An easy, light mushroom alfredo sauce takes the place of canned soups for a healthier spin on this holiday classic, Green Bean Casserole!
I’ll be honest–I’ve never been a huge fan of Green Bean Casserole. The kinds I’ve had are usually mushy and kind of flavorless. But I know that people go crazy for this dish around the holidays, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Holy moly! This version is now one of my favorite vegetable dishes.
I wanted to keep the dish easy while omitting the processed, canned soups. All you have to do is make the mushroom sauce, which is pretty much my Skinny Alfredo, then let it bake away. Very minimal work!
How to make Green Bean Casserole
The first step is deciding what kind of green beans you want to use. I went for the frozen whole beans from Trader Joe’s.
A lot of recipes I saw called for canned green beans, but I think that’s probably what makes a lot of recipes mushy. If you want to use those, though, go ahead! You’re looking for 1 1/2 pounds of green beans. You could also use cut instead of whole green beans if you want to make eating it a little easier.
I just defrosted one and a half bags of the pictured green beans, then made sure to dry them off completely before adding them in. I like my green beans with more of a crunch, so I don’t precook them. If you like softer green beans, you might want to microwave them for a few minutes before tossing them with the sauce
Oh, that sauce! If you’ve made my Skinny Alfredo Sauce, it’s pretty much just that but with mushrooms. I could honestly just toss this sauce with some pasta and call it a day.
What If I don’t LIKE mushrooms?
I used mushrooms since traditional recipes call for Cream of Mushroom soup, but you could definitely leave them out. If you do that, I would suggest using a large onion instead. It will bulk the sauce up and add extra flavor. Totally up to you, though!
After you make the sauce, toss the green beans in and cook for just a minute or so, enough for the sauce to coat the green beans. they should soften just a bit.
HUGE TIP: Make sure you thoroughly dry your green beans before adding them to the sauce. I made the mistake of skipping that step once, and my sauce turned way too watery.
Can I make this green Bean Casserole AheAD OF TIME?
YES! After you’ve mixed the sauce with the green beans, you can add it to a 13 x 9 casserole dish, let cool, then cover and refrigerate until you’re ready to cook it. It should keep for a day or two. When you’re ready to cook, bring it to room temperature, then top with the fried onions. Now you’re ready to bake it!
What Do you use to top it?
I thought about sauteing my own onions with some bread crumbs instead of using traditional French fried onions, but that was way too much work. Lots of grocery stores have gluten-free onions now, so I went with this one from Sprouts:
I also like this one because the ingredient list is very clean. It’s just onions, oil, buck wheat flour for the breading, and salt. Plus, this casserole is now completely gluten free!
Of course, use whatever brand you like. Just know that we’re going to use 4 ounces and most cans are about 6 ounces, so you’ll need to weigh out your portion to keep the points lower.
If you want to just use the whole can, that will increase the points per serving by 1-2 , depending on how big your serving is.
Just sprinkle those onions over the saucy green beans, bake for 30 minutes, and you’re done! Super simple and delicious.
Watch me make it on my new YouTube channel!
I’d love to hear from you if you make this recipe! It makes my day when you share your pics on Instagram and tag me (@litecravings). Don’t forget to use #litecravingsrecipes to make sure I see it. If I don’t get a chance to scroll through my tags quickly enough, I won’t see your post. I always make a point to look through the hashtags, though, so I’ll see it there!
Green Bean Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds frozen green beans, thawed
- 16 ounces sliced mushrooms*
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups unsweetened, plain almond milk
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 cup reduced fat cream cheese
- 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese (use the refrigerated kind rather than the stuff in the green bottle)
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
- 4 ounces canned French fried onions
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Prepare a 13 x 9 casserole dish with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large saute pan, cook the mushrooms over medium-high heat until they are browned and soft, about 5-8 minutes. Lower heat to medium-low. Add garlic and cook for another minute.
- In a bowl, whisk together almond milk, cornstarch, and onion powder. Pour into the pan with the mushrooms. Bring to a slight boil, then lower the heat again and simmer until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Don't worry if your milk starts to separate. The cream cheese will bring it all back together.
- Slowly whisk in cream cheese until melted, then whisk in parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Continue to simmer until the sauce is quite thick, about 2-3 minutes.
- If you like your green beans on the crunchier side, you can throw them in without precooking them. If you like them on the softer side, microwave your green beans for 4-5 minutes before proceeding to the next step.
- Before adding your thawed green beans to the pan, make sure you have dried them completely. I actually pat them with a kitchen towel after draining, just to make sure there's no more water.
- Toss green beans with the sauce and cook for a minute or two. Pour mixture into your prepared baking dish.
- Sprinkle onion evenly over the top. Bake at 350F degrees, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
- Let it cool for about 10 minutes before serving so the sauce has a chance to thicken up a bit more as it rests.
Question – We have but allergies at Thanksgiving. Can I use regular fat free milk? Or do you suggest another? Also when you figured out your points about how many servings did you figure? Thanks!
Hi, Kim! Yo could definitely sub fat free milk, though it might slightly increase the points. If people have full cup portions, this makes 9 servings. Hope your family likes it!
Thanks – I did a test run and I love it! I like not use the canned stuff and I think it’s more flavorful and the fat free milk was fine. I’ll plug it into the recipe builder to get an accurate point total now. Again, thank you and have a happy Thanksgiving!
Yay! So happy. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
If I could give 10 stars, I would! The family loved this for Thanksgiving, and I’ve put it on the menu for Christmas! Thank you!
Thank you so much! Glad it was a hit!
Fabulous! My husband loves the old traditional green bean casserole but I’m always looking for a way to update it and still make him happy. I made this for Thanksgiving last week and everyone loved it–I made a half recipe again the day after Thanksgiving at my husband’s request! One percent milk worked just fine, and I used only a few baby bella mushrooms, making up for it with onion as suggested. This was super flavorful, really easy to prepare and I appreciate all the details in the blogpost. Thanks for a great recipe, it’s a keeper!