Jesse totally makes fun of me for making this dish, because I do NOT do casseroles. I’m really not even a comfort-food cook either for that matter, and casseroles are typically heavy, loaded with dairy and lots of cheese, and just not the way I cook (or can even eat!). But then last year I saw this “casserole” in Danielle Walker’s Against All Grain “Meals Made Simple” cookbook, and I knew I had to try it out. No “cream of” cans in this, and shockingly, there is zero dairy! But yet it is SO delicious and so satisfying, and healthy as the creamy sauce is made from cashews and the “rice” is actually grated cauliflower, that you can happily indulge in this casserole guilt-free! Whenever Jesse walks in and sees this cooking, he is almost a little too excited by the fact that I made a casserole. 🙂 Hah!
- SAUCE
- 1 cup raw cashews
- ¾ cup chicken stock (I use the poaching liquid from the chicken)
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
- CASSEROLE
- 3 Tbsp ghee, butter, or olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ onion, diced
- 4 oz. mushrooms, finely diced
- 4 cups riced cauliflower*
- 8 oz broccoli florets, chopped
- 1½ tsp sea salt
- ¾ tsp black pepper
- 1-2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded**
- Soak the cashews in a container filled with boiling water for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a casserole dish.
- Saute the onions, garlic, and mushrooms in the ghee (or other) about 3 minutes until onions start to become translucent. Add in the broccoli, salt, and pepper and let it cook several minutes for the broccoli to start to become tender. Add in the cauliflower and turn off the heat.
- To make the sauce, drain the cashews, and place all the ingredients for the sauce into a blender. Blend on high for 30-45 seconds until smooth.
- Stir in the shredded chicken and the sauce into the broccoli mixture, and pour into the casserole dish.
- Cover the dish with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake another 10 minutes.
**I usually just use one and add extra mushrooms and broccoli (and sometimes I like to add chopped kale too), but you can certainly use two if you want more chicken in there! To poach chicken, I will put the raw chicken in a pot and cover with water. Sometimes I will add some celery or onion to the water as well to help season the chicken, and then let it simmer 25-30 minutes, until cooked through. Alternatively, you could use some leftover roasted chicken, or make it extra easy and use a precooked rotisserie chicken! If you go that route though, I would decrease the amount of salt in the recipe.
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