Globecooking recipe : Minnesotan Hotdish (USA)

Hotdish, popular in Minnesota and North Dakota, is more of a concept than a recipe so you can tweak it to suit your needs. It is a one dish wonder that contains meat (most often mince but other versions exist with chicken or even tuna), canned or frozen vegetables, a carbohydrate (usually pasta or potatoes in some form - tater tots, which gives it the name Tater Tots Hotdish, hash browns or potato chips usually). The final, and some would say defining, ingredient is canned soup (cream of mushroom usually) but as I was making this to go with the leftover green bean casserole, I thought that would be just too much soup on the plate ! I'll be making a variation of this with chicken though and will definitely add in the soup then. It's a great fuss-free family dish that can be modified to use whatever you have in the freezer.

Minnesotan Hotdish

ingredients :

a pack of mince

2 onions

salt/pepper

frozen or canned veg - I used a tin of peas/carrots and a tin of sweetcorn

a can of cream of mushroom soup (which I replaced with a can of baked beans and a beef stock pot this time)

a bag of frozen hash browns

Fry the mince and onions until it has gone uniformly brown. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the tinned vegetables and soup (or beans and stock cube). Heat through for ten minutes util it starts to bubble.

Transfer to an ovenproof dish and top with hash browns. I prebaked mine while preparing the mince to save time but I'm sure they would work from frozen too. Bake for 30 minutes or so at 180° until the hash browns are cooked through and golden brown.

*** Don't miss my country-by-country globecooking recipe index !  If you want more American delicacies, how about Hoppin' John & Collards (South Carolina), Parmesan Chicken Breast, Reuben Sandwich or Slow Cooker BBQ Beef ?