As an ambassador for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Foundation, each month we have challenges that help further the real food
mission. This month, one of the challenges was to teach friends or family to
make a holiday meal or traditional dish from scratch. Here in the US we just
celebrated Thanksgiving. A dish that my family often has with Thanksgiving
dinner is green bean casserole. The “traditional” recipe for green bean
casserole would use some cans of cream of mushroom soup and a package of little
onion rings. Needless to say, what we did was make a real food, from scratch
version of the casserole. I am not advocating this as necessarily a health
food. It is, however, a healthier version of a dish for a special occasion.
I asked my 15 year old sister, Maria, if she wanted to
participate and learn how to make the casserole. We started off by talking a
little about the benefits of making home cooked food from scratch as opposed to
using packaged food. When you make food from scratch you use all natural,
simple ingredients. If you look at the
back of a can of cream of mushroom soup you will see it contains a number of
additives and tons of sodium in the form of MSG. We don’t want any of that.
Another thing that makes home cooked food different is the
energy that is put into making it. The love and positive intent when preparing
food from scratch really does make a difference for those consuming the food.
So it’s always a good idea to center yourself before you start, make sure you
have a clean space to work in/on and keep as calm and positive as possible. I
know that last one isn’t always easy, especially when you find yourself in a
rush. When that is the case for me, I just try to catch myself and bring my
thoughts back to my intention for the meal or dish; for it to taste good and be
nourishing.
 |
| the finished product |
Here is the recipe adapted from this one on the blog Season withSpice. It would be great for any holiday celebration and could also be made gluten and/or dairy free with some substitutions.
Ingredients:
2 pounds
green beans, trimmed and snapped into bite size pieces
4 cups chopped
mushrooms
4-5 cloves
of garlic, minced
2
tablespoons olive oil
2 dabs of
butter
1 tablespoon
soy sauce
1 tablespoon
water
2
tablespoons corn starch, dissolved in water
2 cups
organic half-and-half
2 pinches
dried parsley
2 pinches
dried thyme
2 dashes of
nutmeg
Salt and
pepper to taste (I added probably 1.5 teaspoons Real Salt)
For the
Onions:
4 medium
cooking onions
Flour (about
1.5 cups)
Milk (about
a cup)
High quality
oil to fry
Salt and
pepper
First blanch
or steam the trimmed green beans until bright green and just a little tender.
Set aside.
Next heat
olive oil and butter over medium heat and then add garlic. Sauté for about a
minute then add the chopped mushrooms. Give it a good stir and then add the
water and soy sauce. Sauté for 7-10 minutes. Next, stir in the half-and-half,
corn starch mixture and herbs and spices. Kick the heat up a bit and, stirring
constantly, allow the soup to thicken. Once the soup is a good consistency, taste
test and add salt and pepper if needed. Mix in the green beans and set aside.
Now for the
fun part (by the way, I highly recommend a helper for this part, it goes way
smoother). Slice the onions and separate the rings. Heat some oil in a frying
pan or wok on medium-high heat. Mix the flour with some salt and pepper in a
bowl and pour the milk in another bowl. First dunk the onions in the milk and
then the flour. Once the oil is hot (you can tell by sticking a wooden spoon in
it, if you get bubbles around the spoon, it is hot) put some onions in there (and
turn the heat down a little) and fry until golden brown, flipping them once. I put
them on a plate covered with a paper towel and sprinkled them with a bit of
salt after taking them out of the pan.
Once all of
the onions are done mix them into the green beans but reserve several of the
prettiest ones. Transfer to a casserole dish and put the pretty onion rings on
top. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. This amount made enough for 8 adults and
we had a little bit left over.
Here is a
tip:
If you are
making a whole meal or have a lot going on, I recommend making this the night
before. Or at least fry the onions ahead of time and then mix in before you
bake or before you go to the get together.
Thank you to
Maria for learning and helping to make this, it was a success. And I think we
have a new traditional green bean casserole. And also thank you to Casey for
the photos.
What are
your favorite holiday dishes to make from scratch?
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