Homemade Green Bean Casserole

Forget about the canned mushroom soup and French’s French fried onions with enough fat to bring on a heart attack.  This year, impress the fam by whipping up that famous casserole side dish from scratch.  Here’s how I do it.

Classic Green Bean Casserole
Serves 10 to 12.  Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated

The components of the casserole can be prepared ahead of time. Combine the beans and cooled sauce in a baking dish, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. To serve, remove the plastic wrap and heat the casserole in a 425-degree oven for 10 minutes, then add the topping and bake as directed. This recipe can be halved and baked in a 2-quart (or 8-inch-square) baking dish. If making a half batch, reduce the cooking time of the sauce in step 3 to about 6 minutes (1 3/4 cups) and the baking time in step 4 to 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

Topping
3 cups frizzled onions

Beans and Sauce
Table salt
2 pounds green beans , ends trimmed, and halved
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound white button mushrooms , stems trimmed, wiped clean, and broken into 1/2-inch pieces
3 medium cloves garlic , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)
Ground black pepper
3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

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Early Spring Vegetable Gratin

After returning from the farmer’s market yesterday morning with all sorts of cold weather veggies, I put together this delightful combination of a purple kale, garnet sweet potatoes and leeks using an old recipe for scalloped potatoes as the base. When reheating it for lunch today, I threw in some pine nuts and parmesan cheese, which complemented the dish so nicely, I’ve added them to the below recipe.

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Kale, Sweet Potato and Leek Gratin

1 large bunch of kale (about 1.5 lbs), washed well and deribbed
4 medium-sized sweet potatoes, sliced into 1/8″ rounds
1 medium-sized leek, white part only, thinly sliced
4 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups half and half
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
1/3 cup pine nuts