Hawaiian Pineapple & SPAM Casserole
I am sure many of you are about to run away already, just from reading the title of this post. The rest are probably thinking, “We ask for Hawaiian recipes and THIS is what you give us?!” When I made this, I got a kick out of my mom’s comment, “I raised you better than that.” Haha! All I can say is hear me out. My roommate recently was given an assignment to try an ethnic recipe that was out of her comfort zone. Since we are both from Colorado, we were both a little freaked out by SPAM. Honestly, I didn’t even really know what it was until we looked for recipes. Many of you may not consider SPAM an ethnic food, but in Hawaii it kind of is! Every year over 20,000 people make their way to Waikiki for the yearly SPAM Jam festival- that is some love for SPAM.
After browsing SPAM recipe ideas, we decided that a pineapple and SPAM combo would be best. SPAM Musubi is another popular Hawaiian recipe, which is grilled SPAM on top of rice wrapped with nori. The salty SPAM (which is canned spiced ham for those of you who had no idea, like me) complimented the sweet pineapple really well. This dish was easy to put together and was actually really good! If you are still freaked out by SPAM, you can substitute *ahem* real ham for the SPAM to make this dish at home, honestly is is much healthier to use real ham so I would recommend it. More Hawaiian recipes to come and a little sneak peak of the Morimoto price fixe Valentine’s Day menu as well, so stay tuned!
COVID-19 Update: SPAM is a great item to keep in your pantry! If you are looking for easy SPAM recipes during your time at home. This recipe is highly reccomended. You can also use canned pineapple!
Hawaiian SPAM & Pineapple Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 can can SPAM cubed
- 2 each 16 oz cans pineapple chunks reserve juice
- 1/2 yellow onion chopped
- 1 green bell pepper chopped
- 1/2 red/orange/yellow bell pepper or mixture chopped
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup flour
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 cups cubed french bread
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp garlic salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp parsley
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300F.
- Mix together the pineapple, onion, peppers and SPAM and place in greased 9x13 pan.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, pineapple juice.
- Pour the juice mixture over the SPAM mixture and top with cheese.
- For the croutons, toss bread cubes with 2 tbsp olive oil, season with parsley, garlic salt and pepper.
- Toast at 300F until crunchy (about 10 minutes).
- Increase oven temperature to 375F, cover casserole with foil and bake until soft (about 30 minutes).
- Sprinkle croutons over top before serving.
