This Dominican Pastelón de arroz (rice casserole) is a dish made with ground beef, rice, and cheese served with a light tomato sauce, and is a great way to use up leftover rice. A complete meal, it is easy to make, tasty, rich in vegetables, and perfect for group meals.
By - Reviewed: . Original: Dec 26, 2012
Why we ❤️ it
This rice casserole with cheese is my favorite combination and just the kind of flavor that everyone will enjoy.
It's not a very common dish in our country, but we love rice and reusing leftovers, so people make pastelones de arroz with whatever they have on hand.
What's pastelón de arroz?
It seems that there are as many versions of Dominican rice casserole as there are cooks in the Dominican Republic. This is my family's version.
At home, we always associate rice cake with a funny commercial from a few decades ago in which a newlywed woman served pastelón de arroz to her husband every lunch. After several days he started finding excuses not to go home for lunch.
¿Qué hay de comer hoy? 🤔 ¡¿Pastelón de arroz!? 😩
Cheesy beef and rice casserole.
Serving suggestions
The only thing I'd serve with this casserole dish would be a salad. It is already a complete dish.
Top tips
- Other cheeses: I chose grated mozzarella, but you can use cheddar cheese, or a mixture of both if you wish.
- Save time: To save time, you can use tomato sauce from the supermarket. The sauce should have chunks of tomato rather than being pureed.
- Other fillings: Ground beef is my favorite filling for rice cakes, but you can make a different filling or use leftovers from another meal. A chicken pastelón de arroz is also a great option.
- Ground beef filling
- Pulled chicken with tomato sauce
- Relleno de chorizo
- Creamy chicken filling
About this recipe
Unlike most traditional recipes on this blog, this is not a recipe I learned from my mom, this one is just one I have slowly developed by combining my favorite leftovers. Feel free to adapt it to your own liking.
This recipe serves 6 portions.
Video
Recipe
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Pastelón de Arroz [Video+Recipe] Cheesy Beef and Rice Casserole
Equipment
Ingredients
For the ground beef filling
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, [20 g]
- 1 medium red onion, chopped [65 g]
- 3 cloves garlic, [20 g]
- 1 pound ground beef, [454 g]
- 1 cup tomato sauce, [115 g]
- 1 bell pepper, diced [76 g]
- 1½ teaspoons salt, or more, to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper, or to taste
- 1 sprig cilantro, chopped, or parsley
For the tomato sauce
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cups large tomatoes, peeled and seeded
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- ¼ teaspoon dried ground oregano
- 1 teaspoon granulated white sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper, or to taste
To assemble
- 3 tablespoons butter, plus extra for greasing the pan
- 1½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups evaporated milk
- 2½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese, (amount divided)
- 6 cups cooked white rice, (link to the recipe)
- 1½ cups chopped spinach, blanched, or frozen (thawed beforehand)
Instructions
1. Make tomato sauce
Dice the tomatoes.Place the tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients in a pot, and simmer over low heat until the tomatoes are soft.💡 You can mash the tomatoes with a tomato masher for smoother sauce.
2. Cooking ground beef
- In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-low heat. Stir in onion and cook and stir until it turns translucent. Add garlic and cook and stir for a minute.Add ground beef and cook and stir, breaking it into small clumps until it browns. Pour in tomato sauce. Add bell pepper, salt, and pepper. Stir and cover. Simmer for 3 minutes.Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste if needed. Mix in cilantro. Remove from the heat and set aside.⚠️ See the video to cook the beef.
3. Making the cheese sauce
- In a skillet heat the butter over low heat. Add the flour and stir vigorously until the two are well mixed and the flour has turned a bit more translucent.Add the milk and stir vigorously until it reaches a uniform consistency. Add ½ of the cheese and keep stirring until it becomes a thick cream.Remove from the heat and set aside.
4. Prepping
Grease the baking pan, and heat up the oven to 350 °F [175 ºC].
5. Mixing rice
- Mix the rice with the white sauce. Divide into two equal amounts of rice.Mix the other half of the rice with the spinach.
6. Layering
- Place the rice mixed with the white sauce in the mold. Press down. Cover with the ground beef and top with the rice and spinach. Press down.
7. Baking
- Cover the pan with aluminum foil. Bake for 20 minutes.Remove from the oven, uncover, and cover with a layer of the remaining cheese.Place under the broiler until the cheese is golden brown. Remove from the oven.
8. Serving
- Serve with the tomato sauce on the side.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is calculated automatically based on ingredients listed. Please consult your doctor if you need precise nutrition information.
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More ground beef recipes
If you're looking for other recipes to serve ground beef, don't miss out on Pastelón de plátano maduro (ripe plantain casserole), our favorite pastelón, Carne molida con vegetales a la dominicana (Dominican-style ground beef with vegetables), our delicious Kipes, the delicious Lasaña dominicana (Dominican lasagna), Niños envueltos (cabbage rolls), Albóndigas dominicanas (Dominican meatballs), or the spectacular albondigón (meatloaf).
Check out other recipes with ground beef that you'll want to try.
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