Ground Beef and Wild Rice Casserole – An Easy One Pot Meal
Ground beef and wild rice casserole is an easy, one pot meal that goes together quickly. If you prefer, you can make homemade cream of mushroom soup and substitute for the soup concentrate and water. When I’m in a hurry, I use Pacific Organic Mushroom soup concentrate, which is gluten free and soy free. I use one BIG onion or several smaller onions. We love onions!
Ground Beef and Wild Rice Casserole Recipe
Wild rice gives this dish a firmer texture and lower carb count than the standard hamburger rice casseroles. I’ve been using wild rice more in cooking recently as part of my anti-candida, anti-psoriasis diet, and I enjoy it. Just be aware that it does take longer to cook than white or brown rice. Under-cooked wild rice is quite chewy, so make sure you allow enough cooking time. This dish can be made ahead and reheated on the stove top or in a crock pot. Just add a little extra liquid, if needed, to help with heat transfer and keep it from scorching.
PrintGround Beef and Wild Rice Casserole
Ground beef and wild rice casserole is an easy, one pot meal that goes together quickly. Wild rice gives this dish a firmer texture and lower carb count.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
- Category: main dish
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 chopped onion
- 3 large carrots, diced
- 1 can water
- 1 cup wild rice
- 1 can/container cream of mushroom soup
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1–2 tablespoons soy sauce
Instructions
- In a medium stock pot or Dutch oven, brown ground beef and onion together.
- Add rest of ingredients except soy sauce. Cover and simmer for about 1 hour.
- Add soy sauce before serving.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 scoop (about 1/2 cup)
A Note on Wild Rice
Like wine, the flavor will vary depending on where it is grown. Sometimes it’s a little more nutty, sometimes more fishy. The majority of the “wild” rice in the U.S. and Canada is now cultivated, not wild harvested (more than 4 times as much is produced via cultivation), which is part of why wild harvested rice demands a premium price. There are also several different species that are all grouped under the category of “wild rice”. From The international Wild Rice Foundation:
In North America, the species, Zizania palustris, is found (primarily) in areas west and north of the Great Lakes. In addition, there are several other species that grow in limited quantities in other North American locations. Zizania aquatica is found growing in isolated pockets from New Jersey to Florida. And, Zizania texana is found growing in the San Marcos River area located just north of San Antonio, Texas. Also, the species, Zizania latifolia can be found growing in various regions of Asia.
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So, if you’re into eating local, you may want to keep an eye out for the specific varieties that are native to your area.
Buy Wild Rice Online
- Red Lake Nation 100% All Natural Minnesota Cultivated Wild Rice, 6-Ounce (Pack of 2)
- Lundberg Organic Wild Rice, 8 Ounce
If you have a favorite way to use wild rice, I’d love to hear about it.
More Home Cooked Recipes
- Easy Homemade Alfredo Sauce – Great for Chicken Broccoli Alfredo
- Quesadillas – Savory or Sweet, Plus a Homemade Tortilla Recipe
- Chicken Pot Pie
We have made this for years! Call it “Dog food Casserole” because of it’s look. I also use wild rice in my stuffing for turkey, and I make my home made chicken soup with wild rice. Love the nutty flavor.
This recipe looks yummy and I will making it today. I like to use canned precooked wild rice. Is the can of water still necessary?
Thanks
Yes, with cooked rice you can reduce or eliminate the extra water, and reduce the cooking time. Just make sure your carrots are cooked through to your liking.
Super simple, great recipe when you start to run low like “Old Mother Hubbard”.
I happened to have a package of uncle bens wild rice, 1 can of mushroom soup, 1lbs of ground beef… so this recipe came up when I googled those ingredients.
Anyway the substitution of uncle bens was great added a boost of flavour, plus I omitted the water for beef broth instead. I omitted the celery only because I didn’t have any, and added some garlic powder and a dash of cayenne pepper for a little more pop.
One pot meals are my favourite! My whole family gobbled it up and all went for seconds and my hubby packed the leftovers for lunch 🙂
Glad to here it was good even with out celery, I also had the though to add garlic as well! I have it simmering now, hope it turns out well!
Could you make this with chicken instead of ground beef ?
You can make dishes any way you want. That’s one of the primary benefits of home cooking. I think the stronger flavor of the beef works well in the mix, but chicken and wild rice soup is good, too, so I’m sure it would be fine.
I made this tonight..I did add some beef bullion to mine ..I felt it needed a lil more taste..easy and fast to make which is always a plus..I also used canned wild rice. To save even more time
I do find that canned products tend to be more bland than fresh, so adding some extra spice of your choice would brighten the flavor.
What’s the nutritional info….specifically carbs per serving. How many servings does this make?
Hi Pam.
I’m not exactly sure about the serving size, as the end product always turns out a little different depending on who is in the kitchen. (One person will add more onions, another more carrots, and so on.) It normally portions out to easily be a couple of scoops with my big serving spoon per person for the for of us, with enough leftover for a lighter meal the next day. I counted it as 12 servings, but I’m feeding young men. Also, there’s variation in the cream of mushroom soup. The nutrition calculator defaults to campbell’s brand, but I haven’t used that in years. If you want to try and calculate with whatever brand you use, there are programs available like My Fitness Pal.
I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to pull this off because I did not have a fresh onion or celery (yes it was one of those…”OMG, I have NOTHING in the house to make dinner” situations. Fortunately, I had a box of seasoned wild rice, and used that, which made up some of flavor deficit from not having the necessary veggies. It still turned out really yummy! My husband ate the heck out of this!
Glad that it worked well for you.
I made this today…very good, and simple to prepare. Thanks for sharing.
Glad that it worked well for you. Thanks for letting me know.
I like everything about this recipe, but it did lack some flavor for me. We ended up adding a little siracha sauce which made it very tasty! I may try adding some ranch seasoning mix next time I make it
If you regularly eat siracha, then I could certainly see how you would desire a little more zip.
do you drain the meat and onions after cooking?
No, I didn’t. We use grass fed ground beef so it’s pretty lean. If you have fattier beef you could drain it if it looks too greasy.
Wild Rice is 1 cup rice to 3 cups water or broth
The rice also absorbs liquid from the veggies in this recipe.
Is there really supposed to only be 1 C water and 1 can soup for liquids? Im making it right now and did doesn’t seem like enough.
1 can of water, not one cup (so a little more than one cup). The wild rice doesn’t absorb as much liquid as white rice, and the carrots will add some moisture, too.
Is the rice raw or cooked? This sounds real yummy.
The wild rice goes in raw.
How does it turn out using pre-cooked wild rice?