This delicious vegan green bean casserole has an indulgent mustard cashew cream sauce (without mushrooms) for a quick and easy, dairy-free version of this Thanksgiving favourite.
Top and tail the green beans by chopping off the ends. Then cook them in a pan of salted boiling water for 4-5 mins until just cooked and bright green. Then immediately drain and plunge into a bowl of iced water to immediately stop the cooking (this is called blanching and refreshing).
500 g green beans
Meanwhile, make the cashew sauce by putting all the ingredients in a high speed blender and blending until very smooth and creamy. (If your blender is not high-speed, then soak the cashews first – see notes below).
135 g cashews, 360 ml vegetable stock, 15 g nutritional yeast, 1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard, 1 teaspoon dry English mustard powder, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon salt, black pepper, nutmeg
Put the green beans into a casserole dish then pour the sauce over the top and mix together.
Sprinkle fried onions all over the top (either homemade or shop-bought) and season with salt and pepper.
½ cup fried onions
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
Serve garnished with some fresh thyme or parsley sprinkled on top.
fresh herbs
Notes
If you use frozen green beans instead of fresh, they will cook more quickly so just boil for 3-4 minutes instead.
If you don’t have a high-speed blender, you will need to soak the cashews first, either in boiling water for 15 minutes or in cold water for 6-8 hours, then drain and add with the rest of the ingredients.
Go easy on the salt at first then taste and decide whether you need the full amount. All salt has a different saltiness. I use a Himalayan Pink Salt which is not very salty but yours may taste more salty. So start with half the suggested amount and then add more as needed. You can add more salt but you can't take it away!
You may not need the full amount of sauce. It depends on the shape of your dish. So just add as much as you like and save the rest for using with something else another day.