Green bean casserole is a traditional holiday dish, but it would be great any time of year! Green beans, onions, mushrooms and garlic are baked with a creamy sauce. Fresh rosemary provides an earthy, festive flavor, and dried onions make the perfect garnish!
Green Bean Casserole
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 (makes about 6 cups) 1x
Ingredients
- 1½ cups water or salt-free vegetable broth or stock
- 2 oz. raw, unsalted cashews (about ½ cup)
- 2 tablespoons flour (I used millet flour but any type will work)
- 1 lb. green beans, rinsed, trimmed and halved (about 4 cups)
- 1 medium sweet yellow onion, chopped (about 2 cups)
- ½ lb. white or cremini mushrooms, sliced (3 to 4 cups)
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic (about 3 cloves)
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary or thyme
- Black pepper to taste
- Dried onions (optional; see Notes)
Instructions
- Place the sauce ingredients (water or broth, cashews and flour) into a blender, and blend for 10 seconds. Set aside and we’ll come back to this in step 4. Set aside a 1.5–2-quart oven-safe casserole dish.
- To cook the beans, bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a soup pot. Add the beans and boil on high for 5 to 6 minutes. Drain in a colander, and then transfer the beans to a bowl of ice water (this stops the cooking, and helps to maintain the shape and color). Drain after 5 minutes and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Heat 1 tablespoon of water in the same soup pot used in step 2 over medium-high heat. When the water starts to sputter, add the onion and mushrooms, and cook while stirring for 3 to 4 minutes, adding a little water, as needed, to prevent sticking. Add the garlic and rosemary, and stir for 1 more minute. Remove from the heat.
- Blend the sauce ingredients again until smooth. Stir the sauce into the pot of onions and mushrooms, and add the green beans as well. Transfer this to your baking dish. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes. Serve immediately as is or topped ground black pepper and/or dried onions.
Notes
Dried onions: My main divergence from the traditional green bean casserole (aside from it being plant-based) is that I am not using French’s French-Fried Onions because they contain oil and salt. I tried making my own using a few different methods, and didn’t come up with anything I liked. I even dehydrated some onions at home, and just don’t think this is a practical route for most people, as dehydrating takes many hours. But if you want to try dehydrating onions for this dish, feel free. I finally ended up just using some dried minced onion and dried shallots from the spice store, which can be added as a garnish over the whole dish or people can add them if they wish.
Mushrooms: I know a lot of people don’t like mushrooms, so I think they could be substituted with a favorite vegetable like cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, or even cubed winter squash. The sauce would go well with any of these types of substitutions.
Baking dish: You could easily use an 8x8-inch backing dish for this recipe, or any that are around this size. I baked this recipe in the shallow dish shown in the photos here and it worked great. I preferred it since it would look a bit nicer on the holiday table.
Flour: I usually grind my own flour for my recipes, but for this I used some millet flour from the store, because I wanted it to be a very fine texture since it was going into a sauce. I used millet because that's what I had in my cupboard (and is gluten-free), but any type of flour would work I think, including oat or rice.
- Prep Time: 25 mins.
- Cook Time: 25 mins.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ⅙ recipe (about 1 cup), not incl. dried onion garnish
- Calories: 111
- Sugar: 5g
- Sodium: 6mg
- Fat: 5g
- Saturated Fat: 1g
- Carbohydrates: 15g
- Fiber: 4g
- Protein: 5g
- Cholesterol: 0g
Wouldn’t it be more nutritionally beneficial to stream the green beans rather than boil them?
Yes, and do that if you prefer. I'm more of a boiler than a steamer, it's just my habit, but do whichever method you like. 🙂
could i use my canned green beans?
You could, I don't think it would taste as good. Canned beans are so soft, hmm. If you try it, let me know how it goes. 🙂
If we pre-cook the green beans and then they cook again in the oven for 20 minutes, do the beans get mushy? We so appreciate all that you do.
Hi Susan, the blanching is the reason for this, to keep them from getting wrinkly and too soft. So don't skip this step of cooling the beans in ice water (I tried and they were really wrinkly). If we didn't pre-cook the beans, they would not cook sufficiently in the oven. If you're concerned, just don't over boil them to start with; aldente is fine. 🙂
Hey Cathy,
I am allergic to cashews. What would be a comparable substitute?
I appreciate your work and committment to WFPB cooking.
Use a different nut or seek that you can eat. 🙂
Thank you so much for this recipe, Cathy! I prepared this recipe for my Thanksgiving meal and followed it exactly as you wrote it and it was so delicious! My friend and my brother were impressed also (and they are not sos free)
The sauce in this recipe is so phenomenal! Do you think it would be good served over your mashed potatoes?
I'll be making this recipe often...not just on the holidays. I own your cookbook and I use your recipes for most of my regular meals. Yummy!
Hi Sue, that's great! 🙂 Thanks for your comment! I think the sauce would work great over baked or mashed potatoes. The mushroom gravy and Tzatziki sauce would also be great on both!
This green bean casserole tastes just like the traditional version. I took this to our family gathering dinner and received lots of compliments! Thanks!
Have you tried steaming the green beens instead of boiling?
Sure, that would work too. 🙂