50 States; 50 Meals: Vermont

What we had for dinner:

American Chop Suey

Some may also call this American goulash, depending on where they are from.  I'm not sure why this is tied to Vermont.  It seems to be popular across all of New England.  This was one of if not the first state where I already had the recipe in my cookbook notebook.  I had made it a couple times over the years before it became a State Dinner requirement.  If we have been watching the show Wahlburgers then you have heard Alma mention American Chop Suey.  My husband and I love that show and I had planned to use Alma's recipe but my brain went to autopilot and I used the recipe I had on hand.

I found the following recipe on Food.com.  According to their website this is "based on a recipe from Guy Fieri's book, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives: an All-American Road Trip With Recipes! This celebrates Red Arrow Diner in Manchester, New Hampshire, a landmark diner established in 1922."

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb ground beef
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
kosher salt
1 (14 1/2 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 (14 1/2 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1/4 cup tomato paste
2/3 cup tomato juice
1 pinch sugar
1 lb elbow macaroni 

 

Directions

1. In large pot over medium heat melt butter. Add onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic for about 1 minute. Stir in ground beef and cook, stirring and breaking up meat chunks with a spoon. Cook until meat is done, about 7 minutes until no longer pink. Toss herbs and pepper over the meat mixture, add salt to taste, and stir until well mixed.
2. Add canned tomatoes with their juices, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and tomato juice. Add sugar to taste. Simmer gently while you prepare the pasta.
3. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil over high heat. Add macaroni and cook until al dente, stirring occasionally. Drain the macaroni and add to the chop suey.
4. Serve hot.

 Makes 8 servings

 

Next State: Virginia