Green Bean Casserole is a classic holiday side dish. This casserole is made with fresh green beans, creamy mushrooms sauce, and French’s fried onions. This side dish is incredibly delicious and really easy to make from scratch.
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Why We Love This Recipe
Green bean casserole is one of THE classic Thanksgiving side dishes. It is definitely our favorite.
It’s a classic recipe but made it from scratch. Fresh ingredients and amazing homemade sauce!
It’s not much more difficult to prepare this casserole and it tastes amazing.
You can easily make several steps ahead of time!
For the fried onions, you can use French’s fried onions, which are so tasty, or you can take it a step further and make your own. I like to use French’s because they really are delicious and because making homemade fried onions would be the longest step in the process.
But, if you wish to make every part homemade, I included steps to make your own fried onions below.
Featured Review:
KRISTINE :
NOVEMBER 30, 2019 AT 3:03 AM
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Absolutely fantastic! I got rave reviews for this. Usually, when I do the holiday cooking, I am so hyped, or tired, that I don’t taste anything for some reason. Well, here it is, 3AM, two days later and I am enjoying these immensely. Thank you a wonderful recipe.
How To Blanch Green Beans
PRO TIP: This step is very important to preserve the gorgeous, bright green color and the crisp. It takes about 10 minutes but guess what? You can blanch green beans ahead of time and refrigerate (or freeze) them. This way, green beans will be all set to go into the casserole.
Start by snipping the ends off green beans where the bean attached to the vine. (Or, you can get already snipped green beans at the store.)
Prepare ice water bowl by combining cold water and a couple of cups of ice in a large mixing bowl. Bring a large pot of water to boil and drop green beans in it. Boil them for about 1-2 minutes (depending on thickness) (1). Don’t overcook!
Use a skimmer or long metal tongs to take green beans out of the hot water and immediately into the ice water (2). This will “shock” the green beans and stop the cooking process, preserving color and crunch.
After green beans have cooled, take them out onto a clean kitchen towel (or paper towels) to pat dry. Green beans can be cooked in casserole, refrigerated, or frozen at this point.
To freeze, pat green beans dry and potion them into freezer bags. Take most of air out, close, label, and freeze.
How to Make Green Bean Casserole
Preheat a large cooking pan over medium heat and add some. Sauté thinly sliced onions until transparent (1) and then, add sliced mushrooms (2). Sauté both until done and golden brown.
Mince or press garlic and add it to the center of the pan (3). Cook until just fragrant fragrant and mix with onions and mushrooms.
Sprinkle flour over the veggies (4) and stir to coat the veggies evenly in flour. Start slowly pouring in milk (5) while whisking continuously. Pour in heavy whipping (6) while while still stirring.
Season with salt, and pepper and continue to stir slowly as the mixture thickens. Once the cream sauce is thickened, take off heat (7).
Casserole:
Preheat oven to 375 and lightly grease a 9×13 casserole dish.
Add green beans into the casserole dish, pour in mushroom cream sauce (8), and add 1/2 cup of fried onions. Mix everything together until evenly incorporated (9).
Cover with foil (10) and bake for 35-45 minutes, depending if you want green beans crunchier or softer.
Take the pan out and carefully take off the foil. Spread remaining fried onions over the top (11) and bake for another 7-10 minutes (12).
Make Ahead Tips
There are a couple of ways to save some time and prepare this dish ahead of time.
To save 10 minutes, you can blanch green beans ahead of time and refrigerate. After cooling green beans in an ice bath, pat them dry, and put them into an air-tight container with a lid. Refrigerate for a day or two.
Green bean casserole can also be prepared almost completely and cooked the next day. Prepare the casserole up to the step of adding fried onions and baking, cover, and refrigerate instead. (Don’t add the fried onions.)
When ready, let the casserole sit on the counter while the oven is preheating and follow the recipe to bake it. Just add about 10 more minutes to bake time under foil since you are starting with a cold casserole.
How to Make Homemade Fried Onions
You will need 1 large yellow onion, 1 cup of buttermilk, 1 cup of flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
- Slice the onion into very thin rings. Submerge sliced onion rings in buttermilk and set aside for about 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oil in the large Dutch oven to 350° (or use a fryer).
- Mix four, salt, garlic powder, and pepper in a large shallow bowl. Take onions out of the buttermilk and shake them off, lightly.
- Toss onions in the flour mixture until completely coated. Fry onion straws until golden brown. Take them out onto a paper towel to catch the excess oil.
Use onions right away or they will become soggy. (Do not cover them or place in a contained with a lid. The moisture will accumulate and fried onions will be soggy.)
Ingredient Tips and Substitutions
Green Beans – it’s best to use fresh green beans but you can use frozen if you need to. Just make sure they are completely thawed and there is no excess liquids. Note: you can also use haricots verts but they are thinner, to will blanch and cook faster.
Mushrooms – you can use the popular baby bella/crimini mushrooms or a medley of different mushrooms if you wish. Some other mushrooms you can use include shiitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, button (white) mushrooms, portobello mushrooms, Chanterelle mushrooms, and Maitake mushrooms.
Flour – use the regular all purpose flour of, if you need Gluten Free friendly, use gluten free all purpose flour.
Liquids – whole milk and heavy whipping cream. These two will give you the best, rich cream of mushroom sauce. If you need a lactose free substitute, there are lactose free whole milk options as well as lactose free half and half and heavy whipping cream. There are some plant based heavy whipping cream options, like Silk, and out of plant based milks, almond will will probably work best. Check your local grocery stores.
Fried onions – use store-bought (French’s) fried onions or homemade. You can always get gluten free French fried onions if you need to keep the recipe gluten free.
Recipe FAQs
Why blanch green beans? The reason for blanching green beans is to preserve the gorgeous, bright green color and the crisp. If you cook green beans without blanching them, they will turn dark green and mushy.
This step takes about 10 minutes but guess what? You can blanch green beans ahead of time and refrigerate (or freeze) them. This way, green beans will be all set to go into the casserole.
You can easily make this green bean casserole gluten free!
In the mushroom sauce, use all purpose gluten free flour instead of regular flour.
If you don’t want to use gluten free flour, you can use corn starch instead, but it will be a different process. Cook mushrooms and onions and then pour in cream and milk. Once everything is heated through, mix corn starch with a little bit of cold milk until combined. Pour corn starch mixture into the pan while slowly whisking. Cook a couple of minutes until thickened.
For the fried onions, you can get gluten free fried onions that many grocery stores do have in stock, especially during the holiday season.
If making your own fried onions, use gluten free all purpose flour instead of regular flour.
Absolutely! You can easily add some bacon or diced ham. To add bacon, you will want to cut raw cold bacon into small pieces and start by sautéing it in the pan first. Once bacon is about half way cooked, add the onions and continue to cook the cream sauce per the recipe.
To add the ham, simply dice it and start by sautéing it in a little oil first. Then, add the onion and continue to cook the cream sauce per recipe.
Some More Holiday Side Dish Recipes
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Green Bean Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs green beans
- 2 tbsp canola oil
- 1 small yellow onion
- 8 oz baby bella mushrooms
- 4 garlic cloves
- 5 tbsp all purpose flour
- 3 cups whole milk
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- Salt
- Fresh cracked black pepper
- 6 oz French’s fried onion divided
Instructions
Blanch Green beans:
- Snip the ends off green beans where the bean attached to the vine. You can cut green beans in half or leave them whole.
- Prepare ice water bowl by combining cold water and a couple of cups of ice in a large mixing bowl.
- Bring a large pot of water to boil and drop green beans in it. Boil them for about 3-4 minutes (depending on thickness).
- Take green beans out of the hot water and immediately into the ice water.
- After green beans have cooled, take them out onto a paper towel to pat dry.
Cream sauce:
- Preheat a large cooking pan over medium heat.
- Slice onions and mushrooms thinly.
- Add oil to the pan and onions. Saute until transparent.
- Add mushrooms and cook until mostly done.
- Mince or press garlic and add it to the pan. Cook until fragrant.
- Sprinkle flour over the veggies and stir until veggies are coated in flour.
- Start slowly pouring in milk while whisking continuously. Pour in heavy whipping while while still stirring. Continue to stir slowly as the mixture thickens.
- Season with salt, and pepper and cook for a couple of minutes. Take off heat.
Casserole:
- Preheat oven to 375 and lightly grease a 9×13 casserole dish.
- Add green beans into the casserole dish, pour in mushroom cream sauce, and add 1/2 cup of fried onions. Mix everything together until evenly incorporated.
- Cover with foil and bake for 35-45 minutes, depending if you want green beans crunchier or softer.
- Take the pan out and carefully take off the foil. Spread remaining fried onions over the top and bake for another 7-10 minutes.
Video
Notes
- Gluten Free Notes: In the mushroom sauce, use all purpose gluten free flour instead of regular flour.
For the fried onions, you can get gluten free fried onions that many grocery stores do have in stock, especially during the holiday season.
If making homemade fried onions, use gluten free all purpose flour instead of regular flour. (check the post to see how to make homemade fried onions) - Storing and reheating: Store leftover green bean casserole in an air-tight food storage container, in the refrigerator. Properly stored, it should last 3-4 days. To reheat it, you can reheat individual portions in the microwave, in 30 minute increments. You can also reheat it in the oven at 350 until just hot.
Nutrition
Originally published on Will Cook For Smiles in October 2018.
Alice says
I made this last weekend for a potluck and it was a hit! Everyone wanted the recipe! It’s much better then the recipes made with canned mushroom soup.
LyubaB says
I am so glad everyone liked it, Alice!
Kristine says
Absolutely fantastic! I got rave reviews for this. Usually, when I do the holiday cooking, I am so hyped, or tired, that I don’t taste anything for some reason. Well, here it is, 3AM, two days later and I am enjoying these immensely. Thank you a wonderful recipe.
LyubaB says
Kristine, I am so glad your enjoying it! 🙂
Glenda says
Your pictures are gorgeous! I need these green beans in my life. lol Thanks for sharing the recipe.
LyubaB says
Thank you, Glenda! I hope you give them a try! 🙂