Tater Not Hot dish
No, that is not a typo, yes it says Tater Not Hot Dish. Casserole or hot dish . . . . . you can decide. I am from Minnesota so hot dish it is as far as this blog post is concerned. Tater tot casserole doesn’t even sound right rolling off my tongue.
So this is Tater Not Hot Dish. I substituted some blanched cauliflower florets instead of the tater tots, thus the name. This is a low carb meal prep post so I thought that I had better try and make some adjustments to the recipe. I was craving some comfort food and this one registers right up there with a pot pie for me. It turned out wonderful! While its certainly hard to say cauliflower is a 1 for 1 substitute for a fried tater tot, the inclusion of a roasted and cheese covered cauliflower floret is still pretty dang tasty in its own right.
The basic recipe that I used as a guideline is here below. I’ll note modifications I made to go low carb as best I could. It was a great, non heavy version of a great HOT DISH!
The biggest changes that I made to this version included the following
Mods
- Substitute Blanched Cauliflower florets for Taters
- Do a quick 5 minute blanch in boiling water, let cool and then place these on top of the mixture as you would a tater tot.
- I used ground chicken instead of beef
- Chicken is more lean, and an easy way to cut some calories out as well.
- Soups – I didn’t use soup at all, instead made my own.
- I had some portabella mushrooms in the house so I finely chopped these up and saute’d in some butter with some yellow onion until they were nicely brown. I then dusted them with about two tablespoons of flour based on the amount of mixture I had. I then let that cook for about 5 minutes until my flour was browned and then added a few cups of chicken stock that I had in the freezer. I finished with some fresh chopped parsley, thyme, and tarragon. I added about a 1/4 cup of cream as well and stirred that all together. This was my soup substitute.
- I also used some fresh blanched green beans and frozen corn
- I like the flavor and texture of fresh and/or frozen better than canned vegetables. This is just personal preference.
For the most part I followed the rest of the basic directions for this recipe. Watch your cooking time as the cauliflower browned at a different time than the tater tots would have. I baked until they were nice and brown and the rest of the base was bubbling. Top with cheese and bake until its melted.
Conclusion
All in all this still hit the mark for what I would call a hot dish. It didn’t give me the carb rich potato topped richness of the version I am used to but it definitely satisfied that craving for tater tot hot dish that I wanted. Whenever possible I try to make my own ingredients. I don’t like to use processed or canned goods if I can help it. It is really hard to control sodium and any other additives if you don’t make everything that you can from scratch. Its a lighter, lunch version, of the classic dish that I grew up eating. I hope you enjoy.