Possibly GF Tater tot hot dish

It is always amazing how often you have coincidences, or near misses. M and I went to the homeland to see family and boy did we see family. My Mum's side had a family reunion on Saturday and we were able to see M's family on both ends of the weekend. We came home Sunday night late, exhausted, but glad that we were able to see everyone. (Pictures of the mayhem are available on my Flicker site for friends and family, I'll probably post a few of the better ones here too)

So, back to near misses, after being at home all weekend I was quite surprised to get a voicemail from a grad school friend that was in 'Sconi visiting her own in-laws. Liz, if we had only known you were in town we could have caught up on Sunday! She called to request my tater tot hot dish recipe (yes it is a hot dish, not a casserole) She is planning on serving this Midwest delight to her new friends out east when they return from vacation.

Now, just so you know, I do think that this hot dish has a certain "low brow" factor to it, with the condensed soup and all, but sometimes comfort is really what you need. I'll post my Jello Cake recipe soon, another "low brow" but delicious excursion into Midwest culinary adventures.

So, here is the original recipe for those that can eat wheat:
2 cans of condensed cream of mushroom soup and a little milk
1 lb of hamburger (I usually use ground turkey)
green beans, fresh or frozen
Onion flakes
Salt and pepper
tater tots

Season the meat with salt, pepper, and the onion flakes and brown
Put the browned meat in the bottom of a 9x11 baking dish
Mix together the cans of soup and add a little milk until it gets to a good spreadable consistency
spread half of the soup mixture on top of the meat
top with green beans and then the rest of the soup mixture
cover the whole mess with lots of tater tots
bake at 350 until warm, bubbly and the tater tots have browned

Here comes the GF (I think) version:


First the ingredients (definitely the tricky part)

Ground Turkey
Peas (or you could have used green beans, mixed veggies, etc)
Onion flakes
salt and pepper (sound familiar)
1 can organic cream of mushroom soup, thickened with RICE flour, instead of wheat flour like the other brands
poultary seasoning (yes, I think it is supposed to be poultry seasoning, Dekalb Farmer's Market isn't known for their spelling)
Olive oil
Worcestershire sauce
garlic powder



It starts out, just like the other version by browning the meat. Since I was using ground turkey breast, I added a little olive oil to the pan. I added the poultary seasoning, onion flakes, and salt and pepper. After browning it, I thought it lacked flavor so I tossed in some garlic powder, and the Worcestershire sauce along with some more pepper. You can really use any seasoning you desire.


Once the seasoning was good. I added the cream of mushroom soup and the peas. After mixing it all together, I thought it looked a little dry, so I added a half a can of milk. Way too much! As you can see it became quite soupy. I tried to remedy this by adding some cornstarch and baking it a bit before topping with the tater tots. It helped some, but next time definitely less milk (if any)


Top with the tater tots and toss in the oven at 350 until golden bubbly and brown



Now, I checked the ingredients on the tater tots and I couldn't see any sign of wheat, but I didn't call or email to confirm. The same with the soup, but after running to the grocery store in the rain after work and searching for soup for a good 20 minutes. I decided both of these would be "good enough". Every normal brand of soup, does thicken their cream of mushroom with wheat flour.

So, on the next rainy or cold day, check out this little taste of the Midwest. I hope you will be pleasantly surprised.