Green bean casserole is a holiday table staple. This rich dish is made with fresh green beans and an amazing, gluten-free, homemade mushroom cream sauce. Made with plenty of cream and butter from grass-fed cows, this real food side dish is sure to be the star of your holiday table.

Growing up, green bean casserole rarely graced our Thanksgiving table but it is my husband’s absolute favorite side. I’d argue he’d make it the main coarse if we’d let him. I’ve been working diligently on creating a version that didn’t involved canned green beans or mushroom soup concentrate.

This rich and creamy dish packs flavor with zero fake shit. Made with butter, cream and topped with parmesan cheese from grass-fed cows, this dish is not for the lactose intolerant.

To keep life simple, I made this green bean casserole in one dish by using my giant cast iron skillet. The joys of this non-toxic cookware is that it can go from stove to oven (with a strong bicep). If you don’t have a good size (re: at least 10″) cast iron pan, you can transfer the sautéed veggies and green beans into an oven safe glass baking dish. Cook time will remain the same, you’ll just have slightly more clean-up to do

I used a mix of crimini (baby bella), oyster, and chanterelle mushrooms to make the mushroom cream sauce, but you can feel free to use whatever mushrooms you enjoy most.

Die-hard green bean casserole fans will notice there are no fried onions to top this dish. If you can’t live without the fried goods, I highly recommend these gluten-free French fried onions from Whole Foods.

Green Bean Casserole

Liz Winters

Print Recipe

Prep Time 25 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Course Side Dish

Servings 6

Equipment

• oven safe skillet
• Immersion Blender

Ingredients

  

• 1 leek
• 1 small yellow onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 oz unsalted butter
• 8 oz mushrooms I used a mix of crimini, oyster, and chanterelle
• Coarse sea salt
• 1 cup chicken stock or vegetable stock
• 1½ cups heavy cream
• 1 lb green beans ends trimmed
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/4 tsp fresh cracked pepper
• 1 tsp thyme
• 4 tbsp grated parmesan

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350°
• Melt butter in a large, oven safe skillet over medium heat.
• While butter is melting prep leek, onion and garlic. Trim the dark green part from the leek and discard (or save for bone broth!). Quarter and slice the remaining leek into very thin ribbons. Dice the yellow onion and mince the garlic. Add alliums to to melted butter with a generous pinch of coarse sea salt.
• Saute onions and garlic until fragrant and onions soften, about 5 minutes.
• While onions are cooking, thinly slice mushrooms, removing any tough stem pieces. Add sliced mushrooms to onion mixture along with another pinch of coarse sea salt.
• Satue until mushrooms release moisture and start to brown; about 7-10minutes. The mushrooms and onions should absorb most of the butter and cooking liquid. Remove 1/3 of the onion and mushroom mixture from the pan and set aside.
• Deglaze the pan with 1 cup chicken stock, scraping the pan to get any stuck browned bits.
• Add 1.5 cups heavy cream, 1 tsp salt, 1/4tsp pepper, and 1 tsp thyme to pan and reduce the heat. Allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes.
• While cream sauce is simmering, prep green beans. Trim ends of green beans, discard, and cut beans into 2" pieces.
• Blanche green beans in a pot of boiling water for 2-3 minutes until bright green. Drain water and set beans aside.
• Using an immersion blender, puree the cream sauce. If your pan is too shallow, transfer the sauce to a quart size mason jar and puree in there.
• Taste the sauce for salt and adjust to your preference
• Add green beans, reserved mushrooms and onions and cream sauce back to oven safe skillet (or glass baking dish if you don't have an oven safe skillet). Stir to make sure green beans are evenly distributed.
• Bake for 30 minutes.
• Remove casserole from oven and sprinkle with 4-5 tbsp grated parmesan. Turn oven to broil and return casserole to oven for another 3-5 minutes. Broil until parmesan bubbles and browns.
• Remove from oven and allow to cool 5-10 minutes before serving.