Sequestration Meal #271

 

Since right now I'm gravitating toward easy food and one-dish dinners as I try to come out of my funk, when I had a half a can of chickpeas waiting in the fridge I decided to make a scaled down version of the chickpea and rice casserole at From My Bowl. This is one of those recipes with the colloquial (and unappetizing) name of "Dump Dinners," in that you just dump everything in the casserole dish and stick in the oven. 

Once upon a time I think I made the dish that may have inspired Caitlin at From My Bowl (at least as she describes it on her blog post), a chicken-and-rice casserole made from canned cream of mushroom soup and chicken broth. This had a slight resemblance to that, but not a strong one. I do really like rice cooked in broth, and adding that bit of coconut milk was ingenious. Plus, unlike a cream-of-something-soup-based casserole, this one is also gluten free, which is kind of fun. I think I could make any number of versions of this casserole just by switching up the veggies and beans, and I look forward to trying! This is not at all fancy food but if you want to get dinner done with about as much effort as it takes to boil water it's perfect. And baked rice is always such a special texture--firmer somehow, but still tender.

Casseroles like this look better in the pan, so I showed you the whole thing instead of my plate, but I got about three servings out of my scaled down version.