Small Batch Green Bean Casserole with Homemade Mushroom Soup
Whether you’re accompanying a weeknight dinner or celebrating a small-scale Thanksgiving holiday, you need this small batch fresh green bean casserole in your repertoire! The delicious homemade mushroom soup in this recipe is flavored with sherry and thyme and leaves the casserole creamy and flavorful without being soupy!This will yield two generous helpings as an only side dish or four if you’re serving it with other sides.
1/2cupcreamor substitute 1 cup half-and-half for both the milk and cream
1 1/2cupscrispy fried onionslike French's (a 2.8 oz container should be perfect)
1/2tspdried thyme
1/2tsppepper
saltto taste
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut green beans into 1 1/2 inch pieces.
Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add green beans and blanch for 5 minutes. Drain and transfer to an ice water bath so the cooking stops and they stay bright green.
Melt butter in a cast iron skillet or other oven-safe pan over medium high heat. (You can also make this in a pan that is not oven-safe if you transfer the mixture to a casserole dish before adding the fried onions and baking.)
Add mushrooms and cook for 2-3 minutes without stirring, then sauté an additional 2-3 minutes. Add flour, stir to coat and cook for about a minute.
Splash in the sherry and stir well, scraping the bottom of the pan to get up any bits that have stuck. Add chicken broth, milk, and cream, whisking until smooth between each ingredient so it doesn't get clumpy. Add thyme, pepper, and salt to taste (I haven't found it to need salt but if you do now's the time to add it!).
Tilt the pan and scrape the soup to pool on one side and pulse an immersion blender in the soup until it's semi-smooth but has some larger pieces of mushrooms in the mix. If you don't have an immersion blender you can transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor and pulse until you reach the desired consistency, and then transfer it back to the pan. Or, you can skip this step altogether, but I prefer the mushrooms partially blended into the creamy base.
Mix in the green beans until evenly coated. Top with fried onions and bake for 15 minutes or until bubbly around the edges.
To prepare in advance
If you're making this in advance, do everything except adding the fried onions. Transfer to a small casserole dish and refrigerate until ready to cook (it is not recommended to refrigerate food in a cast iron skillet as it may increase the chances of your pan rusting).
Before cooking, let the casserole sit at room temperature while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Top with fried onions and bake for 15-20 minutes or until edges are bubbly and casserole is heated throughout. You may need that extra 5 minutes or so if it still has some chill from the fridge.