Green Bean Casserole Recipe for People Who Hate Green Bean Casserole

Green bean casserole is a Thanksgiving staple for many, but what exactly should it taste like? The ingredients—canned green beans, canned cream of mushroom soup, and bagged fried onions—are all tasteless texture carriers. Together they form a dish that has absolutely no taste. Yes, if ever there was a dish ripe for destruction, it’s green bean casserole.

By adding layers of depth, adding a little acid, and most importantly, bypassing all those cans, you can create a dish that’s exceptional in its own right, one that’s far healthier for the bird than any version of GBC I’ve ever tried.

Ditch the package of fried onions and fry some shallots instead.

Watch how shallots are quickly and easily sautéed in a little oil. Photo: Amanda Bloom.

Crispy onions are mostly about texture. You can get the same texture with better flavor with fried shallots. Just like stir frying, they are surprisingly easy to make and can be made ahead of time. Use a mandoline or your knife skills to slice the shallots into thin slices, no larger than ⅛ inch. (To make an 8×8-inch baking dish, you’ll need a cup of shallots, so scale accordingly.)

In a medium-sized, high-sided skillet, add 1.5 inches of peanut or vegetable oil and place over high heat. After five minutes, drop one shallot into the oil and if the oil starts to bubble, it’s ready. (If not, check again after a minute.) Gently add the shallots, using a strainer or steel slotted spoon to remove them. Continue stirring the shallots in the oil and do not stop until they are golden brown – about 10 minutes. When they start to turn over, it happens quickly, so be prepared to remove them and place them on a plate lined with paper towels to dry.

Roast the beans (two ways)

The green beans on the left are pan-fried, while the beans on the right are fried until dark brown in hot oil. Credit: Amanda Bloom

There’s a lot to be said for canning, and there’s nothing wrong with canned or frozen green beans. The problem is that they are already flooded. For this recipe, you’ll need beans with a few pieces, which can be used as a means to add more flavor. This can be done using char and you are going to cook the green beans in two ways. If you simply fry the beans in a frying pan, you will get a little char, but if you deep fry them, you will get too much. Instead, you need to deep fry about a quarter of the beans, lightly fry the rest in a pan, and mix both batches together.

First, deep fry it. Place a quarter of the fresh, trimmed green beans in the oil you used to cook the shallots. While you don’t need to stir them, you do need to move them around every 20 seconds or so. They will first turn golden brown and then turn dark brown. As with shallots, this happens quickly, so be prepared to use a strainer or tongs to fish them out and place them on paper towels along with the shallots. Turn off the burner and carefully remove the oil from the heat.

Meanwhile, take a larger frying pan, place it over high heat and add two tablespoons of oil from a deep frying pan. Add half of the remaining green beans, making sure each one touches the pan. Let the beans sizzle by tossing them every 45 seconds. They will quickly turn bright green and have a nice char here and there. After five minutes, remove the beans from the pan and place them in the baking dish. We begin to fry the remaining beans. When ready, add them to the dish, then stir in the deep-fried beans until evenly distributed.

Prepare a butter sauce (with plenty of butter).

On the left is reduced orange juice, shallots and white wine, and on the right is prepared orange beurre blanc with butter. Credit: Amanda Bloom

Most people who don’t like GBC do so because of the cream of mushroom soup, so don’t use it. You don’t want a thick sauce, and mushrooms don’t add any benefit to the dish—at least not the kind you find in that tasteless canned crap. Instead, use the sauce as another opportunity to add flavor and depth.

Beurre blanc is a sauce with a slight viscosity, without cream or flour. It’s a wine cut that you add a criminal amount of butter to, causing it to thicken. To add some acidity and sweetness to your party, add some orange juice concentrate. (Don’t try this with freshly squeezed oranges; it doesn’t taste very good. I won’t be answering any follow-up questions at this time, thanks.)

Add another chopped raw shallot, wine and orange juice concentrate to the pan and stir well. Let simmer until reduced by two-thirds, then add the butter, still cold and cut into one-inch pieces. Whisk until the butter has melted and then let simmer, stirring every twenty seconds or so, until the sauce thickens—about three minutes. Turn off the heat and remove the pan.

Put it together

Pour the sauce over the beans. You can complete the preparation the day before, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate. Let it come to room temperature, uncovered, before placing it in a 375°F oven for 15 minutes. Top with crispy shallots and serve.

Beurre blanc is an amazingly delicious sauce that makes a fantastic gravy for your turkey that will soak it up right away. This green bean casserole still looks like green beans, but has real layers of distinctive flavors: beans that still have some heat, char, and a deliciously rich sauce whose brightness and acidity are tempered by shallots that have a mild flavor. pungency and characteristic onion aroma.

Hater’s Green Bean Casserole Recipe: Charred green beans in orange beurre blanc sauce with crispy shallots.

Ingredients

  • Five regular size shallots

  • Three tablespoons of canned frozen orange juice concentrate, without pulp.

  • 1.5 pounds fresh green beans, shelled, ends trimmed

  • ½ glass of white wine

  • 1 cup butter (two sticks)

  • 3 cups vegetable or peanut oil

instructions

  1. Slice four shallots into ⅛-inch thick slices. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over high heat, carefully adding the shallots when the oil is hot enough (you will see bubbles when adding one shallot). Stir the shallots constantly until they are golden brown, about 10 minutes. Remove with a strainer or slotted spoon and place on a paper towel-lined plate to drain.

  2. Add ¼ of the green beans to the hot oil and cook until golden brown, about eight minutes, moving them every 20 seconds or so. When the beans are browned, remove them from the oil and drain on paper towels. Turn off the heat and remove the pan from the heat.

  3. Add two tablespoons of shallot oil to a large skillet and place over high heat. Add half of the remaining green beans in a single layer and let the beans cook, moving them about every 45 seconds. After five minutes, you should start to see charred spots. Remove the beans and place them in a baking dish. Continue frying the remaining green beans and add to the dish.

  4. Add the deep-fried green beans to the remaining beans in the baking dish and stir until the fried beans are well distributed.

  5. To the pan, add three tablespoons of orange juice concentrate, wine, and the remaining finely chopped shallots. Stir well and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Let it reduce by two thirds.

  6. Add the butter, cut into one-inch pieces, all at once and whisk until melted. Allow the sauce to simmer, continuing to stir, and cook for three minutes until it thickens. Turn off the heat.

  7. Pour the sauce over the green beans and place in the oven at 375°F for fifteen minutes. Sprinkle with shallots before serving.

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