Green Bean Casserole Re-Imagined

Made from scratch green beans with a simple recipe improves the texture and taste.

Photo taken by the author

Returning to college after Thanksgiving, during my freshman year, I first learned that Green Bean Casserole was not a secret family recipe. I was a little crushed, and a lot embarrassed that I never noticed that the recipe is plastered on cans of fried onions and cream of mushroom soup. To me, it was a special dish that reserved for holidays and turned plain frozen green beans into a creamy, luxurious dish.

I like to think that there is a history behind the food that we eat. In the case of Green Bean Casserole, there is history. Dorcas Reilly created it in 1955 in the Campbell’s Soup kitchens.

This dish has graced many Thanksgiving tables in America, not just because it was printed on the cans of soup, but the flavor affinities of the ingredients come together to make something better than the starting ingredients.

The neutral-flavored green beans carry the umami-filled mushroom sauce to our lips, with the fried onions’ textural crunch. The soup adds in the creamy richness to coat our tongues with flavor.

I want to show you how to create this dish with all of the same flavor components. But reducing the amount of heavy sauce and cooking your own…