Many months ago I promised one of the Paleo Porn Family members I would recreate a burrito pie. I try to always follow through on my promises, no matter how long it takes, and today I’m excited to share this Paleo Burrito Pie Casserole recipe with you! :)
First, Some Back Story
When I was still teaching and Jeff & I were regularly going to the local gym, to lift (Jeff) and attend group classes (me), my sister Amanda & I were in a Fitness Kickboxing class. The leader of the class came in one day with photo copies of a recipe she had been talking about the week before. Amanda & I each took a copy and went home talking about when we’d make the recipe. That was the first time I was introduced to burrito pie.
The recipe she gave included bottled this, canned that, packaged tortillas and basically the only real food ingredient was the ground beef. And as you could probably guess, grass-fed ground beef wasn’t recommended.
Don’t get me wrong, the dish was delicious and I made it several times because it was so good. But I would never make that same recipe now. To put it simply, our palette has changed.
Challenge Accepted
So when I was asked to make a Paleo Burrito Pie Casserole, I couldn’t resist recreating that same deliciousness, except now using real foods!
Typically I would make my own salsa but I was in a pinch so I bought a jar of salsa with a clean list of ingredients, made by my favorite local company (LocalFolks).
I also picked up a can of diced green chiles.
If you’d rather go completely fresh with ALL the ingredients, you can simply pick up a couple of your favorite chile peppers and dice them up real fine. I can see a couple banana peppers working quite nicely to spice up this dish.
What is Nutritional Yeast?
Prior to this recipe, I had never cooked with nutritional yeast. I picked up a bottle because I wanted to try the Paleo Mac & Cheese recipe that I spotted in the review copy I received of Real Life Paleo but I wasn’t sure if I’d use it for anything else. Just having it in the pantry while working on this recipe gave me an idea.
I had previously heard friends mention that nutritional yeast has a flavor comparable to cheese so I decided to give it a go with this casserole. And I have to say, I was not impressed. Maybe I didn’t use enough to really nail the cheese-flavor, and if you’ve used it in the past, maybe you have some recommendations. But the result, to me, just didn’t seem to be what I was going for (which is why I made nutritional yeast optional in the ingredient list below.)
If you’re really looking to increase the cheese factor (and you’re cool with including dairy in your diet), I’d recommend going with a raw mild or sharp cheddar from Organic Valley or a raw grass-fed cheddar like what’s stocked at U.S. Wellness Meats.
Plan Ahead
Preparing this dish couldn’t be any easier. Once your tortillas are made, and your meat is browned all you need to do is layer everything in your casserole dish like lasagna, shove it in the oven and wait for the deliciousness to appear.
Warning
When cutting and removing the first piece of your burrito pie, it will most definitely be a messy blob! :) Take your time, relax and save that first piece for yourself. The rest of the pieces will get exponentially easier the more you serve up.
