Macaroni casserole is a great family staple dinner or a nice weekend comfort food.
This is a traditional Finnish staple weekday dinner but I’ve tweaked the recipe by adding more veggies and using marinara instead of the traditional milk, egg sauce the Finns use.
This casserole can be made into a vegetarian or vegan dish easily by switching the beef to mushrooms, or vegan ground beef such as https://www.beyondmeat.com/en-US/ meat.
Ingredients
Use fresh whole ingredients if possible.
- Fat free marinara
- Cheddar cheese
- Mozzarella cheese
- Parsley
- Celery
- Carrots
- Organix grass fed ground beef
- Macaroni
See the recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Start by heating up the oven to 385 degrees. Then chop up your veggies and garlic.
Sauté the ground beef until almost done. Add the veggies, garlic, spices, and your marinara mix to coat.
Grate your cheese.
Use the coconut oil to grease your casserole pan. Add the ground beef veggie mix to the casserole dish with the cooked macaroni.
Substitutions
- Carrots & Celery – instead of carrots & celery, you can use romaine broccoli or spinach
- Macaroni – use gluten free macaroni instead of regular macaroni to make this gluten free
- Vegetarian – the beef can be replaced with a plant-based beef to make this vegetarian
Variations
- Spicy – add chili pepper flakes while cooking to imbue heat into the dish.
- Kid friendly – add ketchup on top
Top tip
You don’t need to use oil when cooking the ground beef as the beef has oil and fat in itself. I never cook ground beef with oil. You can leave the macaroni and veggies slightly uncooked before adding them to the oven as they will cook more while they are baking in the oven. Nobody wants to eat overcooked mushy veggies or macaroni.
Macaroni Casserole
Equipment
- 1 Saucepan
- 1 Spatula
- 1 Pot Pan
- 1 cup Measuring cup
- 1 Casserole pan
Ingredients
- 1 pound grass fed ground beef
- 3 cups macaroni
- 2-3 stalks celery
- 1-3 carrots
- 1 tablespoon coconut aminos
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika spice
- 1 jar tomato sauce
- 1 block cheddar cheese
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
Instructions
- Start by heating up the oven to 385 degrees Fahrenheit ( 197 celsius )
- Chop up the carrots, garlic, and celery. Set aside.
- Sauté the ground beef until almost cooked through. No oil needed to grease the pan. The ground beef has enough oil in it self. Cook in medium heat.
- Add the coconut aminos and spices to the ground beef.
- Add the veggies and lightly sauté.
- Add your favorite marinara and mix.
- Cook the macaroni until almost done.
- In a large casserole dish add a tiny bit of coconut oil to grease up the casserole pan.
- Add the ground beef and cooked macaroni to the casserole pan and top of with the cheese.
- Cook for 30 min in 385 degrees.
- Serve with fresh herbs sprinkled on top.
Food safety
- Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
- Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
- Wash hands after touching raw meat
- Don’t leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
- Never leave cooking food unattended
- Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
- Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove
See more guidelines at USDA.gov.
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