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Green Bean Casserole (The Real Food Way) by Stacy Karen on December 6, 10 Green Bean Casserole is a staple side dish for many Hoilday dinners. Tasty green beans, creamy white sauce, and a crunchy topping, make it a well-loved family favorite. Unfortunately, many recipes include canned condensed soup, bacon bits, and French fried onions (also in a can); enough to make a real foodie cringe! Most of these undesirable ingredients can be completely avoided by using homemade alternatives such as made-from scratch sauce and home cooked bacon. Simply replacing these in your family favorite recipe will give it that real food touch. Today I’m going to share my family’s favorite recipe for Green Bean Casserole. It is extremely rich, including a decent amount of delicious butter. We save it for special occasions, breaking it out once or twice a year, including Christmas. Green Bean Casserole (the real food way) I adapted this recipe from Stephanie Kimmel’s delicious Green Bean Casserole, eliminating the white flour and substituting coconut oil for the olive (since it is stable at high temperatures) among other things. Ingredients For the Beans: 1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 3-inch pieces 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced 1/4 inch thick 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves or ¾ tsp. dried thyme Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste Optional: Add crumbled, home-cooked bacon to suit your taste For the Sauce: 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour OR 2 Tablespoons arrowroot powder 2 cups whole milk 1 tsp. salt For the Topping: 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 1 tablespoon coconut oil 1/2 cup sliced shallots 1/2 cup whole wheat or sourdough bread crumbs Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (This provides a light topping. I frequently double this amount since I love it! The topping is doubled in the picture above.) Shallots give the topping a special, delicate flavor. They would be the "secret" ingredient, if there was one! Method Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Step One: Prepare Beans and Mushrooms Fill a large pot with water and sprinkle with a little salt. Bring to boil and add green beans. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes until they are crisp tender. Drain and set aside. While beans are cooking, melt the butter in a large pan. Turn to medium-low and sauté onion and garlic in the butter until soft. Add mushrooms and thyme. Stir and sauté until the mushrooms release their juices. Continue cooking until the juices are reduced. Season with salt and pepper. Step Two: Make Sauce Here are two methods for making the sauce: one uses whole wheat flour, the other uses arrowroot powder. Method 1: Using Whole Wheat Pastry Flour Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan. Whisk in the flour and cook for a minute or two (this will reduce the “floury” taste). Add milk to saucepan, pouring in slowly while whisking continually. Add salt and stir to distribute throughout. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until sauce thickens to the point where it will coat a spoon. Method 2: Using Arrowroot powder Mix arrowroot powder and cold milk together until smooth. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan. Pour in the arrowroot/milk mixture and stir. Cook, stirring frequently, until sauce thickens to the point where it will coat a spoon. Step Three: Combine Sauce, Beans, and Mushrooms Combine cooked green beans and mushroom/thyme mixture in a large bowl. Gently stir until mixed. Pour the sauce over the top and stir until evenly distributed. Pour into a well greased 9 by 11 inch baking dish. Step Four: Make Topping As noted in the ingredients, I often double the recipe for the topping since I like there to be a lot of it. You can also double all of the ingredients except the shallots and increase those as you desire. In a skillet or sauté pan, melt butter and coconut oil over medium-high heat. Add sliced shallots, cooking about 3 to 4 minutes until soft and turning golden. Add the bread crumbs and stir to coat with oil. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle topping over casserole. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the bread crumbs are golden brown and the cream sauce is bubbling. Is Green Bean Casserole a favorite in your home? About Stacy Karen Stacy, a homeschooling Mom of three, enjoys healthy, natural living and is a make-it-from-scratch maniac. She strives to encourage women to find peace and joy at home through her blog, Delighting in the Days, where she shares tips and tricks for creating a happy home (and life) with God at its center. * View all posts by Stacy Karen → * Blog You might also enjoy: 1. Nourishing Wife-Saver Breakfast Casserole 2. Cabbage Roll Casserole: A Tasty Way to Get Your Family to Eat More Cabbage 3. Real Food Makeover- The “W” Family, Part 2 4. Real Food Recipe Roundup: January Tagged as: casserole, christmas, from scratch, green bean casserole, green beans, healthier, holiday, how to make, mushrooms, real food, recipe, shallots, whole food { 3 trackbacks } Tweets that mention Green Bean Casserole (The Real Food Way) | Keeper of the Home -- Topsy.com December 6, 10 at 3:50 am Favorite Green Bean Casserole (and other Real Food Holiday Recipes) | Delighting in the Days December 11, 10 at 9:27 pm Links of the Week 3 « Gluten-Free Maui December 16, 10 at 12:21 pm { 11 comments… read them below or add one } 1 Sarah M December 6, 10 at 4:13 am very good! This is my favorite thing at Thanksgiving. S Sarah M´s last blog ..DPP-6My ComLuv Profile [Reply] 2 dawn December 6, 10 at 6:02 am I LOVE green bean casserole! Will definitely try this...I`ve been making my own "cream of whatever" soups for some time and it`s so much better, both nutritionally and taste-wise. This recipe looks so yummy, thanks for sharing! [Reply] 3 suzannah {so much shouting, so much laughter} December 6, 10 at 6:36 am yum! i haven't made this since i've "known better," and i'm excited to find a whole-foods recipe. bookmarking:) (and stephanie, i am so excited to hear from your at relevant next year!) suzannah {so much shouting, so much laughter}´s last blog ..how to win a blog giveaway with giveawayMy ComLuv Profile [Reply] Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home Reply: December 6th, 2010 at 9:10 am @suzannah {so much shouting, so much laughter}, Thanks, Suzannah! I can't wait to go to Relevant again! This casserole really is yummy. I already made it, before it was even published. :) [Reply] 4 Jill December 6, 10 at 9:14 am What a wonderful recipe!! Can't wait to try it. I always cringe when I go to someone's house and they are serving conventional green bean casserole as the "vegetable".... yikes. :) Jill´s last blog ..Butter Bell Review & GIVEAWAY!My ComLuv Profile [Reply] 5 Nola December 6, 10 at 11:27 am I've never even heard of green bean casserole before :) Its really interesting though how many typical recipes can be adapated to be real food. I recently did that with pumpkin pie. My husband LOVES it but I couldn't figure how to do it with the ingredients. I knew the basics- I changed the all purpose flour to whole grain, changed the brown sugar to sucanat, etc. but what to do with the condensed milk? A friend told me to double the milk and then bring to a gentle boil (watch carefully, it burns and boils over easily) and then simmer until the milk "condenses". It took me about 25 min, I think, to make 2 cups of milk into 1 cup. Then I used that in place of one of those cans of 1 cup of evaporated milk...cause when I read the ingredients on the can I never wanted to make the pie. My husband said it tasted great (in fact he used the word normal, LOL) and I've made it many more times since then. A little creativity and thinking outside the box and help from others who cook with better ingredients really helps! [Reply] Stacy @ Delighting in the Days Reply: December 6th, 2010 at 1:10 pm @Nola, that sounds delicious. I love that your husband said it tasted "normal." So funny! Stacy @ Delighting in the Days´s last blog ..Herbal Nurturing Ebook GiveawayMy ComLuv Profile [Reply] Valerie Reply: December 6th, 2010 at 1:16 pm @Nola, we have used canned coconut milk in place of the condensed milk, and it turns out delicious. It's an easy replacement if you don't have time to boil down the milk. [Reply] 6 Amanda December 6, 10 at 12:03 pm I have been making my own homemade green bean casserole for a few years now. As a side note, I now have a great homemade cream of mushroom soup recipe that is the yummy sauce that goes over the green beans (nutmeg is the secret) It tastes so much better than ANY canned cream soup and makes the casserole a huge hit. I always double the batch and there are never any leftovers! Real food is so tasty! [Reply] Stacy @ Delighting in the Days Reply: December 6th, 2010 at 1:08 pm [Reply] 7 Jessica Klanderud December 7, 10 at 5:55 am I do a similar version but I do the mushrooms separately add caramelized onions just under the topping. I've also used whole wheat flour to dust raw onions and then pan fried them in coconut oil. It is an extra step but it really adds that fried onion taste and since my husband doesn't really care for mushrooms I tend to go heavy on the onion and light on the mushroom. |