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Healthy Wild Rice Casserole {GF, Low Cal, Vegan}

December 7, 2016

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This Classic and Healthy Wild Rice Casserole is made with mushrooms and onions. A hearty vegetarian or side dish that’s easy to make and guaranteed to please a crowd. Gluten Free + Low Calorie + Vegan

This Classic & Healthy Wild Rice Casserole is made with mushrooms & onions. A hearty vegetarian or side dish that's easy to make & guaranteed to please a crowd. Gluten Free + Low Calorie + Vegan

Wild rice, do you love it or do you hate it? Do you even know what it is? Are you eating the boxed version? If so, we really need to talk!

First, let’s get one thing straight. Wild rice is not a grain, it’s a water grass seed that grows in wet fields. It has a chewy, nutty flavor and purplish hue. Nutritionally, wild rice has TWICE the protein and fiber as brown rice and is high in B vitamins (hello energy!).

Click here to pin this recipe!

This Classic & Healthy Wild Rice Casserole is made with mushrooms & onions. A hearty vegetarian or side dish that's easy to make & guaranteed to please a crowd. Gluten Free + Low Calorie + Vegan

Wild rice is naturally gluten free and low in calories. This is true only of the non-boxed kind. Boxed versions generally are contaminated with gluten and contain other additives that are disrupting to the balance of the body.

When you buy wild rice, look for bagged versions that only contains the rice on the ingredient lists and the label should have a certified gluten free stamp. Some markets even wild rice available in bins so you could go that route too.

wild-rice

Growing up in Wisconsin, I’ve been spoiled when it comes to wild rice. It grows abundantly in the Great Lake region, primarily near Minnesota where my Dad’s family lives. In fact, my uncle goes out in his canoe and harvests wild rice during the year, has it processed then disperses it to the family.

So we’ve always had fresh wild rice on hand. It’s been a staple in our meals for as long as I can remember. I guess there’s only so much wild rice one person can eat, and I’m not complaining!

This Classic & Healthy Wild Rice Casserole is made with mushrooms & onions. A hearty vegetarian or side dish that's easy to make & guaranteed to please a crowd. Gluten Free + Low Calorie + Vegan

Healthy Wild Rice Casserole

The original wild rice casserole recipe, well wasn’t the healthiest. It was handed down to my mother from my grandmother, and called for something crazy like 4 sticks of butter. Yikes! Talk about a grease fest.

I love wild rice so I transformed this traditional family dish into a Healthy Wild Rice Casserole by adding more onions for moisture and swapping the butter for extra virgin olive oil. The recipe turned out moist, nutty and equally flavorful as the original, only better for you!

This Classic & Healthy Wild Rice Casserole is made with mushrooms & onions. A hearty vegetarian or side dish that's easy to make & guaranteed to please a crowd. Gluten Free + Low Calorie + Vegan

This Healthy Wild Rice Casserole is simple to make. It does take an hour to bake in the oven, but the oven’s doing the work and frankly the wait is well worth it! This can be served as a side paired with a green vegetable and lean protein like chicken, fish or turkey. It’s warm, comforting and wholesome. Perfect for a winter meal!

For those of you new to baking rice in the oven, it does bake. In fact, I have another casserole recipe that readers comment all the time confused they’re baking uncooked rice in the oven (even though the recipe card already says this).

YES, you bake the rice uncooked! The trick is using a small casserole dish. Anything too big will not allow the liquid to boil which means it could take three hours to cook instead of one.

This Classic & Healthy Wild Rice Casserole is made with mushrooms & onions. A hearty vegetarian or side dish that's easy to make & guaranteed to please a crowd. Gluten Free + Low Calorie + Vegan

But what I really want you to know about this recipe is that most of the time you don’t have to do much to “healthify” a dish. Simple swaps can take a dish from a cholesterol fat bomb to a heart and waist friendly dish that tastes amazing.

My challenge to you is to think about traditional family dishes you have and ways you can transform them into healthier versions.

This Classic & Healthy Wild Rice Casserole is made with mushrooms & onions. A hearty vegetarian or side dish that's easy to make & guaranteed to please a crowd. Gluten Free + Low Calorie + Vegan

Click here to pin this recipe!

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Healthy Wild Rice Casserole

This Classic & Healthy Wild Rice Casserole is made with mushrooms & onions. A hearty vegetarian or side dish that's easy to make & guaranteed to please a crowd. Gluten Free + Low Calorie + Vegan
Author Skinny Fitalicious
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings 12 servings
Calories 97 kcal
This Classic & Healthy Wild Rice Casserole is made with mushrooms & onions. A hearty vegetarian or side dish that's easy to make & guaranteed to please a crowd. Gluten Free + Low Calorie + Vegan
5 from 3 votes
Print

Ingredients

  • 1 cup wild rice rinsed and drained
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2/3 cup white onion thinly diced
  • 13 oz mushrooms in water, drained and rinsed
  • 3 cups vegetable broth
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Take out an 8x8 baking dish and set aside. 

  2. While the oven is heating, Bring the vegetable broth to a boil in a pot.
  3. At the same time, heat a skillet over medium heat. Add extra virgin olive oil, onions and mushrooms. Sauté vegetables 3 minutes then add rice. Continue cooking until onions are translucent and the mixture is fragrant.
  4. Transfer the vegetables and rice to a small baking dish then pour vegetable broth over it.
  5. Cover and bake at 350 F 1 hour. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

  6. Store leftovers in the refrigerator up to 1 week. 

Recipe Notes

  • Different types of wild rice may yield different results. I'm using freshly harvested wild rice.
  • My Amazon shop has more products similar to those used for this recipe and that I recommend to my weight loss clients.
  • If you love this recipe, check out my low calorie cookbook for more delicious recipes and weight loss tips!
Course Dinner, Side
Cuisine American
Keyword broth, casserole, dairy free, gluten free, healthy, holiday, low calorie, low fat, mushroom, vegan, wild rice
Nutrition facts per serving (1cup)
Calories 97 kcal
Fat 2.3 g
Saturated Fat 0.3 g
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 317 mg
Potassium 0 mg
Carbohydrates 15.8 g
Fiber 1.4 g
Sugar 1.7 g
Protein 3 g
Vitamin A 0 %
Vitamin C 0 %
Calcium 0 %
Iron 0 %

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/>This Classic & Healthy Wild Rice Casserole is made with mushrooms & onions. A hearty vegetarian or side dish that's easy to make & guaranteed to please a crowd. Gluten Free + Low Calorie + Vegan
This Classic and Healthy Wild Rice Casserole is made with mushrooms and onions. A hearty vegetarian or side dish that's easy to make and guaranteed to please a crowd.

About Megan

Megan is a certified nutrition practitioner, author, freelance food photographer and fitness instructor living in Phoenix, Arizona. On her blog, Skinny Fitalicious she shares EASY, gluten free recipes for weight loss. Follow Megan on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for the latest updates.

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    Recipe Rating




  1. Blair says

    December 7, 2016 at 4:07 am

    My mom always served wild rice when I was growing up and I’ve always loved it. This casserole sounds delicious — love the addition of the mushrooms! Hooray for sides that are also healthy!

    Reply
    • Megan says

      December 8, 2016 at 4:04 pm

      I think it’s often forgot about or people don’t know it exists. Glad you do!

      Reply
  2. lindsay Cotter says

    December 7, 2016 at 6:27 am

    this is my favorite combo! Mushroom and wild rice. Ahh that nutty goodness. Make me some, mm k? I”m coming over!

    Reply
    • Megan says

      December 8, 2016 at 4:05 pm

      You better! You’re gonna be closer to me now with the move. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Kim says

    December 7, 2016 at 8:22 am

    What size casserole dish do you use to bake it in?

    Reply
    • Megan says

      December 8, 2016 at 4:07 pm

      The one I used was small, probably 10X7. I got it at Walmart, it has a glass cover which is perfect for making this.

      Reply
  4. Kelli @ Hungry Hobby says

    December 7, 2016 at 8:33 am

    Yum! I love rice but I hate mushrooms! I need to try this baking uncooked rice thing, I do it all the time with Quinoa but never tried it with rice!

    Reply
    • Megan says

      December 8, 2016 at 4:07 pm

      I don’t love mushrooms either, but in this recipe I do. And you must learn to bake rice girl!

      Reply
  5. Susie @ SuzLyfe says

    December 7, 2016 at 11:50 am

    Wild rice is the only type of rice I actually like! Probably because it isn’t rice, so there you go 😀

    Reply
    • Megan says

      December 8, 2016 at 4:08 pm

      Ha! I knew we were friends for a reason. 🙂

      Reply
  6. Heather McClees says

    December 8, 2016 at 2:11 pm

    This is a great recipe, I love wild rice. It’s the best out there! 🙂

    Reply
    • Megan says

      December 8, 2016 at 4:10 pm

      I couldn’t agree more. 😉

      Reply
  7. Nancy says

    January 26, 2017 at 1:58 pm

    Canned mushrooms ?? Nooooooooo

    Reply
    • Megan says

      January 26, 2017 at 6:46 pm

      This website is for positive comments and positive people. If you do not have a positive comment, do not leave it. Keep it to yourself. There is nothing wrong with organic mushrooms. They are actually very nutritious.

      Reply
  8. Gayle says

    April 27, 2017 at 3:01 pm

    Could you use fresh mushrooms? Just bought some.

    Reply
    • Megan says

      April 27, 2017 at 3:28 pm

      I’ve never tried, but I’m guessing you could!

      Reply
  9. Karen Ng says

    October 28, 2017 at 3:48 pm

    Can I freeze the leftover? We only have 2 in the household 🙂 Thanks. It looks very yummy and will certainly try to make it. Just got some wild rice today, try to change our eating habit from white rice to wild rice.

    Karen

    Reply
    • Megan says

      October 28, 2017 at 3:54 pm

      I haven’t tried it, but I wouldn’t freeze the leftovers. Any rice doesn’t taste good frozen then thawed. You could just store it in the fridge for a week and eat it throughout the week with others meals.

      Reply
  10. Casey Gripari says

    February 22, 2018 at 7:50 am

    Hi, can you tell me roughly how much one serving should be? It says 97 calories per serving, but doesn’t say how much the serving should be. (How many oz?)

    Reply
    • Megan says

      February 22, 2018 at 10:04 am

      About 1/2 cup.

      Reply
      • Heather says

        January 31, 2020 at 9:14 am

        The nutrition information says serving size one cup. Is this one cup or half a cup? I want to try this and want to have accurate calorie information. Thanks, looks yummy!

        Reply
        • Megan says

          January 31, 2020 at 12:32 pm

          Hi Heather, 1 cup is the serving size. Enjoy!

          Reply
  11. Jennifer says

    April 18, 2018 at 9:29 am

    I added chicken to mine for a little extra protein and flavor and I used chicken broth. It turned out great.

    Reply
  12. Rebecca says

    August 9, 2018 at 12:33 pm

    What are your suggestions on cooking it in a slow cooker?

    Reply
    • Megan says

      August 10, 2018 at 9:22 am

      I haven’t tried it, but I would suggest you follow the same ingredients but add them to a slow cooker instead of oven. You’ll need to experiment with the times, but 4-6 hours on low or 6-8 hours on high is where I’d start.

      Reply
  13. Deborah says

    December 7, 2018 at 11:01 am

    So tasty! I used 16 oz of fresh mushrooms, cuz I dont care for canned mushrooms, and added 3 small zucchini to the mix and it was delicious! I was surprised by the lack of seasonings in the recipe, but the veggies carried themselves and you really dont need any! Would def make again.

    Reply
  14. Jan says

    January 23, 2019 at 2:36 pm

    So good! I was intrigued by this recipe because I wasn’t aware there was a difference in wild rice. Great recipe!

    Reply
    • Megan says

      January 25, 2019 at 1:26 pm

      Glad you liked it!

      Reply
  15. Nancy Lopez says

    March 6, 2019 at 2:30 pm

    I made this last week using Lundberg’s wild rice mix/medley with fresh shitake mushrooms and it was OUTstanding!!
    I loooove this dish! I recently became vegetarian and am always looking for some really good and savory recipes….this one is IT! Thank you for giving it to us!!

    Reply
    • Megan says

      March 6, 2019 at 3:20 pm

      Aww thanks for taking the time to let me know you enjoyed that! My Grandma would be so happy to hear this.

      Reply
  16. Tiffany says

    October 10, 2019 at 7:11 pm

    Hi! I’m making this dish tomorrow. I noticed you gave a measurement for water, but then you said to check the package for water measurement. I will be using fresh wild mixed mushrooms. Should I still use the exact amount of water the package says for a cup of rice? Even with the added veggies? I’m AWFUL at cooking wild rice and don’t want to screw this up! I’m tossing it with a vegan homemade cheese and adding carrots and chopped broccoli after it’s cooked to make it a full meal. I’m super excited!

    Reply
    • Megan says

      October 11, 2019 at 11:20 am

      Wow that sounds delicious! Well, I didn’t give a measurement for water rather for broth. You probably could use water, but it’s more flavorful with the broth. As long as you measure the rice to the 1 cup, 3 cups of broth should be fine. Just know all grains (even different brands) can have slightly different results. I honestly think you will be fine. Many of my clients make this and love it.

      Reply
  17. Cyndi says

    November 9, 2019 at 6:58 pm

    If I want to add more veggies so it’s more of a full meal rather than a side dish, what do you recommend? Carrots? Celery? Broccoli? Zucchini? Other? And if any of these would work, when should I add them? And no spices at all? Thank you.

    Reply
    • Megan says

      November 10, 2019 at 7:06 am

      You could add celery probably without affecting the taste or having to add spices. I’d just cook it with the onions. Nothing else would really go with the casserole. If you wanted more vegetables, then add a side of roasted broccoli or carrots with the meal.

      Reply
  18. Michele Horne says

    March 26, 2020 at 9:26 am

    Can you freeze this casserole?

    Reply
    • Megan says

      March 26, 2020 at 5:13 pm

      I haven’t tried it, but I’m guessing it wouldn’t taste great if you did it. Wild rice is very watery so it would be even more watery if you froze it then reheated.

      Reply

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Megan is a nutrition practitioner, author of the Low Calorie Cookbook and podcast host of the Dish On Ditching Diets. Megan helps women over 35 lose weight after losing 80 pounds herself. Here you get low calorie recipes for weight loss that balance hormones. Learn more about my weight loss programs HERE!

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