Why we love this dairy free green bean casserole
I know it feels like Thanksgiving is a million months away still, but before you know it, we’ll all be scrambling to figure out what we’re contributing to our Thanksgiving dinners. It can be even harder if you’re dairy free, but this green bean skillet casserole is the dish you should make.
It’s the best way to make sure you aren’t going to leave hungry – or sick – and, you won’t have to miss out this classic side dish. Our family doesn’t love mushrooms, so I choose to leave them out, but if you wanted to add mushrooms to this dish, add some chopped mushrooms when you add the onion.
This would not only give you more volume for your dish, it would add even more flavor (flavor that I don’t really care for, but flavor all the same). So mushrooms or no mushrooms. It’s your decision.
More classic holiday side dishes: healthy sweet potato casserole / homemade stuffing / pineapple stuffing / vegan scalloped potatoes
Ingredient notes:
- Green beans – I like to use fresh green beans for this, but if you want to use frozen, thaw whole beans and skip the blanching.
- All-purpose flour – This acts as a thickening agent. If you want to swap it, I recommend 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch. To make this completely gluten free, make sure you’re using GF onions and broth as well.
- Chicken stock – Feel free to swap this for vegetable broth if you want to make this recipe vegan.
- Dairy free milk – I normally use almond or oat milk for this, but any dairy free milk will work as long as it is unsweetened and plain (ie. don’t use vanilla other flavored options)
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions listed below are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
Melissa’s tips + tricks:
- Cast iron skillet: I love using a cast iron skillet for this recipe because it creates one less dirty pan, but if you want to transfer the green beans and sauce to a casserole dish before baking, go for it. I think this would be especially helpful if you’re bring the casserole somewhere, because cast iron skillets can get quite heavy.
- Make ahead: If you want to make your green bean casserole ahead of time, prepare everything except the crispy onions. Cover the casserole and refrigerate until you’re ready to bake. Let it come to it’s almost room temperature, top with onions and bake for 15 – 20 minutes.
More dairy free Thanksgiving recipes
Green Bean Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and halved
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 1/4 cup unsweetened dairy free milk, we usually use almond or oat
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups French fried onions
Instructions
- Mise en place. Preheat your oven to 400˚F and measure/chop all of your ingredients before you begin.
- Blanch the beans. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch the green beans for about 4 minutes, until they’re bright green and just slightly tender. Drain and set aside.
- Sauté the aromatics. Heat the olive oil in a large (12-inch) oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion and garlic with a good pinch of coarse salt. If you’re adding mushrooms, toss them in now too. Cook for 5–6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and translucent.
- Make the sauce. Sprinkle the flour over the veggies and stir until it soaks up the oil and forms a paste (that’s your roux). Slowly whisk in the broth, then the dairy free milk, making sure everything stays smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Let the sauce come to a simmer and thicken—this should take about 5 minutes.
- Assemble the casserole. Stir in the blanched green beans and about 1/2 cup of the crispy fried onions. Mix everything until the beans are coated in the sauce.
- Bake it up. Sprinkle the remaining fried onions evenly on top. Bake, uncovered, for 15–20 minutes, or until bubbly and golden brown.
- Cool slightly before serving. Let your casserole rest for at least 10 minutes before digging in. The sauce will thicken more as it sits.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
I have frozen trader joe string beans and I enjoy the idea of cooking in cast iiron pan. Please advice what is best way of cooking . I also have to bring to thanksgiving dinner and want it to last with crispyness. Appreciate your advice!
How much onion powder is to be used?
It calls for chopped onion but doesn’t say where to add it. And says to add onion powder but that’s not listed on the ingredients!
Thanks.
Firstly, the recipe is delicious. However there are three errors in this recipe. The onions are completely omitted from the directions, there is an ingredient in the directions that aren’t in the ingredient list (onion powder), and the directions don’t say anything about the fried onions. It just says “onions”. I’m not sure how any recipe developer or food blogger can allow this to happen.
Also, this website is infested with advertisements it’s nearly impossible to read any part of the recipe or directions.
I don’t ever take the time to review recipes but I had to with this one. This was the best green bean casserole I’ve ever had! And you couldn’t even tell a difference that it was dairy free. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
I made this dairy-free green bean casserole recipe for Christmas dinner. It was absolutely delicious! I will never use a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup again—-this recipe is SO much better. I doubled the recipe for a 9x 13 glass baking dish. Used 4 cans of green beans (drained) and definitely use unsweetened almond milk. Don’t use vanilla flavored almond milk!
Delicious! Although I added 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast.
You mentioned onion powder in the instructions but it’s not listed under ingredients… how much onion powder?
I’m excited to come across this recipe and will try it! Note, instructions are not clear which onions when (chopped vs fried) and the onion powder is not mentioned in ingredients but is called for later. I’m guessing the chopped onion you sauté and the fried ones are step 5?
Sorry about that, there is not any onion powder in the recipe. I updated it now so you should be able to follow along now. You are right, chopped are for sautéing and the fried onions are for the topping.Thanks for letting me know!
This looks like a perfect DF option for Thanksgiving! I see onion powder mentioned in the directions, but I don’t see it in the ingredients list. Do I add both for this dish? Thanks in advance!
Sorry about that, I updated it accordingly for you. You are not going to use onion powder for this recipe!