Healthy Creamy Green Bean Casserole

COMMENTS

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    [post_date] => 2015-11-18 11:02:09
    [post_date_gmt] => 2015-11-18 17:02:09
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    [post_title] => Healthy Creamy Green Bean Casserole
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11.18

I have a few confessions.

The first is…I don’t like green beans, and I’m posting a recipe with green beans.

The thing is, I adore pretty much every vegetable under the sun, with a special place in my heart for the funky ones like kohlrabi and knobby celeriac. But for some reason, green beans have never really revved my culinary engine.

With one exception, which is my next confession. I LOVE traditional green bean casserole. Gimme all the condensed mushroom glop and the oily fried onion strings and I will eat green beans for days. Except don’t, because that would make me ill.

So it should follow naturally that I’ve been wanting to make a real-food, healthy green bean casserole where the beans are fresh and major intolerances like dairy and gluten are avoided. In particular, I developed this for Families Connect, an private online forum for sharing memories, pictures, videos and recipes with your loved ones. I've been creating recipes for the Families Connect blog for a while, and you can scroll through the archives to see things like my Pumpkin Spice Baked Oatmeal Squares and Apple Cheddar Muffins. A healthy green bean casserole was a perfect Families Connect fit, but it's also a perfect LL Balanced fit, so I had to share with y'all in time for Thanksgiving!

Instead of trying to sell you on how amazingly scrumptious this turned out to be, I'll just share that my husband got up from the dinner table, went to the kitchen and said "This is the first time ever that I am going back for seconds of the vegetables and not meat." Case-serole closed.

In the theme of healthy holiday-ing, I've teamed up with a local Nashville company called NourishWise on this post. Nourishwise provides nutrition information for restaurant dishes, so you know exactly what you're getting. Brilliant concept, right? I don't plan to pull this info for all of my recipes, but I think it's important to read and understand nutrition labels. I'm pretty proud of these stats! Check out Nourishwise by clicking HERE!

TOTAL TIME :1 hour10minutes

10servings

INGREDIENTS

C A S S E R O L E
8 cups steamed or blanched green beans, 2/3" pieces
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small sweet onion, sliced into 1/4 inch thick half-moons
10 ounces sliced baby bella mushrooms (I get TJ's pre sliced)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups full fat canned coconut milk
2 tablespoons low-sodium Tamari (sub soy sauce)
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock (recommended free-range organic)
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons arrowroot starch (sub non GMO cornstarch)
T O P P I N G - MIX TOGETHER, SET ASIDE
1 cup gluten-free panko bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 casserole dish with olive oil or butter.
Heat a large sauté pan to medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Turn pan to coat with oil. Add sliced onions and allow to brown without stirring, for 5-6 minutes. You want to burn the edges slightly. Flip onions with a spatula and cook another 5-6 minutes to brown the other side. Add 1/2 cup water to the pan to deglaze, scraping the bottom and mixing it with the water. Turn down to medium-low heat and cook another 10 minutes.
Remove onions from pan and set aside. Add 2 more tablespoons olive oil to pan, turn to medium heat and add sliced mushrooms. Cook 3-4 minutes without stirring to brown slightly, then flip and cook another 2-3 minutes. Add minced garlic and saute 30 seconds, stirring.
Add coconut milk, chicken stock, mustard, tamari, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and oregano. Stir to combine. Cook for 15 minutes or until the liquid has reduced by approximately half and has thickened.
Whisk arrowroot starch with 6 tablespoons water and add to sauté pan. Stir to incorporate and cook another 2-3 minutes until liquid has thickened even more. Remove pan from heat.
Add steamed green beans and caramelized onions to casserole dish and pour mushroom mixture over. Stir to incorporate evenly. Top with Panko mixture. Optional but recommended: drizzle top with extra virgin olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool 10 minutes before serving.

Emily

Can’t wait to try this for our family’s Thanksgiving! I see Tamari in the directions but not the ingredient list, when don’t add that and how much? Thanks!
- llbalanced
  
  hi Emily! apologies! I just added it into the ingredient list, and it shouldn’t affect the nutrition in any significant way. Let me know how it goes!
Courtenay

Hi! I just bought your book and I’m really excited to try these recipes, this one ecspecially. I’m wondering what I can use to replace the coconut milk though. Any suggestions would be wonderful as I see it’s used in a lot of the recipes!
- Laura Lea Goldberg
  
  Hi! The best substitute is full fat cow’s milk. Coconut milk is really thick and creamy compared to boxed milks, which is why I use it!
  - Courtenay
    
    Thank you!