Run Plant Based

Formerly The Raw Project - Running on a Healthy Vegan Diet

Hearty Green Bean Casserole

by

Tonight dinner was a team effort as hubby and I prepared the meaty green bean casserole recipe from Peas and Thank You.

With Thanksgiving approaching at light speed, I admit that our plans are still up in the air. That’s a good thing because I’m not stressing about planning a menu, yet. I am looking forward to a few extra days off work and maybe a little black Friday madness. And I’ve been having fun trying vegan Thanksgiving recipes this week to start a little early celebration.

I have mixed feelings about the traditional green bean casserole, in the past I’ve have amazing ones made from scratch and not-so-amazing versions with a bulk of the mushy ingredients coming from a can. This recipe was a daring one to pull off on a week night because it’s pretty labor intensive and requires a hefty ingredient list. So hefty that I left a few out that I didn’t have – the canned water chestnuts and fresh breads crumbs prepared in a food processor. If I’m dirtying a pot, fry pan, Vitamix, cutting boards, and a casserole dish on a weeknight, I have to draw the line at the food processor too!

But I had help, hubby chopped the fresh green beans before adding to the pot of boiling water.

While I chopped the Tofurky vegan sausage and fresh mushrooms before sauteing together stove top.

The recipe called for 1 cup of unsweetened nut or seed milk, but I didn’t any on hand. Instead I blended 1 cup of water, 1/4 cup of hemp seeds, and a tsp. of soy lecithin in the Vitamix with the rest of the sauce ingredients, including the vegan worcestershire sauce.

Assembling the casserole layers was kind of fun, first the green beans, then the mushroom sausage mixture, and I topped with nutritional yeast in place of the bread crumbs. Then we baked it for 20 minutes per the instructions.

And our hearty dinner is served!

One that looks a lot like a traditional green bean casserole, but smelled better!

The flavor was fantastic, the fresh sauce from the Vitamix and fresh chopped mushrooms made and amazing creamy sauce base while the vegan sausage added a hearty protein kick turning this traditional side into a Thanksgiving main dish for a vegan.

While it seems like a lot of work, the casserole was ready in about 30 minutes. I really appreciated this recipe for the fresh ingredients it used – fresh green beans instead of flavorless, canned mushy ones, and fresh mushrooms and hemp milk compared to cheap canned mushroom soup. It was more work and the ingredients were pricier, but very worth it for how perfectly the flavors and texture came together. The green beans were still crisp and the savory, rich flavor the mushrooms added to the sauce after being sauteed with the sausage was simply fabulous. And it’s a huge casserole that could serve eight as a side dish, I’ve stashed extra servings in the freezer to treat myself to a fast, but delicious dinner after a busy work day.

 

Advertisements

Comments

  1. Looks like you came up with a winner….in 30 mins you fed yourself, hubby, AND have planned leftovers stashed in the freezer. Gotta love that. And it looks like the perfect Thanksgiving dish, too…to impress the vegans and nonvegans alike!

  3. That does look good! Very nice dinner for a weekday particularly, and a weekend or holiday! I always thought I would veganize a green bean casserole, but never took the time to actually do it. For some reason I guess I forgot that Peas & Thank You had that recipe.

    • It was a treat for a weekday dinner, next time I might use Trader Joe’s tempeh in placed of the vegan sausage to make it a little cheaper.

    • Nice, I need to try that sausage recipe too because Tofurky isn’t cheap. I think Trader Joe’s tempeh could be used in place of the sausage in this recipe too.

  6. I actually still like the traditional green bean casserole mostly for nostalgia, but I dont eat it anymore. I really have never been a fan of fake meats, but yours looks so good. I want to run out and buy that cookbook. I would really like to try to make this maybe with some beans instead of the fake meat.

    • Agreed on fake meats, but there’s something about the spices and texture I like in the Tofurky Italian sausage and it doesn’t seem like fake meat in this recipe. Next time I might try this recipe with tempeh cubes in place of the vegan sausage.