Amish Haystacks (Easy Haystack Dinner Recipe)

Ingredients and Instructions

Cook Rice

1. Put rice, water, and salt into a saucepan. (Instructions are for any kind of long-grain white rice. I often use basmati. Brown rice needs to cook longer.)
2. Bring to a rolling boil.
3. Reduce heat to low.
4. Cover the saucepan and set a timer for 20 minutes.
5. Do not open the lid until the timer goes off.

Brown Ground Beef and Warm Beans

1. While the rice is cooking, brown a pound of ground beef in a pan.
2. Drain the excess fat.
3. Add taco seasoning and ¾ cup of water or tomato juice to the beef.
4. Simmer until the mixture thickens.
5. In another pot, warm a can of red beans and add a bit of taco seasoning. (You can cook dried beans if you plan ahead far enough, but I often use canned ones.)

Chop Lettuce and Tomatoes

1. Chop iceberg or romaine lettuce into bite-sized pieces. (If you are short on time, you can buy the shredded lettuce in bags, but I tend to stay away from bagged lettuce and cut up my own.)
2. Dice tomatoes as you would for tacos.

Make Cheese Sauce

1. Place ½ cup of milk and 1 tablespoon of butter in a microwave-safe dish.
2. Add about a 2 ½" slab of Velveeta cheese, cut into slices (or 8-10 slices of American cheese).
3. Warm in the microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until melted and smooth. (You could also warm up some homemade cup cheese - shmear cheese - to drizzle on top.)

Make Guacamole

1. Smash two ripe avocados in a bowl with a fork.
2. Add about ¼ teaspoon of salt, 1 to 1 ½ tablespoons of lime juice, and a bit of dried dill weed or paprika.
3. Mix until well combined.

How to Assemble A Haystack

You can assemble your Amish haystacks in any order you please. You can add or subtract anything you desire. One nice thing about this meal is that everyone assembles their own stack, so your picky eaters can leave out the things they don't like.

My oldest daughter is a vegetarian, so it's a great meal for her. She leaves off the meat but still gets protein from the beans.

I typically assemble my Amish haystack meal starting with lettuce and then the meat (taco-seasoned hamburger), rice, beans, tortilla chips, tomatoes, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, and finally topped with the cheese sauce. However, my kids like to put the hot food on the bottom and build from there.

Amish-Style Tacos

Haystacks are like a taco that's piled on a plate. So it's less messy to eat than a taco but tastes just as great! I don't think I ever ate tacos growing up in my Amish home. But this was our version of Amish tacos.

This recipe for haystacks includes rice. Tacos don't usually include rice. But rice is cheap, and it goes perfectly with the other ingredients. And I'm guessing one reason the Amish haystacks recipe includes rice is because it helps to fill up your plate without using a lot of meat.

The Amish women often feed large crowds of people because they have large families. And they get together for meals quite frequently.

When a few large families get together it's a crowd, and it can get expensive to feed a crowd. So they try to stretch the food as much as possible, serving budget-friendly dishes such as haystacks, baked potato stacks, or casserole dishes like Dairy Casserole, Amish Macaroni Casserole, Yumasetti, or Chickenetti.

Amish Haystack Dinner For Fundraisers

I don't know exactly where this haystack dinner recipe originated, and it may not have originated with the Amish.

However, this Haystack food recipe has become well-known among the Amish and is frequently served as a fundraiser meal in some Amish communities.

Item you may need...

I use my Pampered Chef meat chopper every time I cook hamburger, it is a great addition to your kitchen utensils.