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This Vegan Green Bean Casserole has everything you love about the classic holiday side dish: a creamy homemade mushroom sauce, lots of green beans, and crunchy onion topping. It’s plant-based comfort food at its best!
I love traditional Green Bean Casserole so much, especially when it’s made with homemade cream of mushroom soup. But these days, I know so many people who have dairy sensitivities or follow a plant-based lifestyle, and I want them to eat home-cooked comfort food too!
The biggest change here is making the creamy mushroom sauce vegan instead of with heavy cream. You could certainly use almond milk, coconut milk, oat milk, or any other non-dairy milk or plant milk, but I decided to use cashew cream instead. It’s easy to do, has a DELICIOUS flavor, and you won’t even miss the dairy.
I use frozen green beans for convenience but you can absolutely substitute fresh if you want to. And of course, French fried onions are non-negotiable. No matter who is eating at your table, celebrate with food they can feel good about.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Mushrooms: Use fresh mushrooms to make a quick from-scratch cream of mushroom sauce. White button, portobello, or cremini mushrooms are always great choices.
- Frozen green beans: To substitute fresh green beans, trim and chop 2 pounds of green beans. Blanch the beans in 4 quarts of boiling salted water for about 5 minutes, then drain well and plunge immediately in to an ice bath to stop the cooking.
- Fried onions: To substitute bread crumbs for the canned French fried onions, pulse 4 slices hearty white bread (torn into pieces) in a food processor or blender. You will have about 3 cups of crumbs. Stir in 3 tablespoons melted vegan butter or olive oil and fry in a large skillet over medium-high heat until browned. Sprinkle over the casserole just before serving.
Step-by-step instructions
- To make the cashew cream, in a medium bowl, add cashews and cover with boiling water.
- Let soak for 30 minutes.
- Drain well. In a high-speed blender, add drained cashews and ½ cup water.
- Blend until smooth, adding more water as needed to get a creamy consistency (I added an additional ½ cup water). Season to taste with salt (I like ¼ teaspoon).
- In a large skillet or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat until foaming subsides. Add mushrooms, garlic, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ⅛ teaspoon pepper. Cook until the mushrooms have released most of their liquid, about 5 to 7 minutes.
- Stir in flour and cook for one minute. Whisk in broth, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly.
- Reduce heat to medium. Whisk in cashew cream and simmer until the sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Meanwhile, cook the beans in the microwave according to the package instructions (or microwave on HIGH power for 4 to 5 minutes; let stand 1 minute before removing from the microwave). You can also blanch the green beans in a large pot of salted water. Drain well (I like to use a salad spinner to spin them dry).
- Add the green beans to the pot with the mushroom sauce and toss until evenly coated. Transfer the beans and sauce mixture to a crock pot.
- Cook on HIGH for 2 hours or LOW for 4 hours or until a thermometer inserted in to the middle of the casserole reaches 165 degrees. Top with canned fried onions immediately before serving.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes about 10 cups of casserole, enough for 10 1-cup sized, side dish (you’ll be able to feed more than 10 people depending on how many sides you have at Thanksgiving).
- Storage: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Make ahead: You can make the mushroom sauce up to 2 days before. Cool and refrigerate. Since the sauce will be going in cold, increase the crockpot time to 3 hours on HIGH or 5 hours on LOW.
- Crunchy topping: Add panko bread crumbs to your French fried onions for extra crunch. Keep the same 3 cups of onions and just add 3 cups (or your desired amount to taste) panko. Crunchy pecans are tasty too!
- Slow Cooker Green Bean Casserole: Classic (with heavy cream) green bean casserole made in a slow cooker.
- Oven Green Bean Casserole: Classic (with heavy cream) green bean casserole with both bread crumbs and fried onions in the topping, and you bake this version in a casserole dish in the oven.
- Green Bean Casserole for Two: Classic (with heavy cream) green bean casserole scaled down to feed just two. Or, cut the cashew cream recipe below in half and make it vegan.
- Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes: Plan your next full or partial vegan Thanksgiving menu with delicious, mouth-watering Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes. These plant-powered classics taste as good as, or even better than, their traditional versions, and they are guaranteed to disappear no matter who is at the table.
Frequently Asked Questions
A simple, delicious cashew cream is the perfect substitute for dairy in green bean casserole (or any other casserole).
To make cashew cream, in a medium bowl, add 1 ½ cups (7.5 ounces) raw, unsalted cashews and cover with 3 cups boiling water. Let soak for 30 minutes. Drain well. Then, in a high-speed blender, add drained cashews and ½ cup water. Blend until smooth, adding more water as needed to get a creamy consistency (I added an additional ½ cup water). Season to taste with salt (I like ¼ teaspoon).
Substitute your favorite gluten-free flour blend in the sauce (my favorite is King Arthur’s Measure for Measure GF blend). And since canned French-fried onions contain wheat, you’ll need to substitute something else. Gluten-free panko crumbs made from your favorite GF bread would be great, or you could try a nutty topping like pecans.
More vegan Thanksgiving recipes
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Vegan Green Bean Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups raw cashews (7.5 ounces)
- 3 cups boiling water
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons vegan butter
- 1 pound white button mushrooms sliced (see note 1)
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
- 2 (12 ounce) packages frozen cut green beans (see note 2)
- 3 cups canned fried onions (see note 3)
Instructions
- To make the cashew cream, in a medium bowl, add cashews and cover with boiling water. Let soak for 30 minutes. Drain well.
- In a high-speed blender, add drained cashews and ½ cup water. Blend until smooth, adding more water as needed to get a creamy consistency (I added an additional ½ cup water). Season to taste with salt (I like ¼ teaspoon).
- In a large skillet or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium-high heat until foaming subsides. Add mushrooms, garlic, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ⅛ teaspoon pepper. Cook until the mushrooms have released most of their liquid, about 5 to 7 minutes.
- Stir in flour and cook for one minute. Whisk in broth, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly.
- Reduce heat to medium. Whisk in cashew cream and simmer until the sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Meanwhile, cook the beans in the microwave according to the package instructions (or microwave on HIGH power for 4 to 5 minutes; let stand 1 minute before removing from the microwave). Drain well (I like to use a salad spinner to spin them dry).
- Add the green beans to the pot with the mushroom sauce and toss until evenly coated. Transfer the beans and sauce to a crock pot.
- Cook on HIGH for 2 hours or LOW for 4 hours or until a thermometer inserted in to the middle of the casserole reaches 165 degrees. Top with canned fried onions immediately before serving.
Notes
- Mushrooms: Use fresh mushrooms to make a quick from-scratch cream of mushroom sauce.
- Frozen green beans: To substitute fresh beans, trim and chop 2 pounds of green beans. Blanch the beans in 4 quarts of boiling salted water for about 5 minutes, then drain well and plunge immediately in to an ice bath to stop the cooking.
- Fried onions: To substitute bread crumbs for the canned fried onions, pulse 4 slices hearty white bread (torn into pieces) in a food processor or blender. You will have about 3 cups of crumbs. Stir in 3 tablespoons melted vegan butter or olive oil and fry in a large skillet over medium-high heat until browned. Sprinkle over the casserole just before serving.
- Yield: This recipe makes about 10 cups of casserole, enough for 10 1-cup sized, side dish (you’ll be able to feed more than 10 people depending on how many sides you have at Thanksgiving).
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.