What to do when you have a partial zucchini, one ear of leftover grilled corn, a few baby carrots hanging out in the fridge bin, and an over abundance of fresh basil in the garden? Toss them all all together with some rice and a little cheese sounded like a good plan to me! 😉

And a very good plan it was!!

I was making grilled salmon in foil packets and homemade hush puppies for supper (coming soon!), but we still needed another dish. I was a wee bit burned out on salads, but still needed to sneak in some veggies past the veggie snubber hubs. He just wants to always eat the icing and not the cake.

Game on.

Rice always goes well with fish, so I was on the fence on which way I wanted to go. I really was leaning towards a buttery lemon base in the rice, but the hubs wasn’t on board with the lemon. And since it was going to be used for the salmon, too, I didn’t want lemon-overkill, either.

*Hush Puppy recipe coming soon! 😉 Salmon recipe here!

After searching through the fridge and pantry, I finally looked down into the freezer and saw a partial bag of shredded cheese.

We have a winner!

So cheese it was. And BOY was it ever good!! You could use whatever cheese you enjoy, but the bit I had was a mozzarella and provolone blend that worked really well!

Instead of just using regular salt, I upped the flavor with a little chicken base, fresh garlic, black pepper, and some dried minced onion. (I only had large onions left and didn’t want to cut into one for such a small amount that I needed.) The dried minced worked just fine. 😉

This ended up going really well with the lemon salmon, but it would also be very good with just about any other meat, too, such as grilled chicken, steak, pork or lamb chops, ribs, shrimp, or even a comforting meatloaf or roast! 😉

There’s just enough cheese in there to mask the already mild, sweet veggies so that even the pickiest of veggie haters won’t even notice that they’re in there. 😉

You can also sneak in whatever veggies you enjoy such as sweet baby peas, chopped broccoli or cauliflower, yellow squashes, grated radish or chopped kale.

So if you’re looking for any easy side dish that uses up bits and dabs in the fridge before they go bad and you end up having to throw them out, this one is really nice and a true family pleaser!

Cheesy Fresh Corn, Carrot & Basil Zucchini Rice

Ingredients

2 cups water
2 1/2 Tbl. butter
2 tsp. chicken base such as Better Than Bouillon
2 tsp. dried minced onion
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/8 tsp. coarse ground black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. fresh basil, chiffonade into thin ribbons (2 leaves depending on size)
1 cup white rice
1 cup of grated zucchini, unpeeled
1/3 cup grated carrots
2 cups of corn cut fresh from the cob (1 small to medium-sized ear), can sub frozen
2 cups shredded mozzarella and provolone blend cheese such as Sargento's
fresh tomato slices and sprigs of fresh parsley for garnish if desired

Instructions

In medium saucepan, add water and next 7 ingredients.

Heat over medium high heat, covered with tight-fitting lid, until it comes to a boil. Stir, recover, turn down to LOW, and let simmer for 15-17 minutes. *Do not lift lid while simmering!

When time is up, remove lid, quickly stir in veggies and cheese well, and recover.

Let sit for 5-8 minutes.

When cheese has melted and is soft, re-stir until creamy and cheese is stirred in evenly.

Serve hot garnished with slices of fresh tomato and parsley if desired.