Green Bean Casserole

Welcome back! 

Today, we have a recipe for a casserole that's commonly featured as a side dish for Thanksgiving feasts: Green Bean Casserole! It was first created by a Campbell's Soup worker, featuring their cream of mushroom soup. Nowadays, a large portion of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup sales go towards the making of this casserole, which is quite interesting. However, since we wanted to make something as fresh and gourmet as possible, we didn't use the canned soup and instead made our own "soup" to go with the beans.

Green Bean Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1 pound green beans, trimmed and cut
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 3 slices of bacon, chopped
• 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cup half & half
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese (optional)
• French fried onions
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a pot of salt water, blanch the green beans for 6 minutes until fork tender.
2. Once done, take these out and rinse them under cold water to preserve their greenness and make sure they don't get more cooked.
3. In a pan, cook the bacon until browned.
4. Using the grease from bacon, saute the shallot. Then saute the garlic.
5. Add in the mushrooms and cook those too. If the mushrooms produce some liquid, empty it out once you're done.
6. Take all of that stuff out.
7. Using the butter and flour, cook a roux in the pan. Put the butter in first and spread the flour around, carefully mixing so that it forms one even mixture.
8. Slowly add the half & half in so it stays smooth. Add in the sauted ingredients and mix.
9. Add in the green beans and mix.
10. If you want, add the cheese along with salt and pepper and mix it thoroughly.
11. Put the mixture into a baking dish.
    
    
    
12. Bake this in the oven at 350°F for 10-15 minutes until the beans are tender. You can cook it up to 30 minutes if you like the beans to be soft.
13. Sprinkle the fried onions on top and bake for another 5 minutes.

If you are adamant on using the Cream of Mushroom Soup, you can still definitely make the dish like we did. The canned soup just takes the place of all the ingredients from the shallots to the half & half. If you use this, you should also add 1/2 cup of milk into the mixture to thin the soup a little. This will save you some hassle from getting and preparing all the ingredients, so there's a big benefit to using the Cream of Mushroom Soup.

-Chefpo