Vegan Tater Tot Casserole (Hotdish)
This one-pot vegan tater tot casserole has a creamy, savory filling of veggies and vegan sausage covered by a golden, crispy layer of tater tots. It's a fun and easy dish for a family dinner or for the holidays, and it can be gluten-free and soy-free.
- 1 small onion ((finely chopped))
- 3 cloves garlic ((smashed and minced))
- 1 tsp avocado oil or any neutral oil
- 14 oz vegan Italian sausage ((make sure you choose a soy-free, nut-free or gluten-free sausage according to your dietary preferences.))
- 1 cup cremini mushrooms or button mushrooms ((finely chopped, crimini or button or portobello are all fine))
- 16 oz frozen veggies
- 1 tsp sage ((or thyme))
- ¼ cup unbleached all purpose flour ((sub rice flour if glutenfree))
- 2 cups non-dairy milk ((use any milk of your choice))
- Salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 4 cups (approx) tater tots
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celsius.
- Heat the oil in a 12-inch cast iron skillet. Add the garlic and onions, season with salt and ground black pepper, and cook over medium heat until soft but not brown.
- Add the sausage and stir for a couple of minutes until it starts to brown.
- Add the mushrooms and stir well. Saute for a few minutes until the mushrooms start to soften, then add the sage or thyme and the flour and mix well. Cook, stirring, for another couple of minutes.
- Add the frozen veggies, mix, and then add the nondairy milk. Stir frequently until the mixture just comes to a boil. Add more salt and pepper as needed. Turn off the heat.
- Arrange the frozen tater tots on top of the veggies. You can make a simple but appealing design, like I did, by arranging the tots in concentric circles.
- Place the skillet in the oven and bake 55 minutes or until the tater tots are golden-brown.
- Remove the skillet from the oven and let stand 5 minutes before serving.
This vegan Tater Tot Casserole is guaranteed to thrill the child inside you but it'll appeal just as much to the adult you are.
Let's deal with the kid inside you first. This dish is basically a thick, delicious pool of creamy, savory veggies and bits of vegan sausage, topped by a crunchy, golden layer of tater tots. It just makes you want to pick up a fork and start eating. And if you have children, you'll find that it's never been so easy to stuff them with these many veggies while getting told, "You're the best cook in the whole world, mom (or dad)!"
All that praise for a recipe with mushrooms? Genius.
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And now for the adult. You already know this is a one-pot dish and it's a pretty easy dish to put together too. Almost all the ingredients come from the freezer so there's minimal prep. The tiny amount of chopping and cooking that's required takes no more than 15-20 minutes, tops. After that it's the oven that does all the work for you. Easy prep, easy cooking, easy cleanup.
If you don't have a cast-iron skillet, you can use any other oven-safe skillet, or make the creamy filling in a skillet, pour it into a baking dish, and then top with tater tots before baking.
Tater tot casseroles enjoy a high degree of popularity in the upper Midwest, and especially in Minnesota, where a tater tot casserole recipe, known as hotdish, is something of a food staple. The story goes that the frugality of hotdish, and the fact that it combined starch, vegetable, and protein, secured its place as a popular family recipe during the Great Depression. I can totally see why. There are no exotic, expensive ingredients here, and although one couldn't -- and probably shouldn't -- argue that tater tots are healthy, the recipe in totality is pretty nutritious with 377 calories per serving and 13 grams of protein from the vegan sausage.
This is one gorgeous dish, and everyone will be rather impressed when you carry it to the dinner table and put it down. Be sure to do it with a tiny flourish. And no, you won't get pronounced a genius by the James Beard Foundation, but you will certainly see lots of happy faces and hear many satisfied burps, and in the end isn't that even better?
Love cooking with tater tots? Try my vegan tater tot stuffing for Thanksgiving. It's also very kid-friendly!
