This recipe is a fantastic alternative if you can’t stand the traditional cream of mushroom soup version of green bean casserole. I can’t, and this has seriously saved me. Enjoy!
I hope everyone has a nice big, traditional meal planned this year! Because I don’t. Well, I guess we are having turkey and Vincent Price’s Pumpkin Pie but in my family we don’t normally make bread stuffing or sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top. (Mostly because my dad is diabetic). And we are NOT making the traditional green bean casserole.
Instead we are making Sour Cream Green Bean Casserole!
AuthorRetroRuth
From The Queen's Book, Mrs. Verna VanDevelde, 1967
Tested Recipe!
[cooked-sharing]
Combine flour, butter and cook gently. Remove from heat, stir in seasonings and cream.
Cook beans until tender; drain. Fold in cream mixture, place in shallow 1 qt casserole and cover with cheese and then cornflake crumbs mixed with 1 T butter.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients
Directions
Combine flour, butter and cook gently. Remove from heat, stir in seasonings and cream.
Cook beans until tender; drain. Fold in cream mixture, place in shallow 1 qt casserole and cover with cheese and then cornflake crumbs mixed with 1 T butter.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Yield: Serves 6
Notes
This recipe is from The Queen’s Book, a community cookbook from 1967. I picked this one because I get so flippin’ sick of green bean casserole, even if we make it from scratch with fresh green beans and a homemade mushroom cream sauce. This year I wanted to try out something different!
Do you have a dish on your Thanksgiving table that you make every year but secretly can’t stand it?
Green bean casserole with canned beans and canned cream of mushroom soup is like that for me. Also, I hate turkey.
You heard me.
Hate. It.
Every year I try to convince them to let me make something else, but they always insist on turkey.
But I think I can make some headway this year with the bean casserole substitution.
“How is it?”
“Good. You know I love casseroles with cornflake topping.”
The Verdict: Good!
From The Tasting Notes –
Very good casserole with a creamy sauce and a crunchy topping. The sauce was very easy to make, just as easy as opening a can of cream of mushroom soup. Would be a great substitution for the ever-present traditional green bean casserole at Thanksgiving dinner!
Maybe I can talk my mother into making this. The only person that likes traditional green been casserole is Dad! I feel so bad for you, no stuffing! It’s the only thing I like at Thanksgiving…LOL
Oh, thank you for hating turkey. Five years ago, when I was pregnant with my second child, turkey totally grossed me out at Thanksgiving. I still have not recovered from that. I also wish for anything else on Thanksgiving.
Me too! I like picking at the crunchy skin when it just comes out of the oven. I want ONE turkey sandwich the next day, and that’s it for me.
And in my family, we’ve never done the green bean casserole. We do steamed fresh green beans with butter toasted sliced almonds on the side.
I think I would be such a meanie if I didn’t share this: My mom’s sweet potatoes are to die for—peeled, sliced, and layered raw with butter and brown sugar (I KNOW) and a little salt, covered, then into the oven with the turkey for however long it takes for them to get tender.They can hang there longer, too, without a problem. By that time the potatoes are nestled in just enough toffee. I have never tasted any other sweet potato casserole that I liked better.
By the way, she’s been doing sweet potatoes like this for Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember, so it’s DEFINITELY mid century modern.
This sounds like it would be ok, but I love the mushroom version. What I absolutely DESPISE, however, is pumpkin pie. Or pumpkin anything for that matter. We do have a cranberry jello salad we’ve been making for 4 generations now, I taught my 8 year old daughter how to make it last year. You need a bag of fresh cranberries, 4-6 (depending on size) golden delicious or similar type apples, 2 cans of mandarin oranges, a can of crushed pineapple, 2 cups sugar and 2 big boxes of lemon jello. Start by putting a colander inside a large bowl. Take a grinder or food processor and run the cranberries, oranges and apple slices through until ground but still a bit chunky. Pour into colander so juice can drip through into bowl. Add crushed pineapple directly to colander. Let sit several minutes to allow as much juice to drip through as possible. Measure juice and add if necessary add enough bottled juice to total 2 cups liquid. Bring to boil, add jello and sugar and stir til dissolved. Pour this back into the ground fruit mixture, taste and add a bit more sugar if needed. Pour into mold if desired and chill overnight.
I also hate pumpkin and am not a big turkey fan. I don’t mind having turkey ONCE a year, so either Xmas or Tksgiving I have a ham, instead, especially since I have tweaked Ruth’s ham casserole recipe and me and husband love it!
Instead of pumpkin pie, I make tiramisu; been doing that since the early 90s, so it’s ensconced as a tradition now!
I do like traditional green bean casserole, though. I’m thinking of adding some sour cream to it, though, sounds yummy.
My mother used to make a version of this green bean casserole, but she added corn and a Ritz cracker- slivered almond topping. It was divine!
Made these for Christmas. So easy to make! They were a hit!
Thank you for the recipe,
RetroRuth, I think you may be my Thanksgiving soulmate! Long before I was vegetarian, I hated turkey. If families feel they must serve a “traditional” dinner, why not roast a chicken (or two) instead?
Green-bean casserole was never served in my childhood family, but it was in my husband’s. Having an aversion to anything made with “Cream of X” canned soup, canned green vegetables, and mushrooms in ANY form, I reinvented the recipe a few years ago using better ingredients.
I usually use frozen French-cut green beans unless I want to julienne fresh ones, which is VERY time-consuming. The green beans are mixed with homemade white sauce and carmelized onions, then everything is topped with Swiss cheese, parmesan cheese, and breadcrumbs. It’s much better than the original, but I only make this in a small casserole dish because it’s not especially good as a leftover.
This year, if I make my Stroganoff/Romanoff sauce (white sauce with 0.5 cup of sour cream added), for my “gratin haricot verts,” I think my husband will be very happy: he loves sour cream!
You are the third person who has told me they add Swiss to their green bean casserole! I think I might have to try that this year!
Substitute crumbled potato chips for corn flakes, and gruyere for cheddar, and maybe add some crumbled cooked bacon–how ’bout that.
I on the other hand love, love ,love turkey (brine it for a few days please!) but cannot stand chicken, Oh chicken, how I loathe thee. I will eat it because I am a good guest that tries to to eat what my hosts give me, but I would rather just not eat anything than eat chicken. When it is a social function with hotel food, I do forgo the meal if it is chicken based (or just eat the vegetable sides.). Thank goodness no-one cooks chicken for any holidays in my family.
This recipe has been used by my family for years. Everyone loves this version of Green bean casserole . The
recipe is exactly the same as what my Mom used.