Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Down-Home Vegan Green Bean Casserole


So what can I say--like almost every other American on the face of this planet, I'm a sucker for the uber-simple, uber-traditional green bean casserole that someone in my family whips up every single Thanksgiving or Christmas. When I went vegan, however, I figured that would be the end of the matter. But then I stumbled across someone or another discussing the existence of Imagine brand Creamy Portobello Mushroom Soup which is, if you haven't figured it out at this point, vegan! Not to mention the fact that I couldn't believe that French's French Fried Onions are actually vegan as well. I about pooped with excitement.

Now granted, it's not like there's not about 1500 really damn tasty-sounding vegan green bean casserole recipes floating around out theere on the internet. I mean, Fat-Free Vegan has one that sounds absolutely delish, and VegWeb does as well.

But there's just something about a recipe that comes on a can of fried onions, that only has four real ingredients, and that doesn't require much more than a can-opener and a casserole dish to whip up. So obviously, I was very nerded up when I stumbled across Imagine's cream of mushroom soup at Wild Oats. This wonderful vegan mushroom soup made veganizing this traditional dish work bee-oo-tifully.

INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS
1. Combine soup and pepper in a 1 1/2 qt. baking dish; stir until blended. Stir in beans and 2/3 cup French's French Fried Onions.

2. Cover and bake at 350ºF for 30 minutes or until hot. (Make sure you've thawed the frozen green beans out sufficiently if you're using them--otherwise expect a longer baking time.) Check the casserole and see if the soup's thickened up enough--if not, add a couple teaspoons of flour and mix in. Stir.

3. Sprinkle with remaining 2/3 cup French Fried Onions. Bake 5 minutes or until onions are golden.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Your link to the soup doesn't work anymore. Here's an updates one: http://www.imaginefoods.com/content/natural-creamy-portobello-mushroom-soup

Great find!

Sara said...

I'm so so glad to have found your recipe! Fancy green bean casserole is just wrong. I like it down-home, and I like it vegan. Thanks for posting this - I'm whipping it up for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow :)

Nitara said...

This is an amazing recipe. This year will be my third year making it for the holidays (which isn't counting how many times I make it during the year just because it tastes amazing!), and I always get rave reviews from my family and friends on it (even the ones who allegedly don't like green bean casserole). Green bean casserole was the very first thing I learned how to make when I was learning to cook. When I became a vegan, I had to weed through a ton of other fancy, complicated recipes before I found this gem. Easy and tasty! I do add a little extra to mine... I add saute'd mushrooms and onions and a little minced garlic.

Thank you so much for this recipe! It is my absolute favorite!