Lightened Up Cheesy Hashbrowns

Many of you know my love for potatoes runs deep. So does my love for brunch. So on Saturday when Erik and I had my parents over for brunch I was on a quest to find an awesome cheesy hash brown recipe. But the challenge was the fact that I really didn’t want to use cream of chicken soup for the creaminess in the recipe. Do those recipes taste great? Oh yeah. But I’m not a huge fan of the ingredient list in those cans of creamy soup so I try to avoid it when I can (though I’ll admit there are still times around the holidays you’ll see a can or two in my shopping cart).

So after some digging around the web, I found a recipe that looks great. And it was!. Ingredients were simple; potatoes, yogurt, onion and cheese. And don’t forget about the salt and pepper. The yogurt was essentially the replacement for the cans of creamy soup and acted as a binder and a creaminess contributor.

These were a big hit and I was glad I made two casserole dishes worth because we’ve been eating the leftovers all week. They delivered on savory cheesiness, creaminess and a bit of crunch with the crispy browned hash browns on the sides.

These will definitely become a staple in my future brunch entertaining.
5.0 from 2 reviewsPrintlightened up cheesy hashbrownsAuthor: adapted from cabot cheese Ingredients

• 2 lbs of shredded hash browns, thawed
• 1 medium white onion, peeled and cut in half
• 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
• ½ cup mozzarella cheese, shredded (this is optional, I added it because I love extra cheese)
• ¼ cup parmesan cheese, shredded
• 1½ cups plain (or greek) yogurt (I use organic whole milk yogurt)
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Dice the onions and add to a large bowl.
3. To the onions add the hash browns, yogurt, cheddar, mozzarella cheese, salt and pepper.
4. Mix together so that everything is incorporated and hash browns are evenly coated.
5. Pour into prepared/greased casserole dishes (this makes a lot of hash browns so I needed 2 dishes). If you use one large dish only, the cooking time is about 50-60 minutes. If you use 2 dishes the cooking time is about 30-40 minutes.
6. With about 10 minutes remaining, sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5-10 minutes.
8. Sprinkle parsley on top and dig in.