Mom’s Secret Casserole

Mom’s Secret Casserole–ground beef with vegetables in a rich gravy, topped with mashed potatoes and melty cheese…all made in your Instant Pot!

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Mom’s Secret Casserole

Today’s recipe is a spin off of Mom’s Secret Casserole from Heartland Cooking the author states, “Our mom always taught us it’s not good to keep a secret… but for some reason, she would never tell anyone what all she put into her famous bake; she humorously titled it Mom’s Secret Casserole.”

I switched the recipe up and made it into an Instant Pot recipe. My version uses extra seasoning and more “from scratch” ingredients. The result was a delicious beefy base with fresh vegetables that was topped with creamy mashed red potatoes and a sprinkling of cheese on top. It was the perfect, homemade comfort food for dinner on a January night. I think you’ll love this dinner and I hope you try it out soon!

Ingredients/Substitution Ideas

• Lean ground beef–I used 93/7. You can also use ground turkey.
• Minced dehydrated onion–or 1 cup of diced onion
• Mushrooms–white, baby bella
• Worcestershire sauce
• Kosher salt
• Black pepper
• Garlic powder–or granulated garlic
• Red pepper flakes
• Tomato paste
• Beef broth–or water and Better than Bouillon beef base
• Carrots
• Fresh green beans–or frozen green beans
• Red potatoes–or peeled Russet potatoes
• Butter
• Milk
• Tomato sauce
• Heavy cream
• Potato flakes–or 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• Colby jack cheese–or cheddar

Steps

Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. When display says HOT add in the beef and break it up. Add in the onions, mushrooms, Worcestershire, 1 tsp of kosher salt, 1 tsp of black pepper, garlic powder and red pepper flakes. Brown for about 5 minutes.

Stir in the tomato paste and the beef broth. Scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking. Turn off the pot.

Layer the carrots and green beans on top. 

Add the potatoes into a steamer basket and place the steamer basket into the pot on top of the green beans. 

Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 4 minutes. When time is up move the valve to venting and remove the lid. 

Remove the steamer basket and dump the potatoes into a mixing bowl. Mash the potatoes. Stir in the butter, milk, 1 tsp kosher salt and 1 tsp of pepper. Set aside. 

Stir the tomato sauce and heavy cream into the Instant Pot. If you’d like to thicken the mixture you can do that by stirring in the potato flakes or make a cornstarch slurry and stir it into the pot on the saute setting. 

If you have an air fryer lid: Spoon the mashed potatoes over the top of beef mixture and smooth with a rubber scraper.

Place air fryer lid on top and bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

Sprinkle the cheese on top and bake for 2 more minutes. 

Serve and enjoy!

Notes/Tips

• This is pretty much an all in one pot meal but if you’d like to have sides try serving with some fruit, bread and a side salad.
• I used my Duo Crisp 6 quart Instant Pot*. It’s handy for recipes like this one! It comes with an air fryer lid so you can brown up the top of casseroles.
• Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
• Other recipes you can make with fresh green beans are Instant Pot Greek Green Beans and Instant Pot Cajun Sausage, Potatoes and Green Beans.

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More Recipes from “Mom”…

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*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.