Teese Challenge #1:
In the Midwest there are casserole dishes, but there are not casseroles. There is hotdish. The essential kind of hotdish: tater tot.
Now, I’ll be honest with you- my mother never really cooked and I don’t care for tater tots, so I never dined on the authentic dish before, but I know that it usually goes something like this:
Sauteed onion + ground beef + can of condensed cream of whatever soup + tater tots on top = dinner. Blorch.
But when given the opportunity to play with some Teese recently, I wanted to think outside the box. No pizza, cheesy dip would do, this needed to be creative. Enter Teesy Tator Tot Hotdish.
Teesy Tator Tot Hotdish
Olive oil
1 small onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teas. dried basil
1 cup cremini mushrooms, chopped
1 medium zucchini, sliced into half moons
1/2 cup frozen peas (you must have at least one frozen vegetable in it for it to be a real hotdish)
2 veggie sausages, cut into coins
1 tube creamy cheddar Teese
1/2 cup milk of choice (I used almond)
Tater tots
Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease an 8 x 8 or smaller casserole (I used a 5 x7, but 8 x 8 would work too, you could always increase your zucchini and mushrooms a little or add more tots!).
In a pan, heat olive oil. Add onion and garlic and sautee until onions become translucent. Add basil and sautee for another minute. Transfer to a large bowl. In same pan, sautee mushrooms until tender. Drain juice and add to bowl with onions. Add zucchini, peas and veggie sausages to bowl. Add Teese and milk and mix with a whisk or spoon until Teese and milk have incorporated and coat veggie mixture (it might look a little lumpy, but that’s fine). Pour into casserole dish and cover with frozen tots.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until tots are golden and cheesy mixture is bubbling. You may need to put a baking sheet with parchment under the casserole to catch drips. Allow hotdish to cool for about 5 minutes before serving.
Makes 3-4 servings.
It was darn tasty, dontcha know!
Hahaha! I love this post…the end is spoken like a true MN 🙂 I have never in my life had hot-dish either, despite living in MN for 20+ years, but that looks pretty darn accurate. I wonder how it would hold up at a church pot-luck??!?!?
Courtney
hahaa whoaaaa such a standard american diet kinda meal, but yours is pretty healthy 🙂
You have no idea how much I want to eat this RIGHT NOW.
Whoa. I’ve never heard of a hotdish, and even though I’m pretty healthy when it comes to eating, I want to scarf that down something bad! It looks so gooood.
Love the name! 😉
holy crap.
[…] Teesy Tater Tot Hotdish from Nom! Nom! Nom! Blog This is amazing! A nice casserole topped with freakin’ TOTS! […]
That is straight CRAZY looking! yum.
It sounds delicous!!! I’m going to try it.
Oh god, I grew up eating this. As with most of my childhood Midwestern eats, I know I should think this is gross, but I can’t help but think that this (veganized, of course) completely rules!
That is wrong in so many ways! I love it! And you are quite the food photographer – nicely plated.
hoe-lee crap i am sooo making this! i freakin’ love tater tots!
~wendy
http://conradvisionquest.wordpress.com/
Wow Kris, that looks insanely good. It’s been years since I’ve had tater tots and now I’ve suddenly got a big craving for them. If only I could find Tease here.