My FAVORITE dish to enjoy on Thanksgiving is green bean casserole. It is an essential part of the Thanksgiving meal, and, for me, it is the ultimate comfort food to enjoy ranytime. Do you love it as much as I do? Read on for this yummy recipe for healthy green bean casserole.
My family does holiday meals potluck style, where everyone brings a dish or a few to share with the group. I’ve volunteered (or been assigned) to make the green bean casserole many times.
I used to make it the traditional way with canned green beans, canned cream of mushroom soup, and canned fried onions. It was definitely not what I would now consider healthy. For the past few years I’ve been eating mostly Paleo to avoid inflammatory foods, heal my eczema, lose some weight, and just feel better. I still want to be able to enjoy foods that I love, like green bean casserole, though. So, I came up with this recipe that uses real food ingredients to make it a healthy green bean casserole.
This recipe is free of inflammatory, gut-irritating foods like gluten, dairy, soy, and vegetable oil that are found in traditional green bean casseroles. AND, in my opinion, it tastes WAY better. If you would have asked me 10 years ago if green bean casserole could get better than the kind most Americans eat, I would have said “there’s no way!” But, yes! Eating real, fresh food has way more flavor and better texture than the canned stuff.
The green beans are crisp. It uses real mushrooms, onions, and garlic. The topping is shallots fried yourself in healthy oil. And herbs (especially fresh) like thyme and parsley really enhance the flavor.
So, what are you waiting for? Check this recipe out, go get the ingredients, and give it a try. You won’t regret it!
How to Make Healthy Green Bean Casserole
What You’ll Need:
- 3 Tablespoons coconut oil (divided)
- 1 yellow onion
- 2 Cups cremini mushrooms (chopped)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 Cup chicken bone broth
- 1 can coconut milk
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- Sea salt
- ½ teaspoon parsley flakes or 1 teaspoon fresh chopped parsley
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme 1 teaspoon fresh chopped thyme leaves
- 1 lb. fresh frozen green beans
- 2 Tablespoons water
- 2 Tablespoons arrowroot powder
- 1 shallot
- 1 egg
- 3 Tablespoons almond flour
What To Do:
Cut the Veggies
Now that you have everything together, go ahead and dice the onion. Dice the mushrooms until you get two cups. It’ll be about ¾ of an 8 oz. container.
Mince the two garlic cloves.
Rinse the green beans. Then chop the ends off them. You can cut them in half if you prefer. I left most of them whole and just cut in half some that were extra long.
Slice the shallot into thin circles.
Preheat
Preheat the oven to 375°.
Make the Sauce
We’re making homemade sauce, instead of store-bought cream of mushroom sauce. But don’t worry; it’s easy! Especially now that you’ve cut the veggies. You’ll mostly be adding ingredients and stirring!
Start by melting one Tablespoon of the coconut oil in a large pan over Medium-high heat. Once the oil is melted, add the diced onions and mushrooms to the pan. Cook for about five minutes, or until the onions start to become translucent. Stir occasionally while it’s cooing. Important tip – don’t add salt yet! In most cases it’s good to salt a little as you go, but not with mushrooms. When you add salt to mushrooms, they release water, take longer to cook, and lose flavor (read more about cooking mushrooms well here).
Next, add the minced garlic cloves to the pan. Let it cook for about one minute, while stirring (you don’t want burnt garlic).
Now it’s time to make it saucy. Add the bone broth, coconut milk, 1 teaspoon salt (Now that the mushrooms are cooked, it’s time for the salt!), black pepper, parsley, and thyme.
Turn the heat down to Medium-low and let it simmer for ten minutes, while stirring occasionally.
Now to make the sauce a little thicker…
In a small bowl, mix together the arrowroot powder (a healthy alternative to cornstarch) and the water to make a slurry. Slowly add the slurry to the sauce, while stirring.
Cook the sauce for another two minutes . It should be nice and thick now. If you prefer it even thicker, you can add more arrowroot/water slurry. Make sure to use equal parts of each.
Blanch the Green Beans
While the sauce is simmering, go ahead and blanch the green beans. To do that, fill a large pot with a few inches of water. I used about 2 quarts. Place the pot on a burner over High heat.
Once the water starts boiling, add the trimmed green beans. Allow them to boil for 5 minutes. This cooks them a little bit, but they”ll still be crisp.
After five minutes, remove the green beans from the heat and drain them in a colander
Bake
Once the sauce and the green beans are ready, it’s time to put them together. Add the green beans to 9×13″ pan, followed by the sauce. Stir them together.
Place the pan in the preheated oven, and allow it to cook for 20 minutes, while you prepare the crispy shallot topping.
Once the crispy shallots are fried and the green beans have cooked 20 minutes, you’ll add the shallots on top before finishing cooking.
Make the Crispy Shallots
Add two Tablespoons coconut oil to a medium-sized pan and melt it over Medium-high heat.
In the meantime, crack an egg in a small bowl and whisk it. Add the almond flour to a separate small bowl. Dip the sliced shallots into the egg and then into the flour.
Next, place the shallots in the hot coconut oil in a single layer. You will probably need to do this in two batches. Fry the shallots for one minute, flip each one over, and fry for another minute. (I might have let a few of mine go a little longer than a minute, but I like them crispy!)
Remove the shallots and set on a paper towel-lined plate to soak up the excess oil. Salt the shallots to your liking.
Sprinkle the crispy shallots on top of the green bean casserole after it’s cooked for 20 minutes. Place the pan back in the oven to cook the additional 5-10 minutes.
Enjoy!
Take the sizzling casserole out of the oven, let it cool down a few minutes, and enjoy the yumminess!
I’d love to know if you try this healthy green bean casserole and what you think!
Healthy Green Bean Casserole
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1 Tbsp coocnut oil
- 1 yellow onion
- 2 Cups cremini mushrooms chopped
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 Cup chicken bone broth
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp dried parsley
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- 2 Tbsp water
- 2 Tbsp arrowroot powder
Green Beans
- 1 lb fresh green beans
- dash sea salt
Crispy Onions
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil
- 1 shallot
- 1 egg
- 3 Tbsp almond flour
- sea salt
Instructions
Prep
- Chop the onion and the mushrooms.
- MInce the garlic cloves.
- Rinse the green beans and trim the ends of them.
- Slice the shallot
- Preheat the oven to 375°.
Sauce
- Melt the coconut oil in a large pan over Medium-high heat.
- Add the chopped onion and mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the onions start to become translucent.
- Add the garlic cloves to the pan, and cook for one minute, stirring frequently.
- Add the bone broth, coconut milk, salt, pepper, parsly, and thyme.
- Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Mix together the arrowroot powder and the water in a small bowl to make a slurry. Add it slowly to the sauce to thicken it.
- Cook for another 2 minutes.
Green Beans
- In a large pot, bring about 2 quarts water to a boil.
- Add the green beans to the pot and allow them to boil for 5 minutes.
- Drain the green beans.
Bake
- Place the green beans in a 9x13" pan.
- Pour the sauce over the green beans and mix together.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
- Top the casserole with the crispy onions, and return it to the pan to bake for an additional 5-10 minutes.
Crispy Onions
- Add the coconut oil to a medium-sized pan and melt over Medium-high heat.
- Wisk the egg in a small bowl.
- Add the almond flour to a separate small bowl.
- Dip the sliced shallots into the egg and then the almond flour.
- Add the shallot to the hot oil in a single layer (you may need to do two batches).
- Cook for 1 minute, turn the shallots over, and cook an additional 1 minute.
- Set the onions on a paper-towel lined plate to drain off the excess oil.
- Salt the onions generously.
