Well….
I just opened up a can of worms.
I Googled the difference between a ‘hot dish’ and a ‘casserole’.
The reason I decided to go down that rabbit hole rests squarely with my British neighbor.
To her, a casserole is meat, cut into cubes, and cooked with a small amount of liquid in a covered dish in the oven. Nothing else…. just the meat and, possibly, a bit of onion.
She will ‘do a casserole with the lamb’.
I will ‘braise the lamb’.
First: the recipe; followed by how to determine what to call it…. if you care.
Click here to Pin Sausage, Spinach, Rice Casserole
PrintSausage, Spinach, Rice Casserole
This is an ‘oven dinner’. I wanted something easier than a skillet dinner. Mix everything together and bake.
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: One Dish Dinners
Ingredients
- 10oz (300gr) smoked sausage, sliced
- 8oz (250gr) frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed dry
- 1/2 cup (3.3oz, 95gr) Basmati rice
- 2 tbs Dijon mustard
- 4 tbs Greek yogurt
- 1 cup (8oz, 240ml) chicken broth, heated
- 1/2 cup (2oz, 60gr) shredded cheese
- 1/4 cup (1oz, 30gr) grated Parmesan
Instructions
- Combine sausage, spinach, rice, mustard, yogurt and mix well.
- Put into a casserole.
- Pour the broth over the top
- Sprinkle with the shredded cheese.
- Cover and bake for 35 minutes 400F (200C).
- Uncover, sprinkle with Parmesan, and bake 10 minutes longer.
- Remove and serve.
Notes
Use any type of sausage you like. I heated the broth in the micro to give the rice a head start in the oven.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 recipe
- Calories: 639
- Sugar: 5.7 g
- Sodium: 2800.6 mg
- Fat: 25.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 9.6 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 55.9 g
- Fiber: 3.6 g
- Protein: 42.6 g
- Cholesterol: 189.4 mg
Keywords: Sausage, Spinach, Rice
According to Google there are many and no differences between a hot dish and a casserole.
A casserole is the container and a hot dish is the food.
A casserole is a light meal and a hot dish is a hearty meal.
A casserole has chicken or tuna and a hot dish has ground beef.
A casserole is the term used in the south for the same thing that is a hot dish in the north.
Snobs call it a casserole while ordinary folk call it a hot dish.
Clueless people call it a casserole while those ‘in the know’ call it a hot dish.
Some people call it both in the same sentence: ‘I’ll bring a hot dish – Tuna Casserole’. Or the other way round.
Lasagne is a hot dish.
Lasagne is a casserole.
Or we could call them all ‘gratin’.
Or ‘oven dinner’.
The quest rests.
I am not familiar as an Australian with the term hot dish . Casseroles yes but not just cubed meat like your neighbour, Any meat and any veg or just veggie. Also here, lasagna would be called lasagna and not a casserole.
‘Divided by a common language’. There are places in the U.S. where lasagne would be considered a hot dish l- but never a casserole ol
Rather like the argument about scalloped potatoes and au gratin potatoes. Au gratin potatoes are cheesy. Scalloped potatoes have never been cheesy but these past several years now, everything scalloped is smothered in cheese and if you point out that they’re actually making au gratin potatoes, you’re shouted into the ground that they’re not au gratin! They’re scalloped. Period. We like scalloped potatoes. And casseroles. 😉
I occasionally will sprinkle a tiny bit of cheese on my scalloped potatoes – which I make with milk. I never put milk in my gratin potatoes.
My mother made the best scalloped potatoes – with a layer of sliced spam in the middle and the top covered with bacon slices. She uncovered it at the end to brown the bacon. Now I’m hungry….