Oil-Free Vegan Green Bean Casserole
Green bean casserole is one of my favorite holiday side dishes, second only to stuffing. The crunchy green beans and the creamy sauce and the yummy onion flavor…gimme now.
One thing I am not a fan of in traditional green bean casserole is the mushrooms. I don’t mind mushrooms, but they can stay out of my green bean casserole. If you like them and want to add them, sauté about a cup of them, chopped or sliced, after the onions are cooked through while making the cream sauce.
Because we are making vegan green bean casserole, the base of the cream sauce is almond milk. I have also used cashew milk. You can use any non-dairy milk you prefer.
For this recipe, I wanted to go totally oil-free (read why here). Unfortunately those delicious french fried onions that come in the plastic container are definitely not free of oil. (They ARE vegan though!)
While my version of these onions are baked and not as crispy/crunchy, they are still pretty delicious. I didn’t miss the store bought fried onions one bit.
To make these french baked-not-fried onions, I mixed half of a large sliced yellow onion with flour, corn meal, and aquafaba. The aquafaba really does help crisp them up, but if you don’t have it or don’t care to open a can of chickpeas, you can make this recipe without it. Onions are moist enough to help hold onto the flour & corn meal.
More Oil-Free Recipes:
Ingredients
- 2 12 oz packages of frozen cut green beans
Cream Sauce
- vegetable stock as needed
- 1/2 yellow onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic crushed or minced
- 2 cups almond milk or any non-dairy milk
- 3 tbsp corn starch
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 1-2 tsp vegetable bouillon (or 1-2 cubes)
- pepper to taste
Baked Onion Topping
- 1/2 yellow onion sliced about a 1/4 inch thick
- 1/2 tbsp flour
- 1 tsp corn meal
- 1/2 tbsp aquafaba (liquid from a can of chickpeas)
Instructions
- Thaw out the green beans and drain excess water.
Cream Sauce
- In a medium-sized pot on medium heat, sauté the onions and garlic in a little vegetable stock until the onions are translucent. Add more veggie stock as it dries up.
- In a bowl, whisk together the almond milk and corn starch until the corn starch is fully dissolved.
- Add the almond milk/corn starch mixture into the pot.
- Whisk in the soy sauce, vegetable bouillon (how much you add will depend on personal preference and the kind you use), and pepper.
- Bring to a simmer to thicken. Remove from heat.
Baked Onion Topping
- Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mix all ingredients together and spread out on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, flipping and stirring around every 5 mins.
Bring it all together
- Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a casserole dish, mix the green beans and the cream sauce together. Top with baked onions.
- Bake covered for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 10 minutes.
Can you put this together ahead of time and refrigerate until ready to bake?
Absolutely.
Hello. I am going to try this recipe for Thanksgiving it sounds so yummy. But I’m Vegan and noticed that the recipe calls for Vegetable Stock. Question is doesn’t Stock contain Bone? If so can a broth be substituted?
Vegetable stock does not contain any animal products.
How long does this take to cook and for how many people?
All of the cooking instructions are right in the recipe card. It serves about 8 people as a side!
What brand veg bouillon did you use? Cant find oil free one. Can I sub veg broth?
I use the Better Than Bouillon brand that comes in a little jar. If you can’t find it, I would either leave it out or add a little extra seasoning.
I loved this. Even my kids loved it. And they are hard to please.