Fresh green beans and a homemade, creamy mushroom sauce make this vegan green bean casserole so much better tasting than the standard mushroom soup recipe.
I had to write a quick post about this recipe because D. and I just had some for lunch and oh my gosh, it is good! Truly, we were scraping the casserole dish clean.
This is adapted and plagiarized from Alanna’s World’s Best Green Bean Casserole, and I have to say, the name fits. I made up a full recipe to bring to Thanksgiving at the in-laws’ tomorrow, but I set aside this small dish to bake today just for us (and to photograph just for you). Though I can’t say that either my husband or I were fans of green bean casserole in general, we’re now fans of this one.
Original 2006 Green Bean Casserole Photo
Warning: This is not a fat-free recipe. I’ve veganized it and taken out some of the butter/margarine, but there’s still Earth Balance margarine in the topping and some fat in the soy creamer. And oh, those fried onions! (Which I accidentally used a whole can of, instead of the half can the recipe called for.)
What can I say? You could try it completely fat-free as outlined in the recipe’s notes, but for a special occasion, this isn’t a huge an amount of fat. And the taste is amazing. No one will know it’s vegan!
2018 Green Bean Casserole Update
Twelve years (yikes!) have gone by since I posted this recipe, and since then it has become the recipe most requested by my extended family every Thanksgiving and Christmas. It has become a tradition for us and I hope it becomes one for you.
Thanks to Alanna for the recipe, and thanks to all of you readers for your support through all these years I’ve been posting vegan recipes. Your comments and input make blogging fun!
More Vegan Holiday Recipes?
If you’re looking for more holiday recipes, don’t forget to check the Thanksgiving and Holiday sections!
The Best Vegan Green Bean Casserole
Ingredients
Beans
- 2 quarts water
- 1 tablespoon table salt
- 1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces or 2 12-ounce packages frozen cut green beans
Sauce
- 10 ounces mushrooms (I used a combination of regular button mushrooms and shiitake)
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- generous pinch cayenne pepper (had to add it for the New Orleanians)
- Salt to taste
- Fresh pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 3/4 cup vegetable broth (I used Imagine's No-Chicken)
- 1 tablespoon dry sherry (Alanna's brilliant addition)
- 3/4 cup unsweetened soy creamer or plain unsweetened plant milk
Topping (see alternate oil-free topping in Notes)
- 1 1/2 slices whole grain bread
- 1 tablespoon vegan margarine optional, but topping holds together better with it
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/16 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 3-ounce can French fried onions (see Notes for other options)
Instructions
- Beans: Bring the water to boil in a large pot. While it’s heating, cut up the beans. Add the salt and beans to the boiling water. Cover and cook for 6 minutes. Drain beans in a colander, and then spray for a minute with cold water to stop the cooking. Let them drain in the colander, shaking every now and then to get off all the water.
- Sauce: Trim and discard the mushroom stems and chop the mushrooms into pieces. Spray a non-stick pan with canola oil and heat it. Add the mushrooms, garlic, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Cook until mushrooms are very soft and exude their juices. Whisk the flour into the vegetable broth and add to the mushrooms along with the sherry. Simmer, stirring, until mixture thickens. Add the soy creamer and simmer until thick, about 5 to 10 minutes. Adjust the seasonings and stir in the beans.
- Topping: Put the bread, margarine, salt, and pepper into a food processor and pulse until crumbly. Pour into a bowl and add the onions. Stir to combine.
- To assemble: Put the green beans into an oiled casserole dish and top with the onion mixture. Bake at 425 F for about 15 minutes. If you are not serving this right away, refrigerate the topping separately; bring to room temperature before sprinkling the topping on the casserole and baking for about 20 minutes or until hot throughout.
Notes
Nutritional info is approximate.
Please pin and share:
Ronalee Turner
November 9, 2011 at 8:49 pmAt the end when you say top with the onion mixture, do you mean the mushroom mixture? I want to try this this Thanksgiving.
Susan Voisin
November 9, 2011 at 9:05 pmNo, the mushrooms are mixed with the beans. You top that with the onion topping.
Ronalee Turner
November 9, 2011 at 9:19 pmOk, thanks – looking forward to trying this! : )
Susan Voisin
November 9, 2011 at 9:30 pmHope you enjoy it!
Gary Loewenthal
November 11, 2011 at 7:12 pmI made this tonight and it was delicious!
Alexis
November 16, 2011 at 4:50 pmHi Susan. I made this last year for Thanksgiving and it turned out wonderful. I just can’t seem to remember whether I should toast the bread before blending it with the Earth Balance or just use freshly sliced bread. Any help would be appreciated!
Susan Voisin
November 16, 2011 at 4:53 pmAlexis, I don’t toast the bread. Hope you enjoy it again this year!
Melissa
November 16, 2011 at 9:46 pmLove this recipe. I’ve used it ,adding a few personal touches, for the past 3 years. Love how fresh and wholesome this tastes compared to the salty, fatty, processed “traditional” casserole. My carniverous Family embraced this delicious vegan side dish as our new tradition without even a thought of going back.
Emily
November 20, 2011 at 4:40 pmI’d like to make this recipe for Thanksgiving but I don’t keep margarine in the house as a rule and don’t want to buy it for just one dish- do you think subbing the EB for olive oil in the topping would work ok? Thanks! Love all your recipes, Susan.
Susan Voisin
November 20, 2011 at 4:48 pmI’m pretty sure that would work just fine. Hope you enjoy it!
Colin
December 24, 2013 at 1:51 pmRefined coconut oil is a really good sub for margarine.
Megan in Portland
November 21, 2011 at 4:51 pmI’d like to make my own onion rings to top this off. Do u think panko crusted onion rings crumbled on top would be a good sub? Would u still add bread crumbs and butter?
Thanks!!!
Vinny
November 21, 2011 at 8:53 pmI’m hosting a house full of Carnivores, Vegetarians and Vegans. I wanted side dishes that everyone could enjoy. Just made this to freeze for the big day – and it’s sitting on my counter cooling and I can’t stop eating it. Too delish! I accidentally put in too much cayenne … but it’s actually quite nice a lil spicy. I also used baby bella, shitake and oyster mushrooms, YUM! Can’t wait for the family to try this. 🙂
Vinny
November 21, 2011 at 8:55 pmAlso, just read the comment about NOT freezing it. So noted – into the fridge it goes….
Eve Parker
November 23, 2011 at 7:39 pmThis is beyond delicious! I used a round glass dish but I would definitely recommend using a 13 X 9 that way it is all evenly distributed. Everyone loved and I was the only vegan!
meagan
November 25, 2011 at 1:37 amWhat a great recipe! It was the star of my vegan feast. I didn’t have creamer and almond milk worked just great. Could have been thicker so the cornstarch mentioned on another post may be helpful. Or even a tad more flour. Only challenge I had was keeping the mushrooms from sticking. Had to re-spray Pam before they were done cooking.
Just a great, fresh vegan recipe than can transcend to non-vegan meals!
azulterra23
November 25, 2011 at 11:15 amI didn’t have all the ingredients , (like the sherry, cayenne, pepper,I don’t use very strong spices on my cooking) but anyway this was very nice and I was happy for not using the can of soup that is not healthy. Thanks for sharing. We like it! 🙂
Seasideshawn
November 30, 2011 at 10:09 pmI’ve made this before but tonight’s was the best-I took some advice from the Sexy Vegan & added a handful of raw cashews in the Vitamix w/the vegetable broth, also added 1TB corn starch to almond milk, the rest I followed as is, though I just topped it w/Ezekiel bread crumbs-which I keep on hand-for the topping….I know I’m weird not to like fried onions..but anyway this makes a fantastic adult version, I almost don’t want to compare it to “Campbell’s”
Heidi Fencik
December 25, 2011 at 9:11 pmAh, so it IS good without the fried onions. I was happy to use them this time, but will try it with just the bread crumbs next time. I used Ezekial too. Mmm…
Heidi Fencik
December 25, 2011 at 9:08 pmLast night for Christmas Eve dinner, the non-vegans in my family loved this just as much as my old non-vegan recipe! I was not expecting them to embrace any change to this most popular family dish, but they loved it. Thank you, Susan.
It turned out wonderfully despite the fact that I hesitantly used canned green beans, canned mushrooms (diced very finely to hide them as well as they used to be “hidden” from my non-mushroom-lovers back when I used Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup) and just pain old low-fat soy milk, not soy creamer or full-fat milk. I just didn’t have the other ingredients on hand, but it was still delicious. I’d declaire this a very forgiving recipe.
Sara
December 25, 2011 at 10:50 pmmade this on Christmas!! For topping, sautéed onions, hash brown potatoes and sliced asaparagus – then assembled it an hour before serving, baking convection 375 for 45minutes. Crispy and DELICIOUS!!! (Used chili pepper salt and black pepper in sautéing the topping)
Nicky
January 1, 2012 at 12:27 am2011 ended really great thanks to this delicious “Vegan Green Bean Casserole”.
It is an absolute keeper!
Thank you so much for all your wonderful recipes and nice blogs.It gives me just the support and motivation I need to continue on this path in which I believe so much. I wish you and all a happy healthy 2012!
Erin
January 1, 2012 at 11:40 amI tried this for Christmas at my house, everyone loved it! It was delicious. :]
Dalmattica
February 13, 2012 at 7:44 pmI made this on Thanksgiving last year and again yesterday for dinner, so delicious!
For yesterday’s dinner, I used plain soy milk ’cause I didn’t have creamer on hand, and it was still fabulously delicious. I threw in some slivered almonds for a little crunch, yummy!
My family didn’t believe this is a low calorie recipe, it’s too yummy to be healthy food. 😉