Minnesota's Original Hot Dish Included Only 3 Basic Ingredients

If you're not from the Midwest, you may have only just heard about hot dish when Minnesota governor and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz shared his own recipes for the iconic casserole while on the campaign trail. With hot dish thrust into the national spotlight, Americans unfamiliar with Midwestern cuisine naturally had many burning questions about it. Like many folksy foods, we can't pinpoint hot dish's exact origins, but we know that the name first appeared in a 1930 cookbook by the Grace Lutheran Ladies Aid of Mankato, Minnesota. And there, we can see that the original recipe recorded relies on three simple ingredients: ground beef, elbow macaroni, and canned peas.

Anyone who knows hot dish has surely noticed that this historic recipe is missing a core element of the regional favorite: cream soup. Campbell's didn't launch its cream of mushroom canned soups until 1934, but shortly afterward it became the signature base of the hot dish. Though Walz' "Turkey Trot Tater-tot" hot dish doesn't include a can of creamed mushroom, it does mix in whole milk, half and half, flour, and baby bella mushrooms for a similar binding effect.

The three ingredients mentioned in the Grace Lutheran Ladies Aid cookbook aren't the only items listed — the recipe also calls for onions, celery, and specifically canned tomato soup — but the trio of hamburger meat, macaroni, and peas is still critical to making hot dish today. The Free Press of Mankato, Minnesota, describes the core of modern hot dish as "a combination of protein (tuna, for example), a canned vegetable (corn, peas or perhaps green beans), a starch (maybe mashed potatoes) and a binding sauce (perhaps a creamed soup)." From there, various crunchy bits can be added on top, like tater-tots, per Tim Walz' turkey hot dish recipe.

If you want to try making a traditional hot dish yourself, try out our upscale tater-tot casserole recipe. This one also forgoes the cream of mushroom soup, but like Walz' hot dish, it has you making a similar creamy mushroom binder from scratch. Or, if you do want to use a canned soup in your next hot dish, check out our list of the top cream of mushroom soup brands.