Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!! You better believe that I am so ready for a day of cooking and delicious foods. There is one dish that by boyfriend loves for Thanksgiving it’s the green bean casserole! I make at least two pans of this every year because we keep eating more and more throughout the weekend following with any leftovers.

To be transparent, this green bean casserole is the reason that I started this recipe blog. As soon as by boyfriend was diagnosed with EOE I immediately set out finding recipes and following people that also had EOE. As November got closer, I saw one thing over and over – that people struggled to have a traditional Thanksgiving meal and that broke my heart, especially for the children. I’d see them packing separate lunchboxes of safe foods like carrots or other easy to take along foods and I just wasn’t going to have it. I know some people wouldn’t make the effort to cook allergy free especially for those outside their household, because it’s more work… but my hope is to make it a little bit easier for those that to want to. Because it can be done and still be delicious. The first Thanksgiving the year he was diagnosed I made a 100% Top 8 allergy free Thanksgiving, I cobbled together things that I’d learned and other recipes I’d found for different items. It isn’t as quick and easy as a standard meal could be, but I definitely think it’s worth it to accommodate.

Now you’re probably wondering why wasn’t this the first post I made? Because this is the one that we had to have and was the most laborious to make and perfect. I’ve been trying to find a way to make it easier and have made alterations to make it tastier and have finally perfected it so that it’s ready to be shared with the world! This isn’t a quick recipe, or the prettiest, but it is definitely worth it in the end. It’s fried, crispy, buttery, and savory all rolled up into one side dish that I recommend you expect to make more of because it will go quickly!

There are two main sections to the recipe – the onions, and the green beans. Then they will come together for the final casserole. I will try to make it as clear as possible with headers, so just make sure you know where you are in the recipe and you’ll be fine.

This recipe is from scratch, but that doesn’t mean it has to be impossible to work with and cause you to spend all day just on this one item. For this recipe I use canned green beans, as long as they’re allergy free, and pre-minced garlic (found in the salad section of my grocery stores). It may not sound like much but for me those couple things really help in making this process go smoother. If I could find pre cut onion slices I’d definitely be buying those too!!

Throughout the process I always use my tried and trusted Smart Balance olive oil spread and rice milk in place of dairy. They work wonders in this recipe and have such a mild flavor that it just blends in with all of the other flavors without adding or taking anything away. For flour I like to use Bob’s Redmill 1-to-1 Baking Flour, it doesn’t always thicken up the best but I find it is the easiest to use and usually works well for most things I want it to do.

For us, Green bean casserole should be both savory and crunchy. Without those packaged fried onions it can seem impossible to keep that delicious crunch. This is where I get selective with how much of the onions I cook into the casserole and how much I add on at the very end to warm and crisp up. I always separate my full batch of onions into thirds. One will be mixed in to the casserole, one third will be on top of the casserole but cooked with everything so they’ll soften up, then the last third goes on at the end to get the nice crunch into the casserole.

Green Bean Casserole – Top 8 Allergy Free!

Ingredients

Fried Onions

• Canola oil for frying
• 2 Large sweet onions
• 2-3 C Rice Milk
• 1 C Gluten free flour
• 1 tsp Pink Himalayan salt

Green Beans

• 3 Tbsp. Buttery spread
• 3 tsp Minced garlic
• 1 C Finely chopped white mushrooms
• 2 Cans Cut Green Beans, drained
• 1 C Chicken Broth
• 1 C Rice Milk
• 2 Tbsp. Gluten free flour
• 1 tsp Pink Himalayan salt
• 1/2 tsp Black pepper
• up to 1 Tbsp. Cornstarch to thicken

Instructions

Making Fried Onions

1. Peel and slice onions very thin – the thinner the better. If you have a mandolin slicer I recommend using it here. Separate each ring and place them all into a large bowl.
2. Pour rice milk over the rings so they’re completely covered, let sit for at least 5 minutes.
3. Place gluten free flour and salt in another bowl and mix together.
4. Pour about 1 inch of oil into a skillet. Heat the oil over medium heat, it should be at about 375 degrees Fahrenheit, it will sizzle when you sprinkle a bit of flour into the hot oil.
5. Take about a handfull of onions out of the milk, let drip for a second, then dredge in flour. Shake off excess flour gently and place into the hot oil, don’t overcrowd.
6. Once onions are golden brown use tongs to remove them from the oil and let them cool on a papertowel lined plate.
7. Repeat steps 5 & 6 until all onions have cooked

Green Bean Cooking (Can be done at the same time the Onions are frying)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Place chopped mushrooms in a stock pot, add butter and minced garlic. Cook over medium heat until mushrooms are cooked down and aromatic.
3. Add chicken broth, rice milk, gluten free flour, salt and pepper to the pot. Raise the heat a little and allow to simmer until it starts to thicken. Can add cornstarch (a very little bit at a time) if not thickening well, some gluten free flours thicken better than others.
4. Add drained green beans to the pot and cook until they are heated throughout, about 5 minutes.

Combining everything

1. Pour the hot green bean mixture into a casserole dish, stir in about 1/3 of the fried onions
2. Top with half of the remaining onions
3. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes
4. Add remaining fried onions on top and bake an additional 5 minutes
5. Serve warm