This recipe is one that I’ve been cooking for years. Some might even say that it is my ‘signature’ dish. It’s good, comfort food! I can remember having something similar when I was a kid – over the years, I’ve tweaked it and adjusted it to our taste. It’s a layered casserole type dish that makes me so happy (it is PERFECT for leftovers – it just gets better!).

The dish is topped with mashed potatoes, so the first step is to dice up some potatoes and get them on to boil.

Then you will start making the base of the dish – the meat mixture. You’ll add your olive oil to a pan (or dutch oven) and heat it up – then, you add what all good dishes start with – garlic and onion! Cooking the onions until they are translucent.

Next, add the ground beef, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Cook until the ground beef is fully cooked.

The next step is to add the tomato paste, tomatoes and green beans.

Once all of the ingredients for the base of the dish have been added – cook for 10-15 minutes, allowing all the flavors to mix. Reduce the temperature to low-medium heat for the 10-15 minutes.

While the meat mixture is cooking – make your mashed potatoes. I’m a very picky about mashed potatoes and I make mine the way I grew up eating them – with Duke’s mayonnaise as part of the mix. This may not be to your liking (but, if you’ve never tried it – you should!!) – so, just make the mashed potatoes that you’d normally make.

After both components (meat mixture and potatoes) are you complete – you’ll add the potatoes on top of the meat mixture and top with grated sharp cheddar cheese (you can certainly use pre-grated cheese, but it will not be a good as if you grate it yourself !)

Put the baking dish or dutch oven in the preheated oven and cook until the cheese is bubbly and starting to brown – change the oven over to broil for the last couple minutes and you’ll have a beautifully browned top to your cheeseburger pie.

If you like, you can top it with fresh basil – but, this is definitely not necessary.

I hope you’ll enjoy this recipe as much as I do – it is, without a doubt, one of my favorite things that I make! And, has always been something that people have loved for me to make!

Cheeseburger Pie

1tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 lbs lean ground beef
1 can french style green beans
1 small can (6 oz) tomato paste
1 large can (28 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp Italian seasoning
4 oz (1/2 small block) grated sharp cheddar cheese
Mashed Potatoes (my recipe below)

• In pan (or dutch oven, if you want less to wash 🙂 ), warm up the olive oil
• Add onion and garlic ad cook until onion is translucent
• Add ground beef, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning and cook until ground beef is fully cooked (if you use lean enough ground beef, there is no need to drain the meat, otherwise, drain out the excess oil before next step)
• Add in tomato paste, tomatoes and green beans and combine – allow mixture to cook for 10-15 minutes
• If you did the meat mixture in a pan, transfer to a large baking dish – other wise, you’ll use the dutch oven for the next step.
• Top meat mixture with mashed potatoes and cheese
• Put in 400% oven for 30 minutes (on the last couple minutes, turn oven to broil to help brown the top).

Mashed Potatoes
8-10 potatoes, diced
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup Duke’s mayonnaise
2 tbsp butter
salt to taste

• Boil potatoes in salted water, until fork tender. Drain potatoes and return to pot
• Add butter, milk and mayonnaise
• Mash with masher to your desired consistency (I don’t like mine too smooth)
• Salt to taste