This is not your mother’s or grandmother’s recipe—and it’s not trying to be. Hotdish has deep roots in the Midwest, especially Minnesota. It’s essentially a casserole. Typically there’s a hearty cream soup base, canned or frozen vegetables, lots of ground meat, and a crisp topping such as tater tots or crackers. It’s warm, cozy, and filling; the perfect meal for a dark and cold winter night. As a gal who grew up in Saint Paul, I ate hotdish on the regular, most often made by my grandma Dorothy, the hotdish queen.
In recent years I’ve dabbled with making hotdish on my own. Despite my nostalgia for grandma’s version, I skip the canned soup, canned vegetables, and excess of meat—components typically found in classic hotdish. Instead, I replace half of the meat with chopped zucchini or mushrooms—depending on what season it is—and employ some clever cooking techniques, like searing the ground meat and making a from-scratch cream soup to heighten the flavor.
You can use whatever ground meat and frozen vegetable combo you prefer. My family loves making it with ground venison and will often use fresh corn when available. Soy sauce gives the DIY soup base a hit of umami, while a handful of chopped parsley cuts through the richness. And while cheddar isn’t always used in traditional hotdish, I love to melt it under a crunchy tater tot topping, which you can arrange any way you’d like. Have fun with it. (Some people even melt the cheese on top of the tater tots.) I also bake mine at a higher-than-normal temperature to ensure the tots come out perfectly crisp, a welcome contrast to the béchamel-like filling.
After all the updates, this version of hotdish has been approved by my entire Minnesota family—including my picky 10-year-old brother, Konrad.
