There’s no rabbit in this rice, in fact there’s no meat at all. Cheese-loving vegetarians, come on in.
The rabbit in the name of this dish comes from Welsh Rabbit, or Rarebit if you prefer. The epitome of comfort food, Welsh Rabbit consists of a thick, beer-laced Cheddar cheese sauce ladled over toast. It’s like a cheese fondue that escaped from the pot, or the tangiest, runniest open-faced grilled cheese ever. My Rabbit Rice goes in a healthier direction by ditching the toast and replacing it with a medley of crisp-tender roasted vegetables on a bed of nutty brown rice. For a gluten free version or if you’re not a beer drinker, substitute milk for the beer.
The vegetables roast at different rates, but I roasted them all on the same pan. Just keep them in separate sections so you can remove each veggie when it’s done.
Once the veggies are roasted, layer them over the rice in a medium-sized casserole dish, or use individual dishes or single-serving-sized cast iron skillets and serve them right in the baking dishes.
Ladle the cheese sauce over the top, then give it 10 minutes in a hot oven. The sauce will melt down and bathe the veggies and rice.
Let’s talk about the rice. You’ll need plain, unseasoned brown rice for the base of this dish. You could microwave a couple of vacuum-packed envelopes or a bag of frozen brown rice, or make your own. Here’s a great, foolproof technique in case you don’t have a go-to recipe: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Bring 2½ cups water, 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter and 1 teaspoon of salt to a boil. Spread 1½ cups of brown rice in an 8-inch square (or equivalent size) baking dish. Pour the boiling water over the rice, stir to combine, and cover the dish tightly with foil. Bake for 1 hour. Remove the foil and fluff the rice with a fork. Perfect! (To time the cooking of the rice with the rest of the preparation of this recipe: Cook the rice first. After fluffing with the fork, recover the rice with the foil and set it aside while roasting the vegetables and making the cheese sauce. It will still be warm by the time you assemble the dish.)
Feel free to switch up the vegetables. Anything that can be roasted will work, so I’m thinking asparagus, bell peppers, mushrooms, green beans, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, even tomatoes (roasted very briefly). And if you’re not feeling in the mood for vegetables at all, go for the classic and have the cheese sauce ladled over thick slices of toast, preferably made from a dense, soft-crusted sandwich-style bread.
Making this ahead and what to do with leftovers:
- The veggies and/or rice can be made ahead. If you’ve made both ahead and both are cold going into the oven in the final baking step, add 10 minutes to the baking time.
- The cheese sauce will thicken as it cools. You can make it a little bit ahead and keep it warm on the back of the stove. Depending on how long you keep it, it may need a splash of milk and a vigorous whisking to loosen it before ladling it over the dishes. I don’t recommend making it far enough ahead that it cools completely; it will never get back to a really smooth, pourable texture.
- That said, once the cheese has been poured over the veggies and rice, leftovers will work fine, reheated in the microwave or in a 300 degree oven. Keep leftovers for no more than 3 days.
Rabbit Rice with Roasted Vegetables
Ingredients
- 12 ounces broccoli crowns (florets and 2 inches of stalk)
- 3 large carrots
- 1 medium zucchini
- 1 large red onion
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 8 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, plus additional for the pans
- ½ teaspoon dry mustard
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup beer or whole milk
- 4 cups warm cooked brown rice
- Paprika
Directions
- Step 1 Heat the oven to 400 degrees on the Roast setting if it has one. Line a large baking sheet with heavy duty foil. Generously butter a casserole dish or 4 individual-serving-sized baking dishes or mini cast iron skillets.
- Step 2 Cut the broccoli into florets. Peel the carrots and slice them ½-inch thick on the diagonal. Cut the zucchini lengthwise into quarters and then slice into ½-inch pieces. Peel the onion and cut it into large dice. Arrange the vegetables side by side in 4 separate sections on the baking sheet. Drizzle each vegetable with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, then toss them to coat them evenly. Sprinkle the oregano evenly over all the vegetables.
- Step 3 Roast the vegetables until each one is crisp-tender and lightly charred. The broccoli should take about 15 minutes, the squash and carrots 25, and the onion 35 – but keep an eye on them. As each vegetable finishes cooking, remove them all to the same large bowl. Each time you remove a vegetable, toss the remaining vegetables to rearrange them within their sections on the baking sheet, still keeping them separate from each other. When all the vegetables are done, keep the oven on, but switch from the Roast setting to Bake, at 400 degrees. If you’re using individual baking dishes, discard the oily foil from the baking sheet and arrange the buttered dishes on the sheet.
- Step 4 Meanwhile, make the cheese sauce. Combine the cheese, 1 tablespoon of butter, the dry mustard and cayenne pepper in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until the cheese is melted. It will look curdled and lumpy, not smooth.
- Step 5 Lightly beat the egg in a small bowl just to blend it. Dollop in a spoonful of the hot cheese and beat vigorously with a whisk until the mixture is smooth. Add the egg/cheese mixture back into the pan with the rest of the cheese and whisk until it’s smooth. Add the beer or milk and whisk until smooth. Heat the mixture until it’s hot and just starting to bubble a little bit, but don’t let it boil. Keep the cheese sauce warm over very low heat until the vegetables are ready, whisking it occasionally to keep it smooth and loose.
- Step 6 Stir a small amount of cheese sauce into the rice, just to moisten it, about ¼ cup. Scoop the rice into the dish or dishes, then top with the vegetables. Drizzle the remaining cheese sauce over the vegetables.
- Step 7 Bake for 10 minutes or until everything is heated through and the cheese sauce has melted down to coat the vegetables and rice.
- Step 8 Dust the cheese topping on each serving with a sprinkling of paprika.
