Welcome to the Taste Creations Blog Hop! Today my friends and I are getting together to share some of our favorite recipes! Today I am sharing a super-easy recipe for a cheesy salsa hot dish, or casserole. This recipe is one you can put together in only about a hour, and it is perfect for get-togethers, whether you’re hosting a game night or a going to a pot-luck dinner. Anyone could easily make this dish, and I guarantee that it will be a hit! Be sure to check out my friends’ recipes at the bottom of this post, too!

Delicious Mexican-Style Casserole

If you haven’t heard of a hot dish before, it’s a casserole-type meal that’s typically made with a meat, vegetables, a starch, and some kind of sauce, typically canned soup. A crowd pleaser, a hot dish doesn’t require much effort to put together.

My husband first made a hot dish for me a few weeks ago—his includes ground beef, tater tots, mixed frozen veggies, cream of mushroom soup, and plenty of cheese; he likes to use a bit of rosemary to flavor the beef.

I decided to make my own version of this yummy dish by using ground beef, tater tots, cheese, frozen veggies, salsa, and queso. It is a great dish to make on a Sunday night, too—you will definitely have lots of leftovers!

Ingredients

Makes 8 servings

1 lb. ground beef

1 packakge tater tots

1 10 oz. bag mixed vegetables (mine had carrots, peas, corn, and green beens)

2 cups shredded cheese (I used one cup of shredded sharp cheddar and one cup shredded pepper jack)

1 jar Desert Pepper Cantina Medium Salsa

1 Jar Desert Pepper Chile Con Queso Medium

Cilantro (optional), for topping

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Brown the ground beef in a large pot, such as a Dutch oven, on the stove.
  3. Warm the mixed vegetables in the microwave per the package’s instructions.
  4. Mix the veggies into the beef.
  5. Add a jar each of Desert Pepper Medium Red Cantina Salsa and Desert Pepper Medium Chile Con Queso into the beef and vegetable mixture, mixing it in.
  6. Spread the beef mixture along the bottom of a 9×13-inch glass casserole dish.
  7. Top the beef and veggies with one cup of shredded cheese.
  8. Open your bag of tater tots and top the cheese with neat rows of tater tots, so the entire surface is covered.
  9. Top the tater tots with one more cup of shredded cheese.
  10. Carefully place your casserole dish in the oven.
  11. Bake your hot dish for about 45 minutes, until the cheese is melted and lightly browned.
  12. Cut your hot dish into squares, topping each serving with some fresh cilantro, if desired.

For more about Desert Pepper’s salsas and quesos, be sure to check out links:

Website: https://www.desertpepper.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DesertPepperTradingCo
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/desertpeppertradingco/

You can purchase Desert Pepper Salsa products at: Sprouts, Publix, Hannaford, Harris Teeter, ShopRite, Walmart, Giant Eagle, Market Basket, Jewel and Meijer.

Check Out My Friends’ Recipes!

Orange Mango Margarita