Traditional Green Bean Casserole requires a complete makeover job to make it paleo-friendly… or rather, human-being-friendly.
After all, there are very few items of actual, recognizable, pronounceable foods in the popular Campbell’s Mushroom Soup and French’s French Fried Onions. Take a look:
Cream of Mushroom Soup contains Mushrooms, Vegetable Oil (Corn, Cottonseed, Canola, and/or Soybean), Modified Food Starch, Wheat Flour, Contains Less than 2% of: Salt, Cream (Milk), Whey (Dehydrated), Soy Protein Concentrate, Monosodium Glutamate, Yeast Extract, Flavoring, Garlic (Dehydrated).
French Fried Onions contains Onions, Palm Oil, Wheat Flour, Caramelized Onion Seasoning (Sugar, Salt, Yeast Extract, Natural Flavors (Including Extractives of Onion), Maltodextrin, Citric Acid, Malic Acid, Disodium Inosinate and Disodium Guanylate, Canola Oil (as a Processing Aid), Tapioca Dextrin, Gum Arabic, Calcium Silicate and Silicon Dioxide) and Dextrose.
If you don’t recognize an ingredient, your body won’t either. Do you recognize soy protein concentrate, disodium inosinate, or calcium silicate?
My Paleo Green Bean Casserole, conversely, contains only human-being-friendly food: vegetables, herbs, coconut milk, ghee, broth, hazelnuts.
About the Ingredients in Paleo Green Bean Casserole
Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup is a recipe I designed for the specific purpose of green bean casserole. It owes a rich, silky texture to plenty of mushrooms and a bit of coconut milk.
Shallot + Hazelnut Topping takes the place of processed fried onions. I call the topping for this casserole “veggie crack” – it makes any vegetable dish addicting.
- One batch of my Paleo Cream of Mushroom Soup,recipe here
- 2 lbs. green beans, trimmed and halved
- 1 cup hazelnuts
- 1 Tbs. ghee or coconut oil
- 2 large shallots, diced
- Salt, to taste
- Pepper
- Fresh thyme
- Prepare the Cream of Mushroom Soup and keep warm set aside. Or, make it a few days ahead and reheat before preparing the casserole.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil and add a big pinch of salt. Boil the green beans until tender, about 5 minutes. They should still be green, and not mushy. Drain and set aside.
- Meanwhile, toast the hazelnuts. Place the hazelnuts in a saute pan over medium heat for a few minutes. You'll start to smell them and see the skins crack. At that point, transfer them to a kitchen towel. Wrap them in the towel and rub vigorously to remove most of the skins. Remove the toasted nuts and chop them.
- In another saute pan, heat the ghee over medium heat. Cook the shallots, stirring frequently, until soft and golden (about 7 minutes). Add a pinch of salt and pepper, the chopped hazelnuts, and about a teaspoon of fresh thyme. Set aside.
- Combine the green beans and soup with salt, to taste. Keep warm in the oven until ready to serve and top with the hazelnut mixture right before serving.
Absolutely amazing! I will have to make this soon! Thank you for also posting all the links to buy the items! That is so helpful!
I just discovered this post because Foodie Crush tweeted it. I am so inspired and can hardly wait to try so many of your recipes!
Thanks for sharing how you found it, and enjoy the recipe!
Thank you so much for information about this technique! My first time using my indoor grill and the chicken turned out fantastic!! Your instructions were easy to follow and yielded results even better than what I had hoped for. I look forward to delving deeper into your blog and learning even more. Thanks again:)
“I’m with you on the sunshine, and even though I really appreciate rain, I’m always happy to see the sun return. Fortunately, here in the desert, we generally don’t get rain in the winter, so there’s usually sunshine available when we need it most. I like frittatas for lunch or dinner, so I’m saving this recipe for when I want to make one.
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This recipe is AMAZING. I will eat this for the rest of my life! So good and easy-peasy.
Somehow I missed the temperature to bake the chicke. This really iced sounds delicious and easy yo make. Can’t wait to try it.