February 29, 2024

Inspired by Minnesota

THE MEAL

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This meal was right up my alley—I never realized how many Utah foods are so similar to Midwestern foods! Jell-O, dessert salads, casseroles, rhubarb, goulash, dessert bars… So many of the Minnesota hot dishes I read about when researching this meal were just like the casseroles that my mom made for us growing up.

Not only were the foods familiar, they were also extremely easy to assemble. I hardly did any actual cooking; most of it was just assembling in bowls! Perfect for potlucks, and I was so happy that it made huge amounts of each component so I can enjoy them all week on my own!

TATER TOT HOT DISH

As previously mentioned, Minnesota is fond of casseroles of all kinds. There, they call them “hot dish.” They were invented during the Great Depression as a way to utilize canned food to feed the whole family or church congregation. The oldest recorded recipe is from a 1930 church cookbook, the recipe creator uncredited. There are lots of variations, and pasta used to be the main starch, but nowadays, the Tater Tot Hot Dish is the most famous Minnesota concoction.

This was the only part of the meal that required actual cooking, but it was just to brown the onions and ground beef before mixing it with a whole bunch of canned vegetables and condensed soups. Put it all in a casserole dish, top with tater tots, and bake! It was such a breeze to make, but it resulted in a huge, hefty casserole that is so filling and would go a long way to feed a family. I can see why it’s so popular!

Despite it having so many things mixed together, I felt like it could’ve used a little more flavor. It needed a bit of a kick to round out the heavy starches, meat, and cream. But I still happily enjoyed it, and could see myself making it again if I had to feed a family of six in under an hour!

WILD RICE SALAD

Wild rice is Minnesota’s state grain. It isn’t actually rice; it’s an aquatic grass that the Ojibwe and other native tribes call manoomin and consider a staple food. The manufactured kind is black, but the real wild kind in the Midwest is dark brown or gray and curls when cooked. It cooks very differently than rice and can take all day, depending on the method! They use it for salads, in bread, and especially in wild rice soup.

Even though I’m in the Midwest, I had a really hard time finding wild rice in my area and would have had to either drive to Minnesota myself (I was tempted) or special-order it and wait weeks for it to arrive. So I took a shortcut and used a wild rice blend that I’m sure wasn’t authentic at all. I sifted it through my colander a few times to have it be mostly the long wild rice pieces, but yeah not really legit.

This salad was AMAZING. It has toasted pecans, dried cranberries, celery, a honeycrisp apple (Minnesota’s state fruit), green onions, and parsley, all tossed in an orange vinaigrette. The combo was *chef’s kiss.* So many different flavors that blended together so well! The apples and celery made it bright and crisp, the pecans and rice gave it a nutty flavor, and the cranberries and vinaigrette added just a little sweetness. 10/10, would absolutely make again. I could see it making a really great Thanksgiving side dish!

BOOTLEGGER MOCKTAIL

Minnesota’s state drink is . . . milk. Just like so many other states. So I went with a mocktail of one of Minnesota’s favorite alcoholic beverage—the Bootlegger. This lemon-lime-mint combo was created during Prohibition in the Lake Minnetonka area, specifically designed to disguise the taste of alcohol. That was great when alcohol was illegal, but nowadays it can catch people unawares when they can’t taste just how alcoholic it is. 🙂 My mocktail version just substituted ginger ale and club soda, and it had a great, refreshing minty flavor. The lemon-lime-mint mix before adding the club soda smelled like a lime popsicle! Blending the mint before adding it to the drink created an explosion of flavor, but between this and the rice salad, I definitely needed to use a toothpick after eating.

SNICKERS SALAD

Minnesota’s state muffin is the blueberry, and dessert salads probably didn’t originate in Minnesota, but they are a big part of the culture of the Midwest, and Snickers Salad is one that Minnesotans seem to particularly enjoy.

The area was settled by lots of Lutheran Scandinavian immigrants, whose churches became social gathering places, and whose use of gelatin led them to make creamy, filling salads with easy-to-find, delicious ingredients to feed a crowd. I didn’t know that gelatin is well-loved in Scandinavian countries, but apparently it is! And now Minnesotans like Jell-O almost as much as Utahns!

I remember the first time I tried a Snickers Salad at a potluck in college, thinking to myself, “Dang, this is the yummiest fruit salad I’ve ever had! What’s in this??” before realizing that there were actual candy bars mixed in. Haha! No wonder I liked it!

I mean, do I even really need to tell you this was delicious? It’s pudding, Cool Whip, apples, marshmallows, Snickers, and caramel all mixed together. How could it NOT be delicious? It’s traditionally served at Halloween or Thanksgiving, but I’ve had it at summer potlucks before, so I highly recommend trying it any time you get a hankering for sugary, fruity, chocolatey goodness!