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Creamed Spinach and Wild Rice Casserole. A mix between your classic green bean casserole, a spinach soufflé, and a bowl of French onion soup. It’s not your traditional side, but it’s so delicious. Caramelized yellow onions with baby spinach (or use kale) in a cream sauce with fresh thyme and sage. Wild rice is then mixed in and the casserole is topped with Gruyère cheese. When baked together the creamed spinach and nutty wild rice create the perfect balance. The cheese just makes the casserole even yummier. Make this casserole ahead of time for an easy holiday side that everyone will love.
Thanksgiving is less than a week away. Not sure how we got to this point of the year already, but the holidays are here. The stores are filled with Christmas decorations, gifts, and toys. Turkeys, yams, and hams are everywhere. There’s a lot of rush-rush, stress, and excitement.
I love every minute of this season. Even with some of the stress, it’s fun having so much happening. So many things to share, cook, bake, eat, and hopefully enjoy. The holidays are magical in my eyes!
I’ve been enjoying sharing Thanksgiving dishes all week long. This is the last side dish I’m sharing before the Thanksgiving holiday and it’s such a yummy one! Next week I’ll focus on easy dinners and quick appetizers to share with our guests and family. Everyone will be arriving soon!
When it comes to Thanksgiving dishes, I grew up with the basics. Roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes and rolls. My brothers and I never bothered with the green beans or any of that other “adult” food.
When we moved to Colorado I started cooking a lot of the Thanksgiving meal. I became a little more adventurous. I was baking popovers and roasting spaghetti squash. But truthfully, the green bean casserole has never been of interest to me.
So instead, one year I made a version of this wild rice casserole. Ever since that year, I’ve made it every Thanksgiving! It was inspired by the classic green bean casserole, but in reality, it’s pretty different
It’s loaded up with creamed spinach (or kale), wild rice, and plenty of melty cheese on top. It’s kind of a mix between a spinach soufflé and yummy French onion soup!
Here are the details
Step 1: caramelize the onions and cook the greens
Use sweet yellow onions and begin cooking them down until they are soft. Then add all of the spinach, or try using kale. Allow the greens to slowly cook along with the onions until they are wilted.
At this point, the onions should be pretty caramelized. Add a couple of tablespoons of butter, garlic, fresh thyme, sage, and poultry seasoning.
Step 2: add the cream
Next mix in the cream cheese, cream, and milk. Simmer the cream sauce until it thickens just a bit.
Then remove the creamed spinach from the heat.
Step 3: mix in the wild rice
Spread the cooked wild rice out and into a casserole dish. Pour the creamed spinach over the rice, gently mixing to combine. You can cook the wild rice at home or use precooked wild rice. Many stores like Trader Joe’s sell cooked, frozen wild rice. That works perfectly too!
Next, add the cheese. I love to use melty, sweet, and sharp Gruyère cheese. It’s a great cheese to pair with the onions and rice.
Step 4: bake
Bake the casserole until the cheese is melty and the edges begin to crisp.
It might seem simple, but that browned, golden top really adds another layer of deliciousness to the rice that makes everyone want more.
Serve this up warm with some fresh thyme for added color.
I’m excited to share this recipe with not only you but family and friends as well. This is one of my mom’s favorite sides.
The next question is, what will you be pairing this casserole with? The obvious answer for Thanksgiving is turkey. But come December, over here it will be the pot roast I can’t stop making it.
Looking for other easy Thanksgiving sides?? Here are my favorites:
Make Ahead Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Crispy Parmesan Thyme Sweet Potato Stacks
Sweet Potato Casserole with Sweet ‘n’ Savory Bacon Pecans
Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes with Caramelized Onions
Lastly, if you make this Creamed Spinach and Wild Rice Casserole, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Creamed Spinach and Wild Rice Casserole
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 612 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 4-5 cups baby spinach/chopped kale
- 2 cups sliced cremini mushrooms (optional)
- salt and black pepper
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped sage
- 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 6 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- 4 cups cooked wild rice
- 1 1/2 cup shredded Gruyère cheese
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 425° F. 2. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the olive oil and onions until the onions are soft, 5 minutes. Add the spinach and or kale (I like to use a mix), and mushrooms, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally until the spinach is wilted, another 10 minutes. Add the butter, garlic, thyme, sage, poultry seasoning, and cayenne.3. Reduce the heat to low. Mix in the cream cheese, stirring until melted. Add the cream and milk. Simmer for 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens a bit, then remove from the heat. Season with salt and pepper. 4. Spread the wild rice out into a 9x13-inch casserole dish. Pour the spinach and cream sauce over the rice, gently mixing to combine. Top the casserole with Gruyère cheese. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbling on top. Serve with sea salt on top!
Hi! What kind of milk substitute (for the 1 cup 2% you used) would you recommend for this (soy, almond, etc.)? Also, what would you recommend as a substitute for the mushrooms? Recipe looks wonderful — sorry for trying to tweak it! Thanks 🙂
Use whatever you drink normally. Both almond and coconut would be great, but if you drink soy, use that. For the mushrooms, sub maybe peppers, broccoli or diced sweet potatoes. Hope you love this! Let me know if you have any more questions. 🙂
Definitely on my “to eat” list. & yes I have one of those. 😉
Thanks!
I made this a few nights ago and it was amazing!!! I halved the recipe and it still made plenty for my fiance and I. Just wondering, since kale wilts pretty easily/quickly, do you think the amount of water could be cut down to cut down some of the time that it takes for all of that water to be absorbed? Also I made this ahead of time like you recommended in the comments and it was perfect! Just added the cheese and threw it in the oven when it was time to eat. Thanks for another great recipe Tieghan!
So happy you loved this, THANK YOU!! As for the water, I do not think you NEED it, but I do think it helps to evenly steam the kale without burning it.
I have a ton of Kale that I want to use before a hard frost so I made this today. I also have lots of fresh thyme because I brought my patio herbs indoors. It took me much longer than 50 minutes, Because of chopping and prep I guess. I used half light cream and half unsweetened almond milk to try to cut some fat. It is very good and makes a lot. Thanks for the recipie.
Very happy you enjoyed this!! Thanks so much for the feedback! 🙂
Until recently I have never really given Kale the attention it deserves in my cooking. I recently tried a recipe from another site, managed to source some locally and now i’m hooked. I will certainly give this amazing sounding dish a go and do a little experimenting myself.
Thanks! Hope you love this!
This was REALLY tasty! It took me a lot longer to put together but hind sight; preparing all the chopping, dicing etc. ahead time would have made it more seamless (duh). Still it was AWESOME. Mine didn’t look like your pics but I think I didn’t use enough Kale and admittingly, used twice the cheese (my bad, Im a cheeseaholic). Thank you for posting. A great new side to add to our holiday celebrations 🙂
Twice the cheese? you are my hero! 🙂
Took me longer than 50 minutes – more like 90 – but totally worth it! Loved and served as a main with black beans on the side.
Great recipe! Thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks Megan!
I saw this today on Pinterest and had to make it immediately! I didn’t have wild rice on hand, so I used quinoa, and it turned out delicious! Thank you for such a wonderful recipe. I can’t wait to have the leftovers tomorrow for lunch!
Quinoa would be awesome with this!! Thanks so much for reporting back. So happy you love this, Julia!
Can you assemble the whole thing ahead (like the day before) and then just bake it right before you want to serve it? Or will it get soggy then?
This can be completely assemble ahead of time and baked right before serving! I do this all the time.
Thanks Elizabeth and I hope you love this!
Great! Thanks so much for your quick response 🙂
Found your lovely photos and recipe on Pinterest! I am gathering ingredients to make this yummy looking dish for new year’s day. Happy New Year and lovely blog!! x
Thanks so much, Nicki!! So glad your found my site and Happy New year!
Hope you love this!
I found this recipe through Pinterest and it looks amazing! It has several of my favorite things in it. I can’t wait to try it! I have a question about the wild rice. From the pictures, it looks like it might be a mixture of wild rice and brown rice…is this correct, or is it 100% wild rice? Would you mind sharing the brand you use? Thank you so much, and I’m looking forward to browsing your site for other recipes!
Great recipe! Before I read your blog, I made it and substituted ham for the mushrooms since I had left over ham. Turned out great. Then i read about how you had never cooked ham 🙂 You have great recipes so I will be back to try more. Glad Google led me to you!
Thank you so much, Wendy!! So happy you loved this and I love that you added ham. Sounds great!
Oh man that is the craziest story!! I was just reading a bunch of blog posts by bloggers who did a feature interview on their significant others (started by i am baker) and one of the interview questions was “what is the weirdest thing you’ve [the husband] ever seen me [the blogger] do?” A lot of husbands just said “standing on the table to photograph something,” but I think this would be a seriously winning story to re-tell. Also, this looks so good even if you told me that pan had been super glued back together, I probably would have eaten a lot of it 🙂
Haha! I will have to read that post!! Too funny!!
Thanks so much, Erika!
Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂
Can you make this a day ahead and bake the next day to finish?
Yes, this works great to make ahead. Please let me know if you have any other questions. Happy Thanksgiving! ?
Yes, that will be great! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Please let me know if you have other questions. Hope you love this recipe! Thanks! 🙂
I love kale and this looks amazing! Why do you stress not stirring the mushrooms?
Thanks Zima! I like to not stir the onions so they can get a nice caramelization on them. The are really good this way!