Categories: BeefMain Dishes

Ground Beef and Potato Casserole

Taste of this dish reminds me of lasagna, with the difference of that it doesn’t include neither noodles nor cheese. It also requires much less time to cook than classic lasagna.

Meat sauce prepared of ground beef or veal (or mix of these) with onions, tomatoes and fresh parsley is juicy and very tasty. Bechamel souffle gives it nice hint in both taste and presentation.

Did I mention that this recipe is great for some special occasion?..

Ingredients:

  • 1.5lb of ground beef or veal
  • 2 potatoes
  • 1 big onion
  • 3 roma tomatoes
  • 1 cup of milk
  • 3 eggs
  • Bunch of fresh parsley
  • 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons of butter
  • 2 tablespoons of oil
  • Ground black pepper to taste
  • Salt to taste

How to prepare, step-by-step:

  1. Prepare ingredients: you can use 2 tablespoons of tomato paste instead of tomatoes, just dilute it with a cup of water before adding to the meat:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 1
  2. Warm up a tablespoon of oil in a big frying pan over moderate heat; peel and chop onion, add it to warmed pan and fry until soft and colored, stir occasionally:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 2
  3. Increase heat to high, add all ground beef, break apart and fry over until meat is not pink anymore:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 3
  4. While meat is cooking, blanch tomatoes, if you want less juice – remove seeds as well (I didn’t), then chop and add tomatoes to the pan, reduce heat to moderate and cook meat together with tomatoes for 10-15 mins:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 4
  5. Meanwhile peel potatoes, slice them into not very thin circles; warm up another pan with tablespoon of oil and fry each potato slice from one side only until colored:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 5
  6. Remove cooked slices from the pan to make space for the rest:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 6
  7. Add chopped fresh parsley to the pan with meat:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 7
  8. Mix meat stuffing, salt and season with ground black pepper to taste, mix again and remove pan from the burner:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 8
  9. Arrange half of all meat and tomatoes mix in even layer in deep baking pan of proper size:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 9
  10. Then arrange all fried potatoes in an even layer:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 10
  11. And cover with remaining of meat and vegetable mix:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 11
  12. Warm up oven to 355F. Put baking pan in and cook for 25-30mins:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 12
  13. And mean while prepare bechamel sauce and egg souffle for the casserole, start from making bechamel white sauce:
    Melt all butter in sauce pan
    Add all flour
    Stir all the time

    Fry until homogeneous
    Gradually add warmed up milk
    And stir to make sure there is no knots

  14. Set prepared sauce aside to cool down; separate egg yolks from egg whites:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 14
  15. Mix egg yolks into cooled down bechamel sauce one by one:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 15
  16. Beat up egg whites into strong foam (I used stand mixer) and add them to the sauce pan:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 16
  17. Carefully mix egg whites into sauce:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 17
  18. After 25-30mins in the oven, take baking pan out but keep the heat on:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 18
  19. Pour sauce over meat:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 19
  20. And even it out:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 20
  21. Put baking pan back to the oven for 20 mins more, make sure to not open the oven door during this time:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 21
  22. Then turn heat off, open oven door slightly and keep casserole in the oven for 10-15 mins more then remove pan from the oven:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 22
  23. Slice casserole into portion pieces and serve for lunch or dinner without side dish:
    Ground Beef and Potato Casserole Recipe: Step 23
Enjoy!

View Comments

  • I made this tonight and it was out of the world delicious. My soufflé topping dropped as soon as it came out of the oven but it was still one of the most delicious dishes I have ever eaten or made. It is comfort food at its finest. Boy is it a lot of work but I think I used way too many potatoes and thus made it harder than it had to be. I served it with extra béchamel sauce besides that which I put into the soufflé.