The Cheesy Canned Soup That Turns Rice Into A Filling Budget Meal

Rice is one of those inexpensive pantry staples that absolutely everyone should have in their kitchen. Even without a rice cooker, you can easily make rice in the microwave in just a few minutes, so it's easy to prepare. It's also filling, pretty tasty with just a dash of salt. It's also the perfect base for tasty, fast, satiating meals, requiring only the addition of a can of savory, hearty condensed broccoli-cheese soup.

Since ordinary long-grain white rice is about 70 cents per pound, and a can of Campbell's-brand broccoli cheese soup costs about $2 per 10.5-ounce can, this is also a fairly budget-friendly meal, especially if you use the right ratio of rice to soup. One can of condensed soup can easily flavor up to three cups of prepared rice since it needs to be diluted slightly with water or broth to the consistency of a thick Alfredo sauce. That adds up to several servings of food, making this the perfect inexpensive, filling dinner for one (with leftovers) or a small family. 

Of course, none of this would matter if this combo weren't delicious, but it absolutely is. The nutty, earthy roasted broccoli nestled in a salty, savory, cheesy sauce beautifully coats the rice to give it a creamy risotto-like texture. The best way to achieve this is to cook the rice first, then add the soup and heat them together, ensuring the rice has the perfect fluffy, tender consistency.

All you really need to make this meal are the rice and canned soup, but if you have a few other common ingredients on hand, it's pretty easy to upgrade this tasty budget meal. First, extra veggies always make everything better, so if you have an onion, frozen broccoli florets, or bell peppers hanging out in your crisper drawer, give them a sauté and stir them into this meal to pack in even more nutrition and delicious flavor.

You can also use this pairing as a tasty foundation for broccoli-rice casserole with chicken. It's one of the best ways to upgrade canned chicken or use up leftover shredded rotisserie chicken from Costco, and baking everything in the oven gives the canned soup and rice a caramelized, roasted flavor. You'll need about three cans of soup and four cups of rice for a standard 13-by-9-inch casserole dish, but it's truly as easy as mixing the ingredients with the chicken and seasonings like garlic powder and pepper before topping with cheese. Then you just bake it at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for roughly 30 minutes. Your casserole is ready when the cheese is bubbly and brown on the edges.

Of course, chicken is far from the only protein you can use. Ground beef is delicious and easy to season up with some smoked paprika, as are leftover pork chops or ground turkey.