Healthy American Green Bean and Mushroom Casserole

Time for another Secret Recipe Club recipe today. And my assigned blog this time is Simple and Savory, a lovely blog run by Anne, a holistic health coach, developing healthy and wholesome yet simple recipes, many of them gluten or dairy-free and also vegan and vegetarian, but not only. Some of my favorite recipes on her blog are the cleaned up classics and that is where I found my recipe for today as well: Classic Green Bean Casserole Turns Healthy.

It is the healthy version of the popular green bean casserole. Well, when I say popular I mean it is popular in the US, I have only ever heard of it when reading American blogs. But it is something that I definitely knew, there are so many recipes out there, one keeps stumbling upon them from time to time. And one thing that also stayed in my mind was that despite the fact that the dish looked totally delicious in a picture, it was also made with canned mushroom soup. A no-go for me. I swear I’ve never eaten soup from a can and I would never do it willingly. So when seeing the nice pictures, I’ve always thought “What a shame!” and moved on.

When searching for a recipe on Anne’s blog for this month’s assignment, I knew it had to be a side dish, something suitable for eating with roast lamb. Why? Because of my theme at the moment “Romanian Easter Food”. I knew there was no chance of finding a Romanian Easter recipe on a foreign blog, so I thought that if I’m lucky I will find a nice side dish to go with the lamb. The first thing on my mind were the green beans, there’s no better vegetable to go with lamb than green beans, in my opinion. So I searched “green beans” on Simple and Savory and found my recipe immediately. I have never found a recipe for the SRC assignment so quickly before, 5 minutes after receiving the assignment email I already knew what it was going to be!

And what a revelation this green bean casserole it was, I loved every bite of it and I think it could become a classic in our house as well. Delicious green beans smothered in a luscious sauce made with fresh mushrooms and onions and topped with crispy panko breadcrumbs. I am telling you, it was amazing. It went perfectly with the lamb, but I can imagine eating the green bean casserole as a main meal accompanied only by potatoes (mashed potatoes would be great).

But of course, I didn’t stop here after finding the suitable recipe, Anne’s blog is really a great place to look for really good and healthy recipes. Another one of her recipes, that I made a few weeks ago was the Sweet and Sour Quesadillas. I just happened to have some leftover sauerkraut and found the recipe by accident when looking to see what else Anne cooked. It was a few hours before lunch, I didn’t have anything planned yet, so I spontaneously made the quesadillas. It took me less than 15 minutes and the result was delicious, I can strongly recommend it.

Other recipes I would love to try are the Vegetable Soup with White Bean Balls, the Mexican Pizza  and the Buffalo Cauliflower Bites.

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Healthy Green Bean Casserole

Rating  5.0 from 1 reviews

Prep time:  30 mins

Cook time:  40 mins

Total time:  1 hour 10 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 900 g/ 2 lbs green beans
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 250 g/ 8.8 oz small mushrooms
• 1 medium onion
• 2 tablespoons white wine
• 240 ml/ 1 cup milk (I used 1,5% fat)
• 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce (or tamari)
• about 30 g/ ¼ cup panko
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
2. In the meantime trim the green beans and cut them into 2,5 cm/1 inch pieces. Put them into the boiling water and when the water starts to boil again, drain and refresh under cold water. Set aside.
3. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/ 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. Clean the mushrooms, halve them if necessary. Chop the onion.
5. Heat the oil, add the mushrooms and the onion and cook until they turn light brown. Add the white wine and continue cooking until the wine has evaporated. Set aside. Adjust the taste with salt and pepper.
6. Give the milk to a sauce pan and add the flour gradually while whisking all the time. Cook while whisking continuously until the sauce thickens (it will happen fast). Add the mushroom-onion mixture, the soy sauce (or tamari) and the beans. Stir well.
7. Lightly oil a casserole dish, place the mixture inside and sprinkle the panko on top. Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown.

3.5.3208

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