Minnesota Recipe: Tater Tot Hotdish

Hot, warm, and tasty

My extensive research tells me that the first published recipe for hotdish was published by a church women's group in Mankato, Minnesota, in the 1930s. This original recipe included ground beef, canned tomato soup, peas, elbow macaroni, and celery.

Modern hotdish recipes vary wildly but typically include a starch, meat, and veggies, all mixed with canned soup. Tater Tot Hotdish is traditionally made with ground beef, tater tots, and cream of mushroom soup.

Like many Minnesotans, Brad's cousin Joanne has created her own version of hotdish to suit her family's tastes. I was fortunate enough to get a recipe demonstration and taste test during our time in Minnesota.

Hot Dish Master, Joanne, at work.

Joanne lightens the traditional recipe by substituting ground turkey for ground beef. She uses cheddar cheese soup as the binder, and cooks the tater tots separately first to ensure they are extra crunchy.

The veggies, onions and celery, are kept simple and finely chopped to avoid overwhelming the dish. The crunchy tater tots are truly the star of the dish, but the whole dish is warm, comforting, and just what you want when three feet of snow are on the ground.

Flip through the pictures of our cooking adventure below. The full recipe follows the pictures or you can download a PDF of the recipe to save or print here.

Tater Tot Hotdish (a la Joanne)

Ingredients

1 23-32 oz package frozen tater tots (regular, mini or extra crispy)

1 to 1.5 pounds ground turkey (or ground beef)

Olive oil

1 Can of condensed Cheddar Cheese soup (can use Nacho Cheese or Cream of Mushroom

soup if you prefer)

Milk - see below

1 cup diced onion

1 cup diced celery

2 cloves minced garlic (or can omit)

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: Garlic salt, crushed red pepper or chili powder (whatever seasoning you prefer!)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spread tater tots evenly on baking sheet, bake for about 20-25 minutes until browned and crispy.

While tots are baking:

Brown the ground turkey, onions, celery and garlic in skillet with a drizzle of olive oil until meat is cooked. Drain any fat off. Stir in soup, add in 1 soup can of milk (can add a bit more milk if mixture is too thick)

Remove tots from oven and reduce oven temp to 350 degrees.

Spread most of tots in 9x13 baking dish, pour meat/soup mixture over tots, stir gently to mix (try not break up the tots) Spread remaining tots on top.

Bake for 20 - 30 minutes until heated through and bubbly around edges.

Top with shredded cheese if you like.

Enjoy!