creamy, cheesy, garlicky rice with spinach - french fridays w/ dorie

Talk about straying, but it was great anyway! Honestly I knew this was going to be so far from the printed recipe I almost didn't consider it a french friday dish, but it was so good, I couldn't not share it!

I didn't have time to stop at the market so these are the ingredient alterations:
I didn't use spinach, I used some collard greens and turnip greens.
I left out the cream all together
I didn't have chicken stock so used all water
I only had white rice and brown basmati, so used the white
I didn't have swiss, just cheddar and parmesan, so opted for the cheddar. It was a special Cabot aged cheddar that was only available at their Vermont stores. We got it on vacation and it is wonderful!

The method I also streamlined because I had a meeting last night and had no time for anything really. That being said, what a great, quick dish for a weeknight meal! I cooked the onions and garlic in butter. Then added the greens and sauteed, covered, until wilted.

In another pot I cooked the rice, as normally directed on the package - 1 cup rice / 2 cups water, salt.

When the rice was cooked, I dumped in the greens & onions, then added about 1/3 cup chopped cheddar. It was nice, dry and crumbly. I added some more salt, mixed together and served. Everyone went crazy over it and it was done in about 1/2 hour.





I served it with the burgers I had froze from a couple weeks ago and we steamed up some edamame from our CSA share. The burgers were served on Pepperidge Farms Goldfish sandwich buns! Talk about sophisticated.