Vegan Green Bean Casserole with Crispy Fried Onions - Soy and Wheat Free

  Our first Thanksgiving eating allergy-friendly, the green bean casserole recipe came from Living Without magazine... and it totally sucked. It wasn't their fault of course. Something I've figured out while eating allergen free is that recipes are just starting points, you have to tweak things to your own tastes in almost every case. But at the time, I did not know that.

  With that said, you may want to add or remove some items from this recipe, but this was really very good. And easy enough to make for Sunday dinner, nothing that has to be saved just for Thanksgiving or Christmas for sure.
 

Green Bean Casserole with Crispy Fried Onions

For Onions:
1 onion sliced into thin rings
1 cup GF all purpose flour (or original or GF Bisquick!)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 cup unsweetened plain almond milk or other non dairy milk
peanut or other oil for frying

For Green Beans and Sauce:
2 cans french cut green beans, drained
10 oz button mushrooms
1/2 tsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 Tbl coconut aminos (soy sauce substitute)
2 Tbl GF all purpose flour (or whole wheat, if not gluten intolerant)
3/4 cup vegetable broth
3/4 cup plain unsweetened almond milk or non dairy milk of choice




In a shallow bowl, pour 1 cup non dairy milk and add onion rings, allow to soak 5 or more minutes.
In another shallow bowl or pie pan, stir together flour and salt and pepper. Heat peanut oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Dredge onion rings through flour mixture, making sure to evenly coat all of the onion surface. Pan fry them, stirring often, for 3-4 minutes or until brown and crispy. Remove to a brown paper bag, patting with a paper towel to remove any excess oil. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 425.
Pop stems out of mushrooms and discard. Dice mushroom caps into small pieces. 
Heat olive oil in small pot over medium-high heat until hot. Add mushrooms, garlic, salt, and pepper and saute until mushrooms become dark and release their juices. In a small bowl, whisk the flour into the vegetable broth and then add it to the mushroom pot along with the coconut aminos. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Add in almond milk and simmer another 5-10 minutes until thick again. Taste and add more salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and stir in green beans.

Pour green bean mixture into small greased casserole dish and top with green beans.  Bake for 15 minutes.