Green Bean Casserole: A Thanksgiving Classic
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- cream of mushroom soup
- 4-6 cups fresh mushrooms (i use shitake or portobellos) finely chopped
- 1 container trader joe's organic vegetable broth (leave 1 cup seperate from the rest)
- 1 stick melted butter (leave 1 tablespoon of melted butter seperate from the rest)
- 3 cups half and half
- optional salt to taste
- green bean casserole
- 2 lbs green beans stems need to be removed and works best if green beans are cut in half
- 1/2-1 lb bacon cooked and crumbled
- cream of mushroom soup
- 6-8 cups sharp cheddar cheese (or cheese of your choice) shredded
- 1-2 bunches green onions chopped
- fried onions (either canned or your own)
- Carbohydrate 12.073106834565 g
- Cholesterol 86.0083333711797 mg
- Fat 30.1906068190964 g
- Fiber 2.91539850654705 g
- Protein 5.28794269202771 g
- Saturated Fat 18.5827240100217 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (253g)
- Sodium 293.742923741938 mg
- Sugar 9.15770832801798 g
- Trans Fat 2.48862128577425 g
- Calories 331 calories
Step-by-step
- In a large saucepan, saute the mushrooms with 1 cup of the vegetable broth and 1 tablespoon of butter until tender (usually around 15 minutes but can be more or less depending on the preference of texture).
- Once mushrooms are done cooking, add the half and half, the rest of the vegetable broth and the butter.
- Stir constantly until smooth, add the pepper and continue to stir until it reaches a boil.
- Pour into shallow container and refrigerate over night so it will solidify for the casserole.
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Steam the green beans for about 10-15 minutes to make them soft but still crunchy.
- Add green beans, cream of mushroom soup and bacon crumbles to a large mixing bowl and mix together until green beans are covered with bacon and the soup.
- Spread evenly in a casserole dish and sprinkle enough cheese to cover the entire green bean/bacon/soup mix.
- Heat in oven for 15 minutes.
- At the end of 15 minutes add green onions and then fried onions for another 5 minutes (must be green onions first and then fried onions).
- Serve and enjoy.
Crispy fried onions shatter over a molten blanket of sharp cheddar, yielding to tender-crisp green beans and smoky bacon beneath. Success here hinges entirely on the homemade mushroom base. Commercial canned soups lack the structural integrity required for a heavy bake, often weeping moisture and liquefying the dish. Building a from-scratch mushroom reduction utilizing shiitake or portobellos simmered in vegetable broth, butter, and half-and-half creates a rich emulsion. Boiling this mixture forces the dairy fats and starches to bind properly before chilling. Refrigerating that sauce overnight solidifies the fats into a spreadable paste capable of holding its shape when combined with the vegetables. Steaming the trimmed green beans for 10 to 15 minutes softens their cellular walls just enough to prevent a squeaky, raw bite, yet preserves structural bite before they enter the 400 degree oven. Staggering the toppings prevents burning. Green onions and fried onions require separate addition windows because delicate alliums char quickly under high heat while the canned toppings only need five minutes to achieve crispness. Adjusting quantities for different group sizes requires proportional scaling of the dairy-to-mushroom ratio, maintaining the exact overnight chilling duration regardless of batch volume to guarantee proper setting.
