Green bean casserole is a classic but it’s so much better when you make it from scratch. This recipe is fast, easy, and delicious.
Why make green bean casserole from scratch when the usual way is so easy? Because this version is more mushroom-y, more flavorful, and only about 10 minutes of work, and you get to say you made it all yourself. It has the combined umami powers of caramelized onions, double the mushrooms, soy sauce, fish sauce, and parmigiano-reggiano cheese. It’s so good you won’t want to stop for turkey or anything else.
How to make green bean casserole
Green bean casserole is super easy to make. No matter what version or recipe, the process is the same:
- Prepare your mushroom soup, add fried onions and soy sauce.
- Blanch your fresh green beans.
- Assemble and bake until bubbling and toasty.
- Top with fried onions and bake a little longer until onions are warmed and extra crispy.
- Eat!
An upgraded green bean casserole
Every component of the classic dish has been upgraded:
- Scratch mushroom soup: make our own, even more mushroom-y. Mushroom++
- Mushroom soy sauce: I recommend a 1-2 punch of dark mushroom soy sauce + fish sauce.
- Farm fresh green beans: switch out for very briefly blanched farm fresh green beans.
- French’s fried onions: Actually you can’t improve this one.
Dark mushroom soy sauce
Believe it or not, soy sauce was integral to this recipe right when it was invented in the 50s. If you are shopping for a fresh bottle, check out mushroom dark soy sauce for extra mushroom flavor. It goes great with anything you’d ever want to use soy sauce for. You don’t need it though, feel free to use any old soy sauce.
Fried onions
Although everything else in this recipe is scratch made, you shouldn’t go homemade just for homemade’s sake. Unless you own tens of thousands of dollars of commercial dehydration and deep fry equipment, you likely can’t match the quality of commercially fried onions.
If you don’t live in a place where they sell fried onions, almost all asian supermarkets sell fried onions or shallots. So does IKEA, although both of these are unseasoned fried onions compared to classic supermarket fried onions. And of course, Amazon.
How long to bake green bean casserole
Green bean casserole is completely cooked before it ever goes into the oven. The reason we bake it is to meld all the flavors together and caramelize the mushrooms and onions in the soup. You can easily go as little as 15 minutes.
Make ahead green bean casserole
If you want zero stress and you’re making it within 24 hours, you can put the entire thing together, cover it, and store it in the fridge. When you are ready to cook, add 10-20 minutes cooking time. If you are pre-prepping the day of, the best way is to trim the green beans and make the mushroom stock, but don’t blanch the beans until you are ready to assemble.
Green Bean Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp butter or olive oil, or mix of the two
- 4 cloves garlic crushed
- 1/2 medium onion sliced
- 1 lb mushrooms pre-sliced cremini preferred
- 4-8 sprigs thyme or other herbs
- 2 tbsp all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup white wine or beef/chicken/vegetable stock
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 0.5-1 cup milk optional, see notes
- 1 tbsp dark mushroom soy sauce or regular soy sauce
- 1 tsp fish sauce optional
- 1/2 cup french fried onions
Assembly
- 1.5 lb green beans ends trimmed
- 1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese or Cheddar
- 1 cup french fried onions or more, to finish
Instructions
- Melt the butter over medium heat, being careful not to burn it. Sauté onions for 2-3 minutes, then add garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Add mushrooms and thyme. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are toasty brown, about 7 minutes. Add flour, salt, and pepper, and stir for another 2 minutes until the flour is thoroughly incorporated.
- Add wine and reduce by half, about 3 minutes. Reduce heat to low, then add cream, soy sauce, fish sauce, milk (If using) and fried onions. Stir, season, and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
- While you are waiting for your sauce to thicken, blanch your green beans in boiling salted water for 3 minutes, then drain and cool. If you like your green beans on the squeaky crunchy side, use an ice bath. Preheat your oven to 375ºF too.
- To assemble: make a bed of green beans in a large oven proof dish. Ladle the mushroom sauce over top of that, and top with parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes at 375ºF.
- Remove from oven, carefully toss the green beans a little, then top with more onions. Return to the oven for another 5 minutes or until onions are crispy.
This is the best green bean casserole recipe I’ve tried. I hosted friend giving and this was the first dish to disappear. I also used the sauce as a base for pasta and it was delicious too!
glad for the update, my memories of it aren’t that great even though I’ve come to like and appreciate green beans, l really like the addition of mushrooms, much better, thank you!