Um, hello. A make-ahead version of the much loved green bean casserole? Sign me up, baby.
I happen to love green bean casserole, even the popular recipes made with my arch-nemesis: cream of mushroom soup. But I have to say, this recipe made me realize how much more delicious the old standby casserole can taste when made with vibrant green beans, fresh mushrooms, a delicious and simple creamy homemade sauce and still topped with the ever popular fried onions.
And what a time-saving miracle that this recipe can be made weeks ahead of time and frozen. The baked dish is hearty and tasty and absolutely what green bean casserole should taste like!
One Year Ago: Thanksgiving Dinner: The Pie
Two Years Ago: Coconut Chicken Curry
Make-Ahead Green Bean Casserole
Printable Version
Printable Version with Picture
*Note: The topping and casserole can be frozen separately for up to 2 months. Hallelujah!
*Serves 10 to 12 as a side dish (can be easily halved and baked in a smaller dish)
INGREDIENTS:
Topping:
2 slices hearty sandwich bread, white or wheat, torn into pieces
2 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups canned fried onions
Casserole:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
10 ounces white mushrooms , sliced thin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
6 garlic cloves , minced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup cornstarch
DIRECTIONS:
For the topping: Pulse bread, butter, and salt in food processor until coarsely ground. Combine bread mixture and canned fried onions in a bowl, transfer to a zipper-lock freezer bag, and freeze. (I placed the topping bag right on top of the casserole in the freezer so I could keep track of both.)
For the casserole: Melt the butter in a large 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, salt, and pepper and cook until the mushrooms release their liquid, about 5 minutes. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook until all the liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the flour and cook until golden, stirring, about 1 minute. Slowly whisk in broth and cream and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, toss the green beans with the cornstarch until the beans are evenly coated. Transfer the beans to a 9X13-inch baking dish. Pour the warm mushroom mixture evenly over the beans. Let the casserole cool completely on the counter. Once cooled, cover with a layer of plastic wrap and then a layer of foil. Freeze for up to 2 months.
When ready to bake, adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the layer of plastic wrap from the baking dish and replace the foil. Bake, covered, until the sauce is bubbling and the beans are tender, about 80 minutes, stirring the beans thoroughly after 50 minutes. Remove the foil and spread the frozen topping mixture over the beans. Bake until golden brown, about 8-10 minutes. Serve.
Recipe Source: adapted slightly from Cook’s Country
{ 39 comments… read them below or add one }
I love that this isn’t made with the soup! Awesome!
What a fabulous recipe! I love that you use fresh ingredients (I hate those canned soups, too)! Thanks for the tip on freezing it, too. I always wonder if dishes freeze well or not!
Two green bean casseroles among the blogs I follow this morning. As I commented to the other one: our family always loved it at Thanksgiving. It may even have been made with mushroom soup – don’t remember. Peter and I have a favorite green bean recipe: slow-roasted beans tossed with tomatoes and fennel seeds. Cooks for 3 hours but does not become mushy because of the low temp.
Thank you!! Just what I needed!!! Love that everything is fresh ingredients.
I just love how you don’t use any canned junk. Love this recipe!
ooh, I love this recipe. Thanks
Do you thaw this before cooking or put it in the oven frozen? I plan to add this to my Thanksgiving table!
green bean casserole is one of my favorites when done right. this one sounds good. however, we have dairy allergies here, what could i sub for the heavy cream? i know it is a vital and yummy ingredient but we can’t have it. (sigh)
This is great–any time saver is welcomed in my book during the hectic holiday season!
I’ve been tempted to give this a try but all I remember is the nasty gross ones growing up that were full of cream of yuck. However since we always seem to have the same taste in food I’ll give this dish a try. Hopefully it will wipe the memory of the gross one out of my mind.
Hi Mel! This looks great and wouldn’t ya know the Greenberg casserole has been my job on Thanksgiving since I was a kid. Back then I would “help” my great-grandmother make the cream of mushroom soup version. I’m not a big fan of mushrooms so I switched to cream of chicken a few years ago which is quite tasty. I’ve been looking for a recipe that omits the canned stuff altogether so I will def. try this. What do u think the cook time should be adjusted to if the casserole is just refrigerated and not frozen? And if I do w/o mushrooms should I add a cup or so more of greenbeans or leave as is?
JJ – I think you could omit the mushrooms and be fine without subbing in another ingredient for them. If it is just refrigerated, my best guess is that it would only need to bake for 1/2 the time called for in the recipe.
momstarr – is there an ingredient you normally work with in the place of cream? Like a soy product or something similar? I think you could probably get away with using a soy milk product but I would probably double the amount of cornstarch so it thickens nicely. Good luck working around those dairy allergies!
Melissa – this casserole is cooked frozen so there is no need to thaw beforehand!
Yummy. I love that it is made w/o soup. I’m not sure why my arch nemesis is Cream of Mushroom soup too. Maybe I’m just that much of your fan girl that I hate it too? Maybe it’s the tin can, preservative taste that it gives everything.
Do you have a standard for substituting for it? Say if I just wanted to make something that calls for a can, what would the standard procedure be?
Thanks again, I’ll be making this dish this weekend.
-Michelle
Mel, I have a question. Are fresh green beans from the grocery store good at this time of year? I have only ever eaten fresh from my own garden, and usually eat canned the rest of the year. Thanks!
Lauren – well, to be perfectly honest, if you love green beans from your garden, the fresh green beans at the grocery store will be hard-pressed to meet up to your expectations. There just isn’t anything like fresh garden produce. Having said that, if you look around, you can find some pretty good fresh green beans – and they’ll definitely be better in this recipe than canned.
Michelle – I don’t have a standard for substitution – I kind of take it on a recipe-by-recipe basis, but usually it’s a combination of a roux (butter and flour) and chicken broth/milk for the liquid. The sauce in the Hawaiian Haystacks recipe is a classic instance where I came up with a way to get rid of the cream of chicken soup with a homemade sauce. Hope that helps!
Would you still cook for the same amount of time if you aren’t freezing it? Thanks!
Charlotte – if you are only refrigerating this and not freezing it, I would cut the cooking time in half and still keep a close eye on it to make sure it isn’t burning and that everything is heating through well.
Thank you for this delicious recipe! I brought it today to an early family Thanksgiving! a total hit and a definate replacement for standard green bean casserole! thanks for sharing! I am guessing this will be on the menu for years to come.
also a note…..I used frozen green beans, but didn’t need to make ahead, so just used the frozen beans in the casserole and then refrigerated once made. I needed to bake it about 45 min and than added the topping.
Nicole – I’m so glad this recipe worked out for you and thanks for including your tip on frozen green beans!
Hi! Thank you for the recipe, Mel. I am excited to make this for Thanksgiving this year.
Just a question for Nicole if you are able to get to this before next week
Did you still add the cornstarch even when using frozen green beans? I might use frozen than fresh…
Thanks!
I’m making this for Thanksgiving, as we don’t like canned cream soup either in the green bean casserole. One question for you….do you use ground thyme or whole thyme leaves when making this?
Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Mel,
I love the sound of your recipe. My only concern is the cooking time. Since I only have one oven, how can I time this with the turkey and the stuffing? Any thoughts?
Kathy – great question! I usually accomplish this by roasting my turkey on the lower oven rack which leaves me room to still sit a rack in the upper level of my oven and I bake the green bean casserole simultaneously with the turkey. Because the green bean casserole recipe temp is 400 degrees and the turkey roasts for most of the time (at least my recipe) at 350, I just bake the frozen green bean casserole at 350 with the turkey and add about 20 minutes onto the cooking time. I hope that helps!
Cindi – I use dried thyme leaves. They aren’t fully ground into a powder but they are dried.
Mel, thanks for the great recipe. I’ll try it this year, and will use your tip for baking the green bean casserole at 350 with the turkey. That was my only concern when I read your recipe.
I prepped this today and I can hardly wait to put it in the oven tomorrow — the mushroom sauce tasted divine when I licked the spoon!
Liz – I hope you love it!
thanks for contributing…but in the south this was not well-received despite cooking the green beans for a bit. too crunchy and frankly not full of great taste, but with a few variations i’m sure can be a great make-ahead dish.
atlantagator – sorry you didn’t love this one!
No worries, and I really appreciate the effort you put into the site. Obviously a labor of love! needed some inspiration for dinners and this is just the place.
I have to say this was the best green bean casserole i have ever ever made!I took it to a dinner party and everyone LOVED it! Especially since it didnt have any canned products in it! Very simple and amazing recipe! Thank you!
I prepared this tonight and froze it for Thanksgiving. It didn’t seem like there was enough sauce and I followed the recipe exactly. Is that normal? Will the juice from the raw green beans make it just right when I cook it? I’m a little nervous because Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I’ve never tried this recipe before.
Courtney – I think it will be fine, especially if you made it according to the recipe. It’s not an overly sauce recipe like the traditional recipes made with cream of mushroom soup but the frozen dish bakes up with plenty of sauce, in my opinion. Good luck!
Mel , just wanted to say thanks I personally don’t like green bean casserole but I can say I have followed this recipe and I always get huge compliments for it. Thanks
This was a hit last year, just wanted to let you know I will be using it again this year along with your celery herb stuffing recipe. I was told last year that one was “like Stouffer’s on steroids” LOL!
I was begged to make your green bean casserole this year again! Everyone loves it! Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
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