Another incredibly good, deeply satisfying vegetarian main dish from Deb. You could absolutely use regular rice, brown rice, bulgur, quinoa, whatever you have five cooked cups of on hand but I really like the wild rice part of this. I think because I so seldom make wild rice; it’s kind of very welcome surprise guest at dinner.

Aside from cooking the rice, you’re just going to need to saute the onions for 30 minutes to caramelize them. Then bring it all together and sprinkle cheese (Emmentaler or Swiss in the recipe but I think I used some Gruyere too) and breadcrumbs on top and bake for 30 more minutes. Because of the 60+ minute cooking time and prep it’s probably not a weeknight meal unless you somehow manage to leave the office on time for a change and traffic magically parts to allow you – the most important person the road – to get the hell home.  (All of that actually happened to me once.  In a dream.  Yes, I dream about light traffic and other mundane miracles.  Once I dreamed I found the perfect nail polish color.  So hard to wake up from something like that.)

Please stop distracting me.

As I was saying…this dish is so good: warm and cheesy and onion-y and nutty.  A casserole but not.  Filling but not to the point of discomfort.  And doesn’t adding kale to anything make it instantly a super food?  I’m pretty sure I read that somewhere.

Wild Rice Gratin with Kale, Caramelized Onions and Baby Swiss on page 149 of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.