Green Bean Casserole

Green Bean Casserole. The words make my mouth water. I love the stuff, but I only eat it at holidays. Honestly, there's no reason why I couldn't make it during the rest of the year, but it's probably just fine that I don't.  After all, the basic premise behind the recipe is, "let's take simple, healthy, green veggies and pump them full of fat and salt, then bake and top them with more fat and salt."  Nonetheless, Thanksgiving is not complete without the stuff, so I had to find a way to have it this year too.

I'm actually nerdy enough that I took 3 separate recipes and figured out the nutritional values for each one before I started cooking this dish. (I made a spreadsheet. I know. Jarrod makes fun of me too. I'm ok with it.) So, I started with my family recipe (add in cheese and extra onions, skip the soy sauce), then compared it to a "low fat" recipe, as well as a fully homemade recipe (no canned soup, make your own fried onions). Believe it or not, the least calories/fat/sodium was the light version of the recipe I grew up with. The homemade version was more salt and fat than the much simpler "open a can of soup" variety. So, I decided that's what I'd use. Basically my family version, but with fat free soup, less cheese and onions.

But here's the thing. When I went to the grocery store last week, trying to plan ahead for this week, when I knew the commissary would be insane with last-minute shoppers, I hadn't already done all this calculating, and I assumed that the homemade version would be the best for me, and I knew I had all the raw ingredients to make the soup part. So I didn't buy any variety of cream of mushroom soup, whether fatty or free.  I realized this on Tuesday, but didn't go to the store because I didn't want to have to face the parking lot, much less the inside of the store just to get one can of soup.  I figured I was clever, I could find some way around it.... and I vaguely remembered seeing something about making "cream of..." soup at home.

Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup.
I could have just poured it in a bowl for dinner.

So, I turned to my new best friend, Pinterest. This post over at Buns In My Oven (isn't that a cute name for a baking blog?) was my godsend. It's a recipe for Cream of Chicken soup, but since the poster admits to using salty water instead of chicken broth, I figured I could adapt it without losing too much. I happened to have some great big, local mushrooms that came in last week's veggie delivery, so I chopped those up and sauteed them in just a little butter. Then I made the roux (fat+flour), added liquid (half milk, half water), threw in the sauteed mushrooms, and salt & peppered it. Took 5 minutes, tasted just like the stuff from a can, and I actually know what's in it. Don't think I'm ever buying "cream of" soup again!

Since the soup was warm, and I wasn't actually going to bake the casserole right away, I just threw the hot soup over the top of frozen green beans (french cut is the only acceptable version here, by the way), added some more milk, half a cup of 2% grated cheddar cheese, and half a cup of french fried onion rings. Mix, pour into baking dish, stash in fridge til I cook it tomorrow.

Mmmm looks delish already.
I can almost taste it.

Do you see how my bowl has handy-dandy measuring marks in it? I don't know what I'd do without those. Usually, when I make this dish, I'm cooking for a crowd, and I make a double batch, which I know fits in a 9x13 pan. But this was a small batch, and I really didn't know how much it was going to make. And I'm terrible at guessing at whether the amount in the bowl will fit into the baking dish I've picked out. Apparently, this makes 4 cups. The stoneware pieces I have were either 4 cups or 6 cups capacity, so I went with 6 cups, trying to avoid spilling over when it cooks.

I was so glad I didn't go too small and then have to transfer into a bigger dish and wash the first one for no reason. Trust me, this baking spree made enough dirty dishes without adding extras in just for kicks. It's the little things that make me happy, folks. And washing dishes is for the birds.

So, here's the recipe as I made it. Not quite as great for you as I originally planned, but I'm guessing it's gonna be awfully tasty!  Next time, I'd probably try to do it with a little less butter. I think the roux would have worked with 1 or 2 tablespoons instead of 3.

Green Bean Casserole (A little lighter)

Ingredients:
4 Tbl butter, divided
1 Tbl flour
1 cup milk, divided
1/2 cup water
2 cups mushrooms, chopped (what I got from 4 mushroom caps, each about 4" across)
salt & pepper to taste
1 regular-sized bag of French cut frozen green beans
1/2 c. shredded cheese
1 c. french fried onion rings

Directions:

• Melt 1 Tbl butter in a medium skillet. Saute the mushrooms in the butter (will soak up the liquid very quickly) until soft and fragrant. 
• Melt remaining 3 Tbl butter in a small saucepan, then add flour and whisk quickly to mix into flour with no lumps. Allow to cook for several minutes, until bubbling dies down and it starts to brown slightly. Pour in water, half the milk and the mushrooms, bring to a boil, stirring until thickened. Taste mixture, add salt & pepper as needed, then remove from heat. 
• Empty green beans into a large bowl, and pour soup mixture over them.  Add cheese & 1/2 cup onions, and mix all together. Pour into a casserole dish. 
• Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Top with remaining onions, and return to the oven for 5 minutes to brown.  Or, put it all together, cover, and refrigerate til you're ready to cook. 

6 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories		201.1
Total Fat		13.9 g
	Saturated Fat	7.7 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.4 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	2.7 g
Cholesterol		26.0 mg
Sodium		609.6 mg
Potassium		83.9 mg
Total Carbohydrate		13.2 g
	Dietary Fiber	0.3 g
	Sugars	2.3 g
Protein		5.9 g