Vegan Green Bean Casserole

This Vegan Green Bean Casserole has everything you love about the classic holiday side dish: a creamy homemade mushroom sauce, lots of green beans, and crunchy onion topping.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 2 20

Total Time 2 25

Servings servings (1 cup each)

Calories 279kcal

Author Meggan Hill

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups raw cashews (7.5 ounces)
3 cups boiling water
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons vegan butter
1 pound white button mushrooms trimmed and sliced (see note 1)
3 cloves garlic minced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
2 (12 ounce) packages frozen cut green beans (see note 2)
3 cups canned fried onions (see note 3)

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

To make the cashew cream, in a medium bowl, add cashews and cover with boiling water. Let soak for 30 minutes. Drain well.
In a high-speed blender, add drained cashews and ½ cup water. Blend until smooth, adding more water as needed to get a creamy consistency (I added an additional ½ cup water). Season to taste with salt (I like ¼ teaspoon).
In a large skillet or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium-high heat until foaming subsides. Add mushrooms, garlic, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Cook until the mushrooms have released most of their liquid, about 5 to 7 minutes.
Stir in flour and cook for one minute. Whisk in broth, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly.
Reduce heat to medium. Whisk in cashew cream and simmer until the sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, cook the beans in the microwave according to the package instructions (or microwave on HIGH power for 4 to 5 minutes; let stand 1 minute before removing from the microwave). Drain well (I like to use a salad spinner to spin them dry).
Add the green beans to the pot with the mushroom sauce and toss until evenly coated. Transfer the beans and sauce to a crock pot.
Cook on HIGH for 2 hours or LOW for 4 hours or until a thermometer inserted in to the middle of the casserole reaches 165 degrees. Top with canned fried onions immediately before serving.

Notes

Mushrooms: Use fresh mushrooms to make a quick from-scratch cream of mushroom sauce.
Frozen green beans: To substitute fresh beans, trim and chop 2 pounds of green beans. Blanch the beans in 4 quarts of boiling salted water for about 5 minutes, then drain well and plunge immediately in to an ice bath to stop the cooking.
Fried onions: To substitute bread crumbs for the canned fried onions, pulse 4 slices hearty white bread (torn into pieces) in a food processor or blender. You will have about 3 cups of crumbs. Stir in 3 tablespoons melted vegan butter or olive oil and fry in a large skillet over medium-high heat until browned. Sprinkle over the casserole just before serving.
Yield: This recipe makes about 10 cups of casserole, enough for 10 1-cup sized, side dish (you'll be able to feed more than 10 people depending on how many sides you have at Thanksgiving).
Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Nutrition