Ain’t Your Momma’s Tater Tot Casserole Recipe

Servings: 6

No canned soup here! This is a fresh summery take on an American fave. I make mine with the freshest veggies I can find when they're at their peak and instead of using a canned soup, I melt in a bit of cream cheese to make the filling extra creamy. I also use the same cast iron pan to make the filling as I do to bake and serve it in to cut back on dish washing at the end of the day. Who says you need to use a casserole dish to make a casserole?

I love to use fire roasted or charred corn in this recipe. To char corn at home, I heat up a couple tablespoons of a neutral oil in a cast iron pan until the pan is very hot. Then, I add in the shucked ears of corn and let them sit for a few minutes until charred then I rotate them to brown all over. Charring them on a hot grill is also a great option! Once the corn is charred, I cut the kernels off the cob by resting the base of the cob on top of a small bowl that is upside down and placed inside a larger bowl. The small bowl gives my knife more room to cut while the big bowl catches all of the kernels. For this recipe, make sure to have at least 2 cups of corn kernels. When corn is not in season, I'll just use a bag of charred corn from the grocery store and defrost it right before using.

Recipe featured on Rachael Ray's Meals in Minutes.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 different colored sweet peppers of choice, I like to use a red field pepper and cubanelle or whatever looks good at the market that day
1 Fresno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
2 large jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped
12 oz of fresh green beans or haricots verts, chopped
4 ears of fresh corn, charred and scraped or 1 bag of defrosted fire roasted corn kernels
1 ½ pound of 80% lean ground beef
A few grinds of my Bump Up Your Burger seasoning or salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup yellow or Dijon mustard
1 8 ounce brick of cream cheese
beef stock or beef bone broth, as needed
2 ½ cups shredded yellow cheddar cheese
1 28 ounce bag of extra crispy tater tots
Scallions, thinly sliced, to serve
Cilantro leaves, to serve

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 F.

In a large cast iron pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add onions, sweet and hot peppers, green beans and season with salt and sweat for 7-8 minutes until soft. Add in charred corn kernels and stir for another minute or 2. Push veggies off to the sides and add ground beef into the center. Season the meat with a few grinds of my burger seasoning or salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard. Brown and crumble beef. Add in cream cheese and stir until melted. If the mixture is dry, add in a splash of stock or bone broth to loosen. Depending on how much moisture is released from the vegetables you may not need the stock. Top with grated cheese and tater tots in an even layer. Season the tater tots with more burger seasoning, optional.

Bake for about 20 minutes until tater tots are golden and crispy.

Top with scallions and cilantro leaves and serve from the skillet.