Vermont Casserole

Vermont Casserole–an Instant Pot comforting dinner made with ground beef or turkey, rice, mushrooms and a creamy sauce and topped with cashews and crunchy chow mein noodles.

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Vermont Casserole

Today’s recipe is my adaptation of a recipe called Cashew Casserole from Vermont and is taken from “The Philadelphia Orchestra Cookbook”, published in 1980. It is a somewhat strange combination of ingredients that somehow all work together and taste really good together. The cashews and chow mein noodles bring in an element of crunch. We gobbled this up!

Ingredients/Substitution Ideas

• Lean ground beef or ground turkey
• Onion
• Celery
• Mushrooms
• Kosher salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Dried sage
• Dried rosemary leaves
• Dried thyme leaves
• Chicken or beef broth
• Parboiled rice or long grain white rice
• Cream cheese
• Heavy cream
• Cashews
• Chow mein noodles

Steps

Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. When display says HOT add in the beef/turkey, onion, celery, mushrooms. Brown for about 5 minutes. Turn off Instant Pot. Stir in the salt, pepper, garlic powder, sage, rosemary and thyme. 

Pour in the broth and scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking. Sprinkle in the rice evenly on top, do not stir it in. Dump the cream cheese on top.

Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 4 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 5-10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid. 

Stir in the heavy cream and cashews.

Sprinkle the chow mein noodles on top. If you’d like you can use an air fryer lid to brown the top (for about 3 minutes at 375 degrees). 

Serve and enjoy!

Notes/Tips

• Serve with a green salad, some roasted green beans or another vegetable you like.
• I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 or 8 quart pot.
• Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. The chow mein noodles are best the first day.
• Other recipes you can make with cashews are Instant Pot Cashew Chicken and Instant Pot Chicken Veggie Korma.
• This recipe can be gluten free if you don’t use the chow mein noodles.
• What is converted/parboiled rice? Don’t confuse converted rice (or sometimes it is called parboiled rice) with pre-cooked or minute rice. Parboiled rice has been processed in its husk by soaking, steaming, and drying. As a result, all the nutrients from the husk are absorbed into the grain before it’s removed. The starch content alters in the process, making cooked parboiled rice less sticky than regular white rice. The rice kernels aren’t clumpy and glued together instead they are more separated. I found a bag of parboiled rice at Walmart next to the normal long grain white rice. Sometimes I buy it at Winco in the bulk section. I have also found it in the orange box (Ben’s brand) next to other rices.

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More Instant Pot Rice Casseroles…

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*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.