Every Casserole Needs These 5 Basic Ingredients

A casserole might not be the fanciest or most impressive food you could whip up for dinner, but there's no denying how delicious a well-made casserole can be — not to mention comforting, easy to make, and rib-sticking. From tuna casserole to green bean casserole to hamburger casserole, everyone has a favorite. But what exactly is a casserole?

According to food blog High Heeled Homemaker, your basic casserole requires five ingredients: a protein, starch, vegetable, sauce, and cheese. If you have those five ingredients in your casserole dish, congratulations; you just made a casserole, whether it's a beloved recipe or a concoction of your own creation. NPR concurs, stating that a casserole "is usually pasta or rice, protein, and veggies, all held together by a thickened binder of milk or cream — sometimes it's chicken or vegetable stock — and cheese both inside the filler and sprinkled along with the topping."

Other food writers get down into the nitty-gritty of what exactly a casserole is. Wide Open Eats breaks down the etymology of "casserole," noting that, traditionally, a casserole — derived from Greek, Latin, and Old French words that basically all referred to cookware — was a multi-ingredient meal made with a cooking vessel suspended over a fire and then served from the same cooking vessel. Today, the website states, a casserole is simply a meal made up of multiple ingredients that, when combined, create something altogether new.