The Best Green Bean Casserole (no canned soup)

Green Bean Casserole is a mid-century Thanksgiving classic. It originated during a time when recipes were rife with canned goods and other processed foods. Now, more than 50 years later, tastes have shifted back toward fresh and from-scratch cooking, which I am not sad about. So I’ve taken this traditional Thanksgiving dish, eliminated the canned soup, and created my own super creamy mushroom sauce. I still have those tasty fried onions on top, but hey, I’ll make an exception for those. ;)

Want more Thanksgiving classics? Check out our Holiday Recipes category.

How to Make Green Bean Casserole without Canned Soup

For this green bean casserole recipe, I whipped up a simple garlic mushroom sauce, then added the secret ingredient that makes it wonderfully thick and creamier than creamy—cream cheese! Yeah, sounds weird, but when I tell you I was licking the pan after transferring everything to the casserole dish to bake, I’m not kidding. This mushroom cream sauce was soooo good and seriously tasted just like store bought cream-of-mushroom soup (except better, of course).

Can This Green Bean Casserole Be Frozen?

I wouldn’t suggest freezing this Green Bean Casserole. Sauces thickened with flour do not tend to hold up well to freezing and thawing. This is one of the few disadvantages of not using condensed canned soups, which contain stabilizers. 

Can It Be Made Ahead?

It is possible to assemble this Green Bean Casserole a day ahead of time (minus the onion topping), refrigerate it, then add the onions and baking the next day. The baking time may be slightly longer when preparing ahead, since the dish will be chilled instead of warm going into the oven. I do not suggest making this dish anymore than one day ahead of time before baking.

Should I Use Fresh or Frozen Green Beans?

I really like Green Bean Casserole with fresh green beans because I think it the dish at least a little prettier, but you can use frozen cut or French-cut green beans if you’d like. Both fresh and frozen green beans are preferable to canned green beans. Canned green beans tend to be much too soft in both texture and flavor, and over-salted. If using fresh green beans, just blanch them in boiling water for about 3-5 minutes, or just until they turn bright green and lose their raw edge (they should still be firm), before adding them to the casserole.

Love casseroles? Check out these other canned-soup-free casseroles: King Ranch Chicken Casserole, Cheesy Chicken Vegetable and Rice Casserole, Wild Rice and Vegetable Casserole, and Cheesy Cottage Pie.

Scroll down for the step by step photos!

How to Make Homemade Green Bean Casserole – Step by Step Photos

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Wash 8oz. button mushrooms and roughly chopping them into small pieces. Mince two cloves of garlic. Heat a large skillet over medium, then add 1 Tbsp olive oil. Swirl to coat the skillet, then add the mushrooms, garlic, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Sauté the mushrooms until they release all their moisture, the skillet dries up, and the mushrooms begin to brown a bit on the edges.

Add 3 Tbsp butter and 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour to the skillet. Continue to sauté the mushrooms with the butter and flour until the flour begins to coat the bottom of the skillet and turn golden brown. This toasts the flour and prevents that floury flavor.

Whisk 1 cup vegetable broth into the skillet, making sure all the flour dissolves off the bottom. Allow the broth to come up to a simmer, while whisking, at which point it will thicken.

Whisk in 1 cup whole milk and allow it to come up to a simmer again. Cut the cream cheese into chunks, add it to the sauce, and whisk until it has fully melted in. At this point, you want to taste the sauce and add another pinch of salt and pepper. You want the sauce to be slightly salty because once it’s combined with the green beans the flavor will dilute slightly.

Finally, remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the frozen green beans. I had a 20 oz. bag of green beans but you could probably use up to 1.5 lbs. (24 oz.) with this amount of sauce if needed.

Transfer the green beans and sauce to a 2-3 quart casserole dish and top with 3oz. fried onions (that’s half of 6oz. can of fried onions).

Bake the casserole in the preheated 350ºF oven for 20-25 minutes, or until heated through and the fried onions have become golden brown.

Serve the CREAMIEST Green Bean Casserole warm! Yummmmmmm.