Mexican vegetarian tater tot casserole is a fun dish that the entire family will love. Spice up taco night and have this meatless tater tot casserole instead.
Vegetarian Mexican Tater Tot Casserole Recipe
Depending on where you live, you might want to call this mexican tater tot casserole recipe a hotdish instead of a casserole. “Vegetarian Tater Tot Hotdish” has a certain ring to it that I like! The traditional tater tot hot dish comes from the Midwest, specifically Minnesota.
There, a hotdish would include tater tots, ground beef, and a vegetable. This hot dish is, of course, vegetarian, and gets its protein from black beans instead of meat.
Tater Tots never go out of style on the dinner table. Did you know that? It's true! You can dress up a tater tot in so many ways. For this vegetarian tater tot casserole recipe, we decided that we'd put a Mexican spin on our tots, so we created a Mexican Style Tater Tot Casserole.
What I love about this tater tot hotdish recipe is that it’s classic comfort food. It’s a simple vegetarian recipe instead of beef mixture and it has such a delicious flavor. (If you wanted to add in meat to brown the ground beef up - you could, we just don’t eat meat in our home)
This tater tot casserole with cheese is seriously going to be a favorite in your home.
It is the tots that our entire family loves, including adults and kids. But it takes the flavor up a notch. It adds a Mexican inspired flare to this comfort food dish.
What's In Vegetarian Mexican Tater Tot Casserole?
The base of this recipe is packed with tasty and filling vegetables. We mixed:
Tater Tots - shredded potatoes are a must for this casserole. Frozen tater tots do the job perfectly.
Sauteed Onions - These give a warm, homecooked base flavor to the casserole.
Black Beans - Black beans are our vegetarian protein for this dish. Use canned beans to save time.
Corn - Frozen corn is one of my favorite ingredients to have on hand. It's just as delicious as fresh corn, but much less expensive and easy to work with.
Traditional Mexican Taco Fillings - I'm using shredded Mexican cheese blend, black olives, and cilantro.
Gluten Free Enchilada Sauce - Adds tons of flavor as the top layer of the casserole.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below and I will get back to you ASAP!
HOW TO MAKE MEXICAN TATER TOT CASSEROLE
- Sautee onions in oil over medium heat.
- Add corn and beans to the skillet, stir to mix.
- Add enchilada sauce to the skillet and mix well.
- Place frozen tater tots into a lightly oiled casserole dish.
- Pour the beans mixture on top of the tots. Bake as directed in the recipe below.
- Top casserole with shredded cheese and olives and bake again until cheese is melted.
These numbered steps match the numbered photos above and are for illustration purposes. For the complete list of ingredients and instructions, please see the recipe below.
VEGAN MEXICAN TATER TOT CASSEROLE
Make this recipe vegan by swapping out the cheese for a non-dairy cheese. I like Daiya or So Delicious shredded cheese. You could also leave out the cheese entirely and this meatless tater tot casserole would still be delicious.
What sides go with this meatless tater tot casserole?
This really can be a meal on its own. But if you want a side dish to go with this Mexican vegetarian tater tot casserole a salad or other veggie-packed side dishes go great with it.
You could serve this Caesar salad or a Fruit Salad to lighten things up a bit.
Can I freeze this vegetarian tater tot casserole?
I actually have not tried freezing this recipe, but I think it would work well. It would be a delicious make-ahead meal that you could pop in the oven. I would, however, package the cheese, olives, and cilantro in their own container so you can throw those ingredients on at the end.
Do I need to thaw the tater tots for this casserole?
Nope! And actually, I wouldn’t recommend it. The tots would get mushy and start to fall apart if you let them thaw too much. Just put them in frozen. They will cook perfectly that way.
Looking for more Kid Friendly recipes?
Try Kid-Friendly Tofu Bites are sweet and slightly crispy and perfect for little fingers.
Kid-Friendly Pasta Salad is a super simple cold pasta salad that has kid friendly veggies mixed in.
For your kids that eat meat:
Air Fryer Chicken Drumsticks are an easy to make dinner that cooks in the air fryer in no time.
Air Fryer Turkey Burgers - Kids love burgers! Turkey burgers cook up perfectly in the air fryer.
This potato casserole is a crowd-pleaser and your kids will be asking for more!
Looking for more Kid Friendly and Allergy Friendly recipes? All of our recipes are gluten-free and nut-free!
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Mexican Tater Tot Casserole – Tots never go out of style on the dinner table!
Ingredients
- 1 cup onion diced
- 1 T olive oil
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 1 can black beans drained and rinsed
- 1 cup enchilada sauce
- ½ bag of tator tots 8 oz
- 1 cup shredded cheese Mexican blend
- 3 oz of diced black olives
Instructions
- Heat over in skillet over medium heat. Saute onions until soft.
- Add corn and beans to the skillet. Stir to mix.
- Add sauce to skillet and mix.
- Put frozen tots into a lightly oiled 8X8 square dish.
- Pour skillet mixture on top of tots. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes (covered).
- Remove from oven. Top with shredded cheese and olives. Place back into over until cheese is melted.
- ENJOY!
Notes
Can I freeze this tater tot casserole?
I actually have not tried freezing this recipe, but I think it would work well. It would be a delicious make-ahead meal that you could pop in the oven. I would, however, package the cheese, olives, and cilantro in their own container so you can throw those ingredients on at the end.Do I need to thaw the tater tots for this casserole?
Nope! And actually, I wouldn’t recommend it. The tots would get mushy and start to fall apart if you let them thaw too much. Just put them in frozen. They will cook perfectly that way.Nutrition
All though this website attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, the information should only be considered an estimate. Varying factors such as different product types, different brands, etc. can change nutritional information. It is your responsibility as a consumer to read all labels to make sure the ingredients fit your dietary needs as well as calculate your own nutritional information as a double check.
Take a peek at the older pictures of this recipe, we didn't want to delete them!
I already, but I'll say once again that it looks delicious. I've never tried anything quite like it. 🙂
I know the world's biggest tator tot lover. This would be a huge hit for her. 🙂
I bet this would be great with some chopped cilantro.
I like how this makes great use of healthy convenience foods - beans, veggies! Healthy can be easy!
I have never made a tot recipe like this. Will give it a try. Would add a salad
We love tater tots, however, I have not yet made any casseroles using them. This recipe looks like a great one to start. I would have some toppings, like sour cream, shredded cheese, salsa, onions and black olives 🙂
That sounds like a delicious way to use tater tots. We all love them. I would probably add some shredded cheddar cheese.
I have made several types of tater tot casseroles before but never a mexican-flavored on. This looks really delicious. I pinned this for future use.
This looks like it would be good with sweet potato tots!
This recipe would have been great if it hadn't dried out. I checked the directions twice and thought I wonder if this should be covered. Turns out it was very dry. My family would not eat it. So, I enjoyed some of it. LOL. Please add that it needs to be covered.
Oh no Debbie, I am so sorry. I haven't made this one in a very long time. It is on my list to remake in the coming weeks so I can rephotograph it to update it. I will also update the directions. I apologize it turned out dry for you. When reviewing the recipe and seeing 400 degrees, that seems very hot and I can see how it could dry out the dish. I agree that it must have been covered so that the moisture would be kept in. When I make the recipe in the coming weeks, I"ll also test at lower temp as well and will update the directions! Thanks for the heads up, I am glad that at you got to enjoy some of it and I am sorry that your family would not eat it!
Thank you, I also think I will use salsa next time to add a different flavor. I love tater tots with just about anything!!!
I love salsa too! I just found a delicious one at Costco! Salsa + jumbo size = winning! hahaha
What a great recipe! Perfect for when you need a quick but hearty dinner.
I wasn't brought up with tater tots and haven't cooked with them but I can see them being popular with kids and the other flavors sound good.
Love dishes like this. Protein and carbs are the best.
This looks amazing and so full of flavour!! I'm really into casseroles at the moment - maybe because I just got a new oven and want to use it all the time haha! I love all the flavours in this casserole, Mexican is one of my fave cuisines!
This looks like such an easy dish. Perfect for a busy weeknight.
What a cool idea to use tater tots!
Thanks, we love this fun idea too!
Love it! So easy and creative! I'd add guac because I'm such a guac lover lol
Thanks so much!
Looks super comforting! And I love the Mexican twist
Thank you so much!
This is hilarious, a friend and I were just having a convo about Tots--- and she said she was bored of them because she sees the same old recipes on Pinterest. I showed her yours...She is now about to eat her words after stopping at the market to pick some up to make your recipe.
Ha, great timing!!
I'm married to a Minnesotan, so I'm all too familiar with hotdish! Love the flavors you've melded together in this one - it looks really hearty, too, especially for a vegetarian dish.
Thanks so much! It is such a delicious hotdish!
From my nine year old, "this was a delicious and nutritious meal for our family".
We enjoyed this! We are vegan and substituted non-dairy cheese. It was still really good My daughter alternated sweet potato tat-tots and regular ones at the bottom which added a nice variation!
Thank you so much!
Yay, that is awesome!! Thank you for coming back and letting me know! I LOVE her statement!! That makes my heart so happy! I also love her idea of putting some sweet potato tots in there too! Tell her she's a genius!
Reader Comment submitted via email with permission to post:
I was raised a vegetarian but I didn’t raise my children vegetarian. We don’t eat as much meat in the household simple because I won’t eat it. Your Mexican style tater tot recipe was a huge hit in my house even for my steak eating husband! When everyone asks for seconds and for leftovers in their thermoses for lunch the next day you know it’s great.
Rachel
I was looking for a new meatless recipe for dinner and found this. We love tater tots so we had to try it! I doubled it and baked it in a 9x13. I also used my recipe for enchilada sauce which makes a little under three cups. This is definitely a keeper. Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it Marci! Thanks for coming back and letting us know!