Baked Rice with Butternut Squash and Asparagus
This casserole-style dish is simple to make and requires minimal ingredients. Use a combination of brown and wild rice (per recipe instructions), or just use one or the other if that's all you have on hand. It's a win either way.
Ingredients
- 3 cups water
- ½ cup brown rice
- ½ cup wild rice
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon ground sage
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 ½ pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes (about 4 cups)
- ½ pound asparagus spears, ends trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 cup sliced onion, sliced pole to pole (see Recipe Notes)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rub a little olive oil along the sides and bottom of a 3-quart baking dish. Add water, rice, garlic, thyme, sage, salt, and pepper. Stir well.
- Bake uncovered 30 minutes. Mix in squash, asparagus, and onions. Cook 30 minutes, stir, and then bake another 15 minutes, or until water is nearly all absorbed and rice is softened.
- Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 cup)
Notes
- To slice an onion pole to pole, or into half rings, think of the onion as a globe. Trim root end (South Pole) and stem end (North Pole). Peel off outer layers. Cut onion in half from North Pole to South Pole, making a series of slices perpendicular to the equator of the onion.
- Use 1 teaspoon dried crushed rosemary in place of the thyme and sage.
I plan on making this in a half hour. Before I start I was wondering if I should still add water if my rices are pre-made (had used them in another recipe so I made extra)??? I’ll just add the spices/herbs then mix with the veggies and bake. Should I bake it for 45min covered then??
Hi, Danielle! I’m just now seeing this comment. How did the dish turn out for you?
After reading the reviews that the dish was not done, I decided to cook this covered after the first 30 minutes. I also cooked for a total of 1.5 hours. Everything was cooked doing it this way & certainly not soggy or overdone. I think next time I’ll use vegetable broth/stock instead of water, just for a little extra flavor.
Thanks for your feedback!
A true Daniel Fast has no salt at all so perhaps Mrs. Dash or some other herbs should be in this dish I plan to try it soon Thank you for the recipe.
Hi, Gail! Actually, it’s acceptable to use salt, pepper, herbs, and spices on the Daniel Fast. See my Daniel Fast Food List for more information.
This was very good..perhaps a bit more salt and pepper though. We found that adding a lid after 45 minutes (for the remaining 45 minutes) helped to evaporate the water. Way yum!
Hi, Sherri! Yes, I tend to be conservative with my salt amounts. 🙂 I’m glad you liked it!
this looks and sounds scrumcious…
I’ve made this a couple times with brown rice instead, and our family loves it! In fact, after I made it the first time, they requested that I make it again the next day! I put broccoli in instead of asparagus, but it worked beautifully. Thank you for this!
You’re welcome! I love success stories. 🙂 Thanks for your comments!
I made this tonight and it is absolutely delicious. I bought the squash already cut to make things easier.
This also didn’t work for me at all. I cooked it for at least an hour and 30 minutes and the rice and butternut squash was still not cooked. It was like soup. I didn’t have wild rice and used a full cup of brown rice, so maybe the wild rice soaks up more of the water? I don’t know. I just really regret not making the rice separately and perhaps putting everything into a skillet on the stove top like a stir-fry. Kinda a waste of time, good asparagus and butternut squash. 🙁
I really appreciate your website, though. Most of the soup recipes I’ve tried have been SO good!
Rachel, I’m sorry to hear it didn’t turn out as you expected! I even checked the instructions to make sure there wasn’t a typo, but it all seems correct. The total cooking time should be an hour and 15 minutes. Anyway, I appreciate your kind words about the other recipes. Thanks for your comment!
Elizabeth, I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you! You cooked it for a total of 1 hr and 15 minutes, and it still wasn’t done? Just want to make sure you did cook it that long. Thanks for your comment and for visiting the blog. 🙂
This didn’t work for me the was the recipe is written I followed the directions with the temperature and time and to cook it uncovered. At the end the squash was still not cooked and the onions were still crunchy. The rice and asparagus didn’t cook evenly either I think because . I had to load it all in to a big cook pot, add more water and steam the whole thing for another ten minutes.
I think maybe after the first 30 minutes covering it would have helped.
You’ll have to try it and let me know what you think! Thanks for visiting my blog. 🙂
This sounds fantastic. I love squash.