Green Bean Casserole

Green Bean Casserole: Step by Step

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1. Toss the shallot slices with the flour and salt. Heat the oil in a small pan to 160°C / 320°F and fry them in three batches for 3 to 4 minutes each, until golden. Drain on kitchen paper; they crisp as they cool.

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2. Bring a large pan of well-salted water to a boil and blanch the beans 4 minutes, until bright green and just tender.

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3. Drain and plunge straight into a bowl of iced water. Leave 2 minutes, then drain thoroughly and pat dry.

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4. Melt the butter in a large pan over medium-high, add the mushrooms in one layer, and leave undisturbed 4 minutes before stirring. Cook 6 minutes more until browned and dry.

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5. Add the onion and cook 5 minutes, then the garlic for 1 minute.

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6. Stir in the flour and cook 2 minutes, then add the stock a third at a time, whisking smooth, followed by the cream.

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7. Simmer 5 minutes until it thickly coats a spoon, then stir in the soy sauce, mustard, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

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8. Fold in the beans and half the fried shallots and tip into a 2.5 litre dish.

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9. Bake at 200°C / 400°F for 20 minutes until bubbling at the edges, then scatter the remaining shallots over and bake 5 minutes more.

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What Can Go Wrong

1. The ice bath is not optional. Beans left to cool in their own heat go olive-drab and floppy.
2. Fry the shallots first and leave them uncovered. Covered, they steam and go soft.
3. Everything but the final bake can be done a day ahead.

Changing the Recipe

• In a sauce, full-fat crème fraîche can usually take the place of the double cream; single cream is thinner and more likely to split if it boils, so keep it below a simmer.
• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

The Short Version

The tinned version fails on texture: the beans are cooked twice into greyness and the sauce is thin and salty. Blanching the beans and shocking them in iced water sets the chlorophyll and stops the cooking dead, so they arrive at the table still green and with some snap. The sauce is a velouté — flour cooked in butter, then stock and cream — thickened enough to coat the beans rather than pool under them, and browning the mushrooms first supplies the savoury depth the tin was faking.

On the Table Alongside

Roast turkey · Sage and onion stuffing · Cranberry sauce

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Boston Baked Beans, Air Fryer Asparagus, Air Fryer Broccoli.

Leftovers

Refrigerated for 3 days. Reheat covered at 180°C / 356°F for 20 minutes, adding fresh shallots at the end.

Green Bean Casserole Nutrition Facts

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

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