This Four-Layer Beef & Bacon Casserole is comforting, easy to follow, has deliciously balanced flavors, is nutritionally sound, and includes a generous sprinkling of bacon.
Collaborations are my favorite.
Favorite!
You get a little of this, a little of that, and BOOM โ something unique and with twice the awesome power is born.
My sweet friend Juli Bauer of PaleOMG teamed with the fantastic George Bryant of Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations for a collaborative cookbook that will knock your flipping socks off.
The Paleo Kitchen has over 100 brand new recipes (which is really saying a lot because theyโve both got an extensive wealth of fabulous recipes already on their blogs), some great tips for how to stay motivated, ideas on maintaining food freshness, advice on how to have fun in the kitchen, and much more.
They graciously allowed me to feature this very special recipe from their book with my step-wise photo instructions. I really believe that this Four-Layer Beef & Bacon Casserole is a great representation of their style!
Juli and George, backed by their wonderful publishers Victory Belt, ALSO provided one copy to giveaway to one lucky Fed & Fit reader! That could be you! Go to my Facebook page to enter.
In the meantime, you can order your own copy of the book here.
So it goes with all our favorite foods, this recipe begins with bacon. ยฝ a pound of bacon, to be precise. Preheat your oven to 375 F and then choose your baking tray. I like to use this large casserole dish for baking bacon โ itโs got a nice big lip to help avoid any scary grease spills. I also like to line it with a big sheet of aluminum foil โฆeasy cleanup, nโall. Lay the bacon out in one layer on your baking sheet.
Pop this puppy in the oven for 12-15 minutes. I bumped my cooking time up to 22 minutes because I like my bacon crispy.
Bacon is done! โฆand tempting. Roughly chop the bacon and put it in a bowl to save for later!
If you manage to make it through the rest of this recipe without snacking on the bacon, you have more willpower than I.
Potatoes are next! Bump your oven up to 400 F and snag 3-4 medium sweet potatoes. Put the potatoes on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil (easy cleanup again โฆcan you tell I hate washing dishes?), and poke with a fork. Once your potatoes are thoroughly aerated, pop โem in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until theyโre soft and easily cut with a knife.
While the potatoes bake, letโs turn our attention to the low-carb veggie star of this show โฆcauliflower! Chop the florets away from the stem. Toss โem in a steamer basket and steam covered over simmering water! When theyโre easily pierced with a fork, theyโre done. Mine took about 10 minutes.
Drain the cauliflower and pour it into a food processor. Add ยผ cup of full-fat coconut milk, ยฝ tsp of coarse sea or kosher salt, and then 1 tsp of ground black pepper. Whirl your food processor (about one minute) until it looks like mashed โtaters! Nomz.
Spoon your cauliflower mash into a bowl and set aside. Now is also a good time to rinse out that food processor, weโre going to use it to make the sweet potato mash next!
When your sweet potatoes are finished baking, let them cool โ like, a lot. Thereโs nothing worse than thinking youโve got a cooled potato in you hands only to find out there was boiling hot lava under that skin. Peel the cooled potatoes. Pinch and put the potato innards into your (now) cleaned food processor. Add ยผ cup of full-fat coconut milk. Toss in ยผ tsp of coarse sea or kosher salt. And then ยผ tsp of ground black pepper.
ยฝ tsp of dried sage.
If you need any dried sage, just let me know. I have about 5 jars of the stuff.
Why, every time I decide to cook with dried sage, do I convince myself that I donโt own any? Spice cabinet amnesia is real.
It looks good already, doesn’t it?
Whirl this puppy for about a minute, or until itโs velvety smooth and absolutely finger-dipable.
Spoon it into a bowl for later.
Now the last part of our 4 layers! The meat! Toss 2 lbs of ground beef into a large pan.
I opted for 95% lean because thatโs all the very nice Whole Foods butcher had left in grass-fed. I need to order more beef from US Wellness Meats! Once the meat begins to brown (some pink left) itโs time to add our extras. We only need one clove of minced garlic. Next up, snag yourself one of those dozen medium yellow onions youโve got in your pantry for that time you promised to make french onion soup โฆand then kept forgetting. Throw the entire deiced onion into the pan.
Would you just look at these little cutie pies? I think button mushrooms are the most adorable.
We’re going to need 8 ounces. Dice โem up and toss โem in! Next, add 1 tsp of coarse sea or kosher salt. And then finally ยฝ tsp of ground black pepper. Stir it all up!
When the meat is cooked through and the veggies all nicely wilted, itโs done.
Time to bring all our players to the table!
Turn the oven to 350 F and grab a 9โx 13โ baking dish. Mine was a little smaller โ but it worked out great.
Using a slotted spoon (soโs to drain the grease), add half of the meat mixture to the bottom of the pan. Smooth it out into one even layer.
Next, add all of your cauliflower mash. Smooth it out into one nice even layer, too. Layer #3! With that slotted spoon again, add the rest of the meat over the cauliflower. Nice and even like.
Last one! Spoon that delectable sweet potato mash over the meat.
Spread it out evenly and then pop it in the oven to bake for about 30 minutes!
At the end of the 30 minutes, crank the heat up to the broiler and toast the top for an additional 5 minutes.
After itโs finished, sprinkle your patiently waiting chopped bacon (or whatโs left of it) over the top and then leave the beef & bacon casserole to cool and thicken on the counter for at least 10 minutes.
All done! Isnโt it marvelous?
Enjoy!
Four-Layer Beef & Bacon Casserole
Ingredients
Topping:
- 1/2 pound bacon
Sweet Potato Mash:
- 3-4 medium sweet potatoes 1 1/4#
- 1/4 cup full-fat coconut milk
- 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Cauliflower Mash:
- 1 head cauliflower 1.5#, cut into florets
- 1/4 cup full-fat coconut milk
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Ground Beef:
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 8 ounces button mushrooms diced
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
Topping
- Preheat oven to 375 F and line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Lay the bacon out on the sheet in one layer.
- Bake 12-15 minutes (22 minutes for crispy bacon).
- Let cool, chop, and then set aside.
Sweet Potato Mash
- Heat oven to 400 F and line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Clean and poke the sweet potatoes with a fork.
- Bake at 400 F for 35-40 minutes, or until they’re soft and easily cut by a knife.
- Let them cool completely.
- Peel the potatoes and add the insides to a food processor.
- Add the coconut milk, sage, salt and pepper.
- Blend until smooth then set aside.
Cauliflower Mash
- Steam the florets covered over simmering water for approximately 10 minutes, or until they’re fork-tender.
- Place them in a food processor and add the coconut milk, salt, and pepper.
- Blend until smooth then set aside.
Ground Beef
- In a large pan, cook the ground beef until slightly browned.
- Add the garlic, onion, mushrooms, salt, and pepper, and stir.
- Once the meat is cooked through, remove from heat.
Assembly
- Turn oven to 350 F.
- Evenly spread the cauliflower mash over the meat.
- Spread the remaining half of the meat over the cauliflower in an even layer.
- Lastly, spread the sweet potato mash over the meat.
- Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes.
- Turn on broiler and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle the chopped bacon on top and then let it cool and thicken for at least 10 minutes.
- Enjoy!
Nobody was believing that the “potato” layer was actually cauliflower! I’m going to try a variant the next time I’m cooking using the beef mixture and the cauliflower mash as a Shelherd’s pie, but using butter, cream, and cheese. Not Paleo, but still keto so that works for me!2
Sounds tasty, Robert!
Hello,
Do you have any suggestions on what to replace the cauliflower with? Cauliflower makes me gag! I was forced to eat boiled, cold, and unadorned cauliflower as a child, and so I have always despised it. The rest of the recipe sounds great though!
You can try mashed potatoes or rice.
This looks really good to make on a weekend when I have some extra time to make all the layers. I’m pinning it now to remind me to make it!
I hope you enjoy it Rebecca!
Nice Recipe I really liked the idea of chopped bacon will be using that.
For reference you can also check the recipe of Paleo Plantain Beef Pie
Thanks, hope you enjoyed it!
I’m really not a fan of sweet potatoes, but this was really good, a total comfort food that my family really enjoyed.
Yay, so glad it turned out for you and your family Michelle!