Mt. Rainer Zucchini and Rice

This is a recipe some coworkers of mine made for an outdoor Dutch oven cooking competition about 20 years ago and I've adapted to a conventional oven. My wife loves this and we've even had it as a main course although it is better suited to a side dish due to its rich flavor.

Ingredients

• 0.25 cup butter
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 cup brown and wild rice mix
• 0.25 cup water
• 2 large tomatoes, diced
• 4 small zucchini, sliced
• 0.5 cup shredded Colby cheese
• 2 cups sour cream
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 0.25 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 0.25 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 0.25 teaspoon black pepper

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Mix onion, brown and wild rice mix, and water in the melted butter. Layer tomatoes over rice mixture; top with zucchini. Cover zucchini with Colby cheese.
3. Mix sour cream, garlic, salt, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, and black pepper together in a bowl; spread over Colby cheese layer. Cover Dutch oven.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until rice is tender and cheese is bubbling, about 45 minutes.