In some areas of the country, it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without green bean casserole.
Your guests may love and expect the homespun comfort food, and luckily for you, it’s one of the easiest and cheapest Thanksgiving side dishes you can make. It immediately brings the comfort of grandma onto your dinner table.
Here are the ingredients you will need for the most basic Thanksgiving green bean casserole, and then we will get into some ways you can jazz it up.
You will need:
1 can of mushroom soup (you could substitute cream of chicken or celery soup if you prefer or mix the two).
1/2 cup milk
4 cups of green beans (many people like to use French style green beans with this dish. However, you can use regular green beans, either canned or fresh, if you prefer. This breaks down to about two 14.5 ounce cans of green beans, two 9 ounce packages of green beans, or 1.5 pounds of fresh green beans.)
A dash of pepper
1 1/2 cups of French fried onions (these add a crunch to the top of the dish. You can buy them cheaply in most grocery stores in sealed packages or cans.)
1 teaspoon soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce (some people don’t add this, but many recipes call for it)
Salt to taste
(Some of the most common additions are 1 cup of grated cheese and crumbled bacon)
That’s it! You could double (or even triple) the servings depending on the size of the guests.
To make it, follow these steps:
1. Put the ingredients in a baking dish or casserole dish
2. Mix the ingredients, except the French onions
3. Layer the French onions on top
4. Bake at 350 degrees in your oven for about 25 minutes (you want the French onions to be golden brown, but don’t bake the dish for too long or they could burn.)
5. You could alternatively put the dish in the microwave.
Extra ingredients
Here are some extra ingredients you could use to make the dish more interesting from various recipies:
Add 2 slices of crumbled bacon
Switch broccoli for the beans
Add almonds
Add chicken broth and butter (1 cup broth and/or 1/3 stick butter)
Some people substitute vegetable broth and almond milk
1/2 cup fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup diced onions
1 cup grated cheddar (or white cheddar) cheese
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
Half and half instead of the milk (1 cup)
2 cloves garlic
Fried shallots instead of canned French onions
Recipes
Here are some green bean casserole recipes:
Campbells
Paula Deen
Alton Brown
Daring Gourmet
Pioneer Woman
Country Living
Allrecipes