Lazy pierogi casserole
Layers of lasagna noodles, cheesy mashed potatoes and golden buttery onions, all the comfort of pierogi without folding a single one.
- 90 min total
- 45 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 6
- About $1.56 a serving
- 540 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 4 russet potatoes, about 2 lb
- 2 yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 6 tbsp butter, divided
- 9 lasagna noodles
- ½ cup milk
- 2 cups shredded cheddar, divided
- ½ cup sour cream, to serve (optional)
- 2 stalks green onions, sliced (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp salt, plus ½ tsp
- ½ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 540 calories, 18 g protein, 62 g carbs and 25 g fat, and costs about $1.56 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No russet potatoes? Yukon Gold potatoes work.
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No milk? Half-and-half works.
- No shredded cheddar? Cheddar cheese or Mexican blend cheese or Monterey Jack cheese works.
- No sour cream? Plain Greek yogurt works.
- No green onions? Chives work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the oven to 375°F. the potatoes and cut them into 1-inch .
Preheat. Preheating means turning the oven on before you start, so it’s fully hot when the food goes in. Food that starts in a cold oven cooks unevenly and doesn’t brown the same.
How you’ll know: The oven beeps or its light clicks off, usually 10 to 15 minutes after you turn it on.
Peel. Peeling means removing the skin with a vegetable peeler or a small knife. It takes off tough or bitter skins, though potato and carrot skins are fine to leave on unless the recipe insists.
How you’ll know: The color underneath is even all over, with no patches of skin left behind.
Cube. Cubing means cutting food into chunky, even squares, usually three quarters of an inch to an inch. Same-size cubes cook at the same speed and brown on every side.
How you’ll know: Your pieces look like a handful of sugar cubes, a little bigger than diced, all close to the same size.
Put the potatoes in a large pot, cover with cold water, add 1 tablespoon salt, and over high heat. Cook 12 to 15 minutes, until .
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
Fork-tender. Fork-tender means cooked until a fork slides in with almost no push. It’s how you know potatoes, carrots or slow-cooked meat are soft all the way through.
How you’ll know: The fork slides in and out easily, and meat pulls apart with very little effort.
High heatTimer: 13 min 30 sec
Meanwhile, 3 tablespoons butter in a large over medium-low heat, add the onions, and cook 15 to 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft and .
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Low heatTimer: 18 min
Dolly’s tip: Keep the heat gentle. You want sweet, golden onions, not crispy dark ones.Lift the potatoes out with a slotted spoon into a big bowl, keeping the water .
Boil. Boiling means heating a liquid until big bubbles rise and break all over the surface. It’s the fastest way to cook pasta, potatoes and eggs, because it’s as hot as water gets.
How you’ll know: Bubbles are breaking across the whole surface, not just at the edges, and steam is rising.
High heat
Cook the noodles in the same water 2 minutes less than the package says, then and lay them flat so they don’t stick.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
High heatTimer: 9 min
Mash the potatoes with 2 tablespoons butter, the milk, 1 cup cheddar, ½ teaspoon salt and the pepper until smooth.
Rub a 9x13-inch dish with the last tablespoon of butter. Layer 3 noodles, half the potatoes, 3 noodles, the rest of the potatoes and the last 3 noodles.
Dolly’s tip: Wet a spoon to spread the potatoes. They slide right over the noodles.Spread the onions over the top, scatter on the rest of the cheddar, cover with foil, and 25 minutes.
Bake. Baking means cooking in the oven with dry heat all around the food. It cooks evenly from every side, so you can mostly leave it alone.
How you’ll know: It’s golden on top and passes the recipe’s check, like a clean toothpick or the right temperature.
Timer: 25 min
Uncover and bake 10 minutes more, until the cheese is bubbling.
Timer: 10 min
Let it 10 minutes, then serve with sour cream and green onions.
Rest. Resting means letting cooked meat sit for a few minutes before you cut it. It keeps cooking gently, and more of the juice stays in the meat instead of running onto the board.
How you’ll know: Loosely covered with foil, it stays hot, and very little juice runs out when you slice it.
Timer: 10 min
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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