Whole30 BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole
on Jan 30, 2020, Updated May 14, 2024
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Experience Whole30 bliss with our BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole! Savory, satisfying, and compliant with wholesome ingredients
Table of Contents
What Makes This Recipe Great
This Whole 30 Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole is easy to make and tastes like a classic in n out burger (the best burgers ever). Ideally this would also be covered in onion rings but in an effort to make this an easy meal, I left the off. You can use any BBQ sauce if you don’t mind it not being Whole30 but if you do want it Whole30 then you can use Primal Kitchen’s BBQ sauce! If you don’t mind a little added sugar, I love Stubb’s BBQ sauce because they have simple ingredients and lower sugar than most. The Whole 30 Cheeseburger Bacon Casserole recipe comes in at less than 35% the RDI for sodium, and you can even cut that down if you like by modifying this recipe!
Ingredient Information
- Bacon
- Onion– makes sure its diced
- Ground Beef– you can also use ground turkey
- Chopped Tomatoes– canned works great
- BBQ Sauce– to keep this recipe Whole 30 make sure its sugar free
- Chopped Pickles– you can use relish to make this easier
- Salt & Pepper
- Frozen Hash Browns– be sure to find the shredded version
- Cashews– unsalted is preferred in this recipe
- Water
- Nutritional Yeast– you can usually find this at a natural food store
Step by Step Instructions
- Cook your bacon in a cast iron skillet, remove when done. Next cook your chopped onion and ground beef in the same skillet. Once all cooked remove from the stove and add chopped pickles, BBQ sauce, chopped tomato and chopped bacon. Combine.
- In a blender combine water, cashews and nutritional yeast blend until all combined.
- In a 13×9 dish add the ground beef mixture with all the fixings. Next drizzle your nutritional yeast and cashews sauce over the ground beef and bake.
- Once it comes out of the oven allow to cool for a few minutes and top with your chopped romaine or iceberg lettuce.
Pro Tip
- Make sure and use a high powered blender to blend the cashews, water and nutritional yeast, you want to make sure it gets fully chopped up before pouring onto casserole.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I freeze this?
- I would suggest if you want to make this ahead the best plan would be to cook the ground beef mixture and mix everything with it. Then put in your dish and cover with foil and save for the next time you need a delish dinner.
More Whole 30 Dinners
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Whole30 BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole
Ingredients
- 8 slices of bacon
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 can chopped tomatoes, drained
- 1 ¼ cups bbq sauce*
- ¼ cup chopped pickles
- Salt and pepper
- 1 lb frozen hash browns, shredded
- 1 cup cashews
- ¾ cup water
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- ½ tsp salt
- 4 cups chopped romaine or iceberg lettuce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Place a large pan over medium heat.
- Once the pan is hot, add in the bacon and cook until slightly crispy, then set aside and chop.
- Pour all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat out of the pan and return it to the stove.
- Add onion to the 1 tablespoon of remaining bacon fat and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add in the ground beef and cook for 5-7 minutes, breaking it apart until it is browned.
- Then add in the drained chopped tomatoes, bbq sauce and pickles. Stir and bring to a simmer, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and stir in the chopped bacon.
- In a blender combine cashews, water and nutritional yeast and blend on high until smooth and creamy. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- In a 13 x 9 inch casserole dish, pour frozen hash browns on the bottom in an even layer and toss with ½ teaspoon salt.
- Top the hash browns with ground beef mixture and spread evenly. Then drizzle on the cashew cheese in an even layer. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and top with thinly sliced lettuce before serving.
I am making this tonight for dinner. I can’t wait to try it!
Thanks for sharing!
Will this dish turn out the same if put together ahead of time (like 1-2 days)?
Yes! Just leave off the lettuce until it’s time to eat.
I can’t wait to try this!
Hope you love it!
Another great use for ground beef! My picky teens, who are not fans of Whole 30, loved this so much that there were NO leftovers even with doubling the recipe.
That is great!!!
I just made this! So good and super simple to make! Yum!!
Great!!
Any suggestions for substituting the cashews? We have cashew allergy over here (and sesame)! Thanks!!
No unfortunately! You can leave out the cashew cheese and thats it or replace with regular cheese if you can tolerate!
Kelsey, this dish has been in heavy rotation during quarantine because 1) it’s super easy to make, and 2) because it’s so freakin’ delicious!
We love hearing this! Enjoy
I made this, and then my 2 year old told me she wanted cake for dinner. Then I had the awesome realization that casseroles are DINNER CAKES! So we had cheeseburger cake for dinner and everybody loved it! I haven’t had McDonald’s in years and I was shocked at how powerful the sense memory was!
Ah that is genius!!!
So delicious! We had this last night (and left overs today). It’s such a yummy and easy way to eat on Whole30! Thank you!! Even my husband, who drags his feet every time we do a whole 30 loved it!
Yeah! The best when hubbies love a healthy recipe!
I started a Whole 30 with the hubs today. He hates to diet and loves. loves, loves all the food that this diet tries to eliminate so I NEEDED to start day one with a winner recipe he would get excited for. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. This was a perfect way to show him that we can eat better with out actually going to In and Out. This will be on heavy rotation.
It’s the best when the hubby loves a new healthy recipe!