Best Vegan Green Bean Casserole Recipe (healthy, wfpb)

Introducing our mouth-watering vegan green bean casserole, made with homemade cream of mushroom soup and topped with crispy air fried onions!

This classic holiday dish gets a delicious plant-based twist in our recipe, while still maintaining all the comforting flavors and textures you love. Perfect for Thanksgiving or any other gathering where you want to impress your guests with a cruelty-free option. 

You like green beans? Try my vegan green bean soup, my green bean salad and my green bean side dish. This goes well with plant-based mashed potatoes, lentil loaf. 

Ingredients

You can find the ingredients with quantities and the recipe to print out on the recipe card below.

For the crispy fried onions, you need the following:

• Non-Dairy Milk 
•  Tahini
•  Apple Cider Vinegar
•  Onions 
•  Whole wheat flour or gluten-free flour mixture
•  Salt 
•  Ground black pepper
•  Cayenne pepper
• Panko Bread Crumbs

Casserole

• Onion 
•  Clove of garlic
•  Fresh Mushrooms 
• Dry white wine or some white balsamic vinegar
•  Tapioca starch
•  Cashews 
• Vegetable Broth
•  Nutritional yeast
•  Soy sauce or coconut Aminos for gluten-free
•  White or black Pepper 
• fresh green beans or frozen

Instructions

First, cut the onion into fine strips or rings.  Mix the remaining ingredients into a dough in a bowl, and add the panko bread crumbs in a second bowl. Dip the onion first in the dough and next in the bread crumbs. 

Heat the oven to 350 F (175C)  and place the onions on a baking tray lined with baking paper.  Now bake the onions for about 7 minutes. Repeatedly check to see if they got a nice golden brown color. We do not want to burn them. 

 In the meantime you can cut mushrooms, onions and beans. You can now steam the green beans for 3 minutes on medium-high heat.

This helps you have a beautiful green bean casserole. Thanks to the steaming, the color will be preserved. 

 Now sauté the chopped onions and chopped mushrooms in a pan vigorously on medium heat.  I always add a sip of water. Take the soaked cashews and blend them with , tapioca starch and nutritional yeast flakes. 

If the onions have a nice brown color, you can deg laze them with some white wine or add later the vinegar.

Add the cashew cream and add soy sauce (coconut Aminos), salt and pepper to taste. Let it simmer for around 5 minutes to get a creamy mushroom sauce.  

Assemble the classic green bean casserole 

Put the blanched green beans in a casserole dish and pour the sauce over them. 

You top the casserole with the crispy onions.   Bake in the oven at 175 C for about 20 min. If the onions get too dark, cover the casserole 

 Bring extra flavor into your vegan green bean casserole with some foil.

Hint: If you do not like mushroom pieces in your sauce, you can blend the sauce with the mushrooms to get the cream of mushroom soup.  You also want the sauce a little runnier than you used to it. It will thicken even more while baking thanks to the cashews. If it is too thick, you want to add some more non-dairy milk. 

Substitution

• Mushrooms: You can use your favorite mushrooms or a mushroom blend like shiitake mushrooms, cremini mushrooms. The easiest findings in the stores will be white button mushrooms or baby bella mushrooms. All of these will work very well in this version of vegan green bean casserole. 
• Dairy-free Milk: I usually use unsweetened almond milk, because that is what we have at home. You can also use soy milk or oat milk. 
• Cashews: If you do not want to use Cashews, you can also use pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds. These make a creamy sauce as well. You can also use the Cashew cream with coconut milk. 
• Tahini Butter: We want some kind of fat in the marinade for the breaded onions. Because I do not use vegan butter, I use tahini. You can also use almond butter or cashew butter. You want something that is pretty neutral in taste. 
• Flour: I love to use whole wheat flour or spelt flour instead of all-purpose flour.  But you can totally use your favorite gluten-free flour mixture. 
• Soy Sauce: As mentioned before, you can easily switch to tamari sauce for a gluten-free soy sauce alternative. If you want to have it soy free, use coconut aminos.

Variations

• Smoky Flavor: If you want to add some smokiness to your healthy green bean casserole. You can add a few drops of liquid smoke or 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika powder. 
• Sweet Potatoes: You want to add some color and extra nutrition. What about adding some cubed sweet potatoes to make a healthy sweet potato casserole. 

Storage

You can easily prepare this traditional green bean casserole a day or two before you need it. Just top the onions right before you bake it. 

• Fridge: You can easily store leftovers in the fridge. I would store them in an airtight container. 
• Freezing: Do not top the casserole with onions, and freeze the casserole in a casserole dish with an airtight lid.

📖 Recipe

Vegan Green Bean Casserole

Author: Jasmin Hackmann

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Prep 15 minutes mins

Cook 30 minutes mins

Total 45 minutes mins

Vegan Green Bean Casserole - This recipe for a Green Bean Casserole is a classic in American cuisine for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Prepare the casserole with cream of mushroom and fried onions. You do not need many ingredients for this high quality casserole and you can prepare it in advance.

Servings 4 -6

Course Vegan Sides

Cuisine American

Ingredients

1x2x3x

For the French fried onions:

• ▢ 1 cup 240 ml plant drink (soy or almond)
• ▢ 2 tablespoons of tahini
• ▢ 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
• ▢ 1 small onion strips
• ▢ ½ cup 60g whole spelt or wheat flour
• ▢ ¼ cup 40g bread crumbs
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• ▢ ¼ tsp. Pepper grounded
• ▢ Pinch of cayenne pepper

For the mushroom cream sauce:

• ▢ 1 medium onion in cubes
• ▢ 2 garlic cloves pressed
• ▢ 1 packet 150g -200g of mushrooms, sliced
• ▢ ½ cup 120 ml of dry white wine or 2 tablespoon Balsamic White
• ▢ 1 tablespoon tapioca starch
• ▢ ½ cup 60 g of cashews, soaked
• ▢ 1 ¾ cup 420 ml of water
• ▢ 1 tablespoon soy sauce or coconut aminos gf
• ▢ 2 tablespoon of nutritional yeast
• ▢ Pepper to taste

Casserole:

• ▢ 5 cups or 1 lbs 500 g of green beans
• ▢ French fried onion
• ▢ Mushroom sauce

Instructions

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1. First, we prepare the fried onions, so we cut onion into fine strips or rings.  Mix the remaining ingredients into a dough and add the onion. Heat the oven to 175 C and place the onions on a baking tray lined with baking paper.  Now bake the onions for about 7 minutes, then repeatedly check to see if they gain the right color. If they are a nice brown color but not too dark, they are finished. 
2. In the meantime you can cut mushrooms, onions and beans. Steam the cut beans for 3 minutes to help preserve the color.
3. Now fry the onions, garlic and mushrooms in a pan vigorously.  I always add a sip of water. I repeat that when the onions start sticking to the pot.
4. Now take the soaked cashews and blend them with water, tapioca starch and nutritional yeast flakes.
5. If the onions have a nice brown color, you can deglaze them with some white wine.
6. Add the cashew cream and season with soy sauce (coconut mints), salt and pepper. Let it boil.*
7. Now you can put the green beans in a casserole dish and pour the sauce over them.
8. You can distribute the finished fried onion over it.  And bake in the preheated oven at 175 C for about 15 - 20min.

Notes

If the sauce is till too runny, you can add some more tapioca starch or let it cook some more until it is thicker. You can also blend the mushroom sauce to have cream of mushroom instead one with mushroom pieces.

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