anyone has run the numbers on that.
This year we broke tradition. I’m the only one who likes turkey and the fixin’s, and I have to do all the cooking. So after polling the men and boys, we decided to smoke a beef brisket. It was wonderful, and that was my favorite thing. We also had bbq baked beans, Texas toast, tossed salad, and pecan tarts.
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I loved the broccoli salad, it had all kinds of goodness, broccoli, raisins, tomatoes, cashews, and a dressing.
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Hi Emily: A few years ago, Janice and I shot a TV special for PBS. In it, we showed a family how to reduced the fat and calories from their holiday dinner. Here’s the tip we provided for gravy: “Gravy is notorious for being way too high in fat and calories. By using a gravy separator to separate the pan drippings from the turkey fat, it’s easy to create delicious gravy without all the saturated fat and calories. In fact, when we roasted a 12-pound turkey, we were able to pour away 3/4 cup turkey fat for a savings of 170 grams fat and 1,500 calories! Hope that helps …
We went out for Thanksgiving, but I am going to make a mini Thanksgiving sometime before Christmas. I miss the leftovers!
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Every year my job is to make a trifle and I call it the Mudd Slide trifle and the green bean casserole. My grandkids just love the trifle I also make it for Christmas too! Just found this on Face book love your page, Now I am going to follow you on Pinterest…
Glad you found us!
The best thing about thanksgiving dinner this year: roasted squash
The best thing I ate this year was baked sweet potatoes with a crumb/nut/mixture topping.
Our thanksgiving this year got cancelled because too many people had the stomach flu. Boo!
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The best thing I ate at my Thanksgiving dinner was definitely my mom’s homemade pies, so tasty!
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I follow you on Facebook. The best thing I ate on Thanksgiving was “Sweet potato casserole”, I made with baked sweet potato, nothing from a can, all fresh, yummy!
My favorite thing on Thanksgiving was the stuffing and the brussels sprouts casserole I made using your recipe! Delicious! I really hope I win ! I NEED your cookbook!!
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I am always assigned the candied yams!!! I’m also in charge of getting all the lumps out of the mashed potatoes!
After one Thanksgiving of tasting stuffing my way, it has become my job. I use traditional bread stuffing mix, but add apples, carrots, dried cranberries, crumbled sausage, carrots, celery and onions. Everyone loves it! It is surely a welcome change to the usual gelatinous mush you get with plain stuffing.
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I love the turkey the most. I’ve discovered a way to make it nice and moist.
For Thanksgiving, I love sweet potato casserole with pineapple and marshmallows and pecans on top.
My job at holiday gatherings is usually to bring dessert. Most often I make apple pie and something chocolatey!
The best part was apple pie!
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I already follow you on Twitter. I’m @moneywisemoms
Meal Makeover Mom’s sweet potato casserole with pecans was a big hit with my family at the Thanksgiving table again this year! Lucky for me there was just enough leftover for me to enjoy the next day. Delicious!
We flew to Hawaii on Thanksgiving, so no turkey for us, but plenty of pineapple!
I used to always be the designated cranberry sauce maker. Recently I have gotten more interesting jobs, like pies, mashed potatoes, and one year I was even allowed to make the turkey.
Cranberry-Apple Pie!
I cook everything, this year the stuffing was my favorite as well as a new mashed potato recipe which I will be making again next year!
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Pat, what’s your secret to moist turkey? Do tell …
My favorite dish is always the stuffing, followed by brussels sprouts…your recipe! I make the entire dinner, except for a couple of sides! Love every minute of it, well, except maybe doing the dishes, but that’s the hubby’s job!
Made your sweet potato casserole…yummy!!
The best thing I ate this Thanksgiving was apple, pear and cranberry cobbler!
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My all-time favorite Thanksgiving food is my mom’s dressing-everybody scrapes the pan clean to get every bite!!
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The best thing I ate on Thanksgiving Day was a smoked turkey. My husband smoked a turkey this year for the first time and it was absolutely delicious. I think I will try some (we froze the leftover) in the wild rice casserole recipe above!
I love the fruit salad, there is nothing better than a little fruit after all that heavy yumminess.
The best thing I ate this year was baked sweet potatoes.
Bookmarking this one as hubby + kid friendly. Looks yum!
I love my mom’s frozen cranberry, apple, marshmallow salad!
I tried a new cranberry sauce recipe this year and it was a huge hit. I also made turkey stock from scratch to use in my homemade gravy and dressing.
The gravy is the best “side”. It works with dressing, potatoes, turkey as that added flavor boost.
I worked on Thanksgiving, so I prepared everything the day before and it worked out perfectly. I made your brussel sprouts gratin recipe for the first time and it was amazing! By far my favorite side dish this year.
Hi ladies! My fave part of Thanksgiving this year was the pre-meal 5K and the roasted brussel sprouts w/ Parmesan and bacon!
i work on the important part of cleaning the dishes… so my favorite part of the meal is when everyone finishes their plates!! best part is the sweet potatoes.
The best thing I’ve eaten at Thanksgiving is my own sweet potato casserole! Yum!
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The gravy and stuffing was excellent this year.
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