09/04/2026
Tater tot hotdish is not a casserole. Do not call it a casserole. A casserole is something people in other states make on purpose. Hotdish is what Minnesota makes because there is a funeral, a potluck, a hockey tournament, a blizzard, or a Tuesday.
The formula has three parts and every Minnesotan knows it without being told.
A starch on top, which is tater tots, arranged in rows by somebody with strong feelings about it. A binder, which is a can of cream of mushroom soup, occasionally cream of chicken, and if somebody uses both there will be discussion. And a protein, which is ground beef browned with onion, plus green beans or corn, and which vegetable you use tells everyone exactly where in this state your family is from.
That is it. Nine ingredients, none of them fresh, all of them available at the Marketplace in Cokato at any time.
The tot placement is where personality shows. Some people dump the bag. Some people line them up in tight concentric rows like they are shingling a roof. That second group is not doing it for aesthetics. They are doing it because their grandmother did it and they can still hear her.
The pan is 9x13. It has always been 9x13. It goes in the oven at 350 and comes out when the tots are brown, and anybody who pulls it early and serves pale tots has failed the household.
It travels. That is the actual genius of it. Foil over the top, dish towel underneath, straight into the back seat, and it arrives at the church basement still hot.
The Minnesota congressional delegation holds an annual hotdish competition in Washington. That is real. Our elected officials go to the nation's capital and compete at this.
Every other state has food.
We have a delivery system for grief, celebration and winter, and it comes in a rectangle.
The Great Minnesota Hot Dish Cookbook is available at The Enchanted Trunk Boutique in Cokato MN ❤️