Oh the obligatory green bean casserole, gracing the tables of so many family gatherings, and yet, often a mushy and pasty mess of sadly overcooked green beans and salt, tasting more of despair than celebration. It’s high time to change that up, amp up the flavours, reduce the crazy amount of salt, and keeping the beans vibrant and lovely without those undertones of sadness. Filled with mushrooms, decadently creamy without being pasty or heavy, the green beans have flavour (crazy right?) and it all gets topped off with a generous amount whatever kind of crispy savory delight you’d like (i use oven toasted onions and shallots on mine) to kick things right to the top. Up above is a gorgeous picture of the casserole sans the topping so you can see all of it’s wondrous delight. Originally i had planned on including the onion/shallot topping in this recipe, but i’ve decided to create a separate post for it as it’s rather time consuming (not active time) and i don’t want anyone to feel like they HAVE to use them (though you should, you REALLY should.) Also, this is a super easy and quick dish to throw together, not that much harder than a “traditional” canned soup recipe, plus you get the bonus of it being gluten free, vegan, and way way lower in sodium! WOOT! I highly recommend the instant pot/electric pressure cooker version, but there are instructions for stovetop and oven if you’d prefer those methods instead.
Since i decided to do the onions/shallots as a separate post, just ignore them up there, okay?
This recipe is pretty simple and quick to put together and to cook and doesn’t use all that many ingredients. We have the green beans of course, fresh ones, which you can cut up or leave whole (you could even use frozen ones if you want or can’t find good fresh ones), we have a copious amount of mushrooms (this really should be green bean mushroom casserole) which you can use whatever variety/ies you’d like, i chose shiitake and cremini. Onions and garlic for some sweetness and flavour, cashews for creaminess (also a little sweetness), some fauxltry broth powder for the bulk of our sauce flavour (you can use broth in place of the water, or bouillon for the powder), a little extra marjoram and thyme for some more herbal notes and to enhance the mushrooms, and finally, a little starch to further thicken things up (optional, depending on how thick you like the sauce to be.)
The longest part of this recipe is actually sauteeing the mushrooms, you want to make sure they are browning nicely and fully cooked before adding your onions and garlic, this ensures they’re gonna pack the most punch they can and prevent them from being rubbery at the end. Don’t skimp on this part, it’s mostly a hands off thing anyway. After the sautee, you simply throw half your water (or broth if you’re going that way) your seasonings, and beans into your pot and cook. While that’s happening you blend the cashews with the remaining water (or broth) and your starch (if using) and hold onto it until the beans are done.
Look at those beans! so vibrant, green, and perfectly cooked, tender with a light bite to them still, not mushy and sad at all and full of flavour to make your mouth sing! After they’re done, switch your pot to sautee less/low and stir in your cashew/starch “milk”, continue stirring until the whole thing comes to a light boil until it has thickened and magically transformed into a familiar rich, decadent saucy casserole (sans the oven baking.)
Now, there are lots of ways you can top this, you could cover it with toasted and seasoned breadcrumbs, those classic fried onions from a can, fried onions and/or shallots you make yourself (simply shallow or deep fry onions in 350F oil until browned and crisp), toasted chopped (and salted) nuts (pecans are a good choice), oven toasted onions + shallots, or just leave it naked! It will be crazy yum no matter what you choose to do.
If you’re making this ahead, i recommend leaving out the starch, the sauce will be thicker after sitting and the starch doesn’t always reheat right anyhow, so just ditch it. If it’s not thick enough you can always add a little starch slurry (and cooking slightly) to thicken it up a little before serving. Another note on the starch, it’s totally optional here, it makes for a really thick sauce, as if it was a baked dish, if you don’t like yours quite so thick, then just skip it.
Don’t just hide this one away for holidays! It would be perfectly at home with just about any average dinner, and a fantastic dish to serve at brunch, or gatherings of all kinds. I promise this will be a massive hit, people will be wowed and amazed, even those (like myself) who hate all other green bean casseroles!
5 comments
Hello! I was wondering how much mushroom this recipe calls for; it says you use both shiitake and cremini – how much of each?
340g | 12 oz of thinly sliced mushrooms. for ours we used half cremini and half shiitake, you are welcome to use whatever combo of mushrooms you’d like or have available, sorry for the massively important omission and thank you for bringing it to my attention!!
It’s me again… It says to blend remaining water with cashews… But it doesn’t say how much water to put in the IP. How much will be remaining?
sorry amber! i mentioned in the post text to use half the water for cooking and half for blending, but then left that out in the instructions! i’ve updated it reflect that, so sorry about the confusion!!
Thanks for getting back to me! I’m going to the store tonight to buy the ingredients. I’m so excited to make this!
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