Vegan Green Bean Casserole

Ready in under 30 minutes, this vegan green been casserole features green beans, mushrooms, and of course crispy-fried onions. It’s all brought together with a simple to prepare cream sauce flavoured with lemon, onion, and garlic.

Preparing Vegan Green Bean Casserole

This is not a difficult recipe, but it does have a few steps.

Start by juicing a lemon, setting the juice aside and then slicing the remaining lemon peel into quarters. Put the lemon peel and green beans in a skillet with barely enough water to cover and steam the green beans for a few minutes, until your desire doneness. Then drain the green beans and put them in the freezer while you make the sauce. Freezing them will stop them from cooking further. Another way to do this is to have them sit in an ice bath, but I find this works just as well, with less fuss.

Next, you make the sauce. You just need to put all the dry ingredients, plus water, in a blender, so this comes together really quickly. It’s especially speedy if you already have some of my 4 minute cheeze sauce mix on hand, but even if you don’t it’s just 4 dry ingredients that take no prep time. Today, we’re flavouring the sauce with green bean casserole-appropriate onion and garlic powder.

Next we’ll cook the mushrooms, and then add our cheeze sauce mixture to them.

To finish the dish off, you’ll add some lemon juice, then add in the green beans and simmer until hot. And last, by definitely not least, add in the crispy fried onions.

Eating Together Made Easy

This Green Bean Casserole is 100% plant-based so it’s suitable for eaters of all stripes.

Vegan Green Bean Casserole

Ready in under 30 minutes, this stovetop version of green been casserole features green beans, mushrooms and of course crispy-fried onions. All sauced up with a creamy vegan sauce flavoured with lemon, onion, and garlic. A 4 minute cheeze sauce recipe. 

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Course: dinner, lunch, side

Cuisine: American

Keyword: 4 minute cheeze sauce recipe, easy casserole, easy green bean recipe, green bean casserole, plantbased green beans, plantbased thanksgiving sides, stovetop green beans, vegan thanksgiving sides

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 4 sides

Calories: 250kcal

Author: Sylvia Eastman

Ingredients

• 2 cups green beans, trimmed
• 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
• 2 lemons, both juice and peel
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon butter or butter substitute
• 1 cup crispy fried onions
• 2/3rds cup 4 minute cheeze sauce mix + 1 cup water {See recipe notes for link}

Optionally, if you don’t have 4 minute cheeze sauce mix:

• 1/2 cup almond flour {also called almond meal, ground blanched almonds}
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons tapioca flour {also called tapioca starch}
• 1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

• Prepare the green beans:

  First, juice the lemon and set juice aside. Slice the peel into quarters. 

  Put the green beans and lemon peel in a skillet with enough water to barely cover.

  Steam for 6 to 10 minutes, until your desired doneness, and then drain the water off and put the green beans in a bowl and put them in the freezer for a few minutes (this stops them from further cooking) while you are cooking the mushrooms.
• Make the sauce: 

  Combine the cheeze sauce mix/ingredients, water, and garlic and onion powder in the blender. Blend for one minute and set aside until your green beans are ready. 
• Cook the mushrooms:

  Add the butter to the skillet and heat. Add the mushrooms and cook until the butter is absorbed and the mushrooms are getting a little crispy and brown.

  Add the cheeze sauce into the mushrooms and stir and cook for a minute or two until the sauce thickens up.

  Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
• Finish the dish by adding in the green beans and simmering until green beans are hot. 

  Add half of the crispy fried onions.

  Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more lemon, salt, pepper, etcetera to taste.

  Serve topped with remaining onions.

Notes

Storage and Reheating

I think this is best served soon after you make it. But if you have leftovers, you can reheat it in the microwave, or over low heat in a saucepan. 

There Isn’t Supposed to Be Cheese In this Recipe! So What’s the Deal with using 4 Minute Cheese/Cheeze Sauce Mix?

4 minute cheeze sauce is very mildly flavoured and it’s an easy way to make a creamy base for lots of different recipes. 

Since I was making 4 minute cheeze sauce so often, I decided to make a pantry-staple version of it. This is just a pre-combined version of all of the cheese sauce ingredients, except the water. You can find the recipe for this awesome pantry staple here. 

Nutrition

Calories: 250kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 7mg | Sodium: 445mg | Potassium: 351mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 9.3% | Vitamin C: 9.7% | Calcium: 5% | Iron: 8.9%

PIN: Vegan Green Bean Casserole

More cheeze please!

If you are looking for more cheezy recipes, check out Corn Chip Casserole: Two Ways,  Cheezy Roasted Cauliflower with Smoked Almonds and Dates, hot chili grilled cheeze, this awesome dairy-free spinach dip, and Easy Cheezy Broccoli Soup.I’ve made “4 minute cheeze” a category, so you can easily find the recipes on my site.