Casserole Rigmarole

Green bean casserole.  It’s not a dish as synonymous with Thanksgiving as, say, turkey or stuffing, but it’s fast becoming that way.  And if not seen as a traditional Thanksgiving side dish yet, it’s certainly a side dish that tends to find its way to table tops around Christmastime.

Ever since 1950— when the Campbell’s Soup Company came up with the green bean bonanza—people have turned green beans into a heaping health hazard.  Because nine times out of 10, when a dish is smothered in a white, creamy sauce, it’s loaded with calories.  And green bean casserole is no exception.

Consider the ingredients for a typical green bean casserole recipe that serves eight:  A little less than one stick of butter, half a cup of all purpose white flour, two cups of shredded cheese, onions that have been dredged in egg wash so the breadcrumbs will stick when they’re fried (bread crumbs that have high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, by the way), and two and a half cups of two percent milk.  Oh yeah, and about 32 ounces of green beans.

Normally, a heaping helping of green beans would be about 68 calories.  But by adding these fattening ingredients to the typically lean and mean green bean, the calorie count jumps to 300 calories, 18 grams of fat, and 51 milligrams of cholesterol!

Yikes!

Now, as I’ve said in my two other columns on Thanksgiving trap dishes, I really don’t have a problem with eating green bean casserole so long as it’s every once in a while.  After all, Thanksgiving is a time where we’re supposed to enjoy family and good tasting food.  But I’m also not blind to the fact that a lot of people want to maintain their weight loss and healthy eating goals, especially around the holidays when it can be so easy to cheat.

So with these people in mind, here’s a green bean casserole that’s a healthier alternative.  What’s more:  It’s all organic!

The Whole Foods Market green bean casserole recipe serves eight and it replaces white flour for whole wheat flour (while the recipe does call for ¼ cup of all purpose flour, using half a cup of whole wheat flour instead should work just as well if you’d rather use whole wheat flour exclusively), half a cup of buttermilk, whole wheat breadcrumbs, two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, one pound of green beans, uncondensed cream of mushroom soup and two large onions (thinly sliced).

By using these ingredients and a liberal use of seasoning (e.g. organic sea salt, pepper and cayenne), you’ll really save on the fat and cholesterol count—just six grams of fat and five milligrams of cholesterol per serving).

Granted, the calorie count is similar (340 calories per serving for this dish compared to the 300 for the other recipe mentioned), but the calories from this recipe are from quality ingredients and nutrients.  For instance, this recipe has 17 grams of protein compared to the aforementioned recipe’s 14 grams of protein.

By making a few ingredient substitutions, you can make every Thanksgiving Day offering a health haven.

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Sources
wholefoodsmarket.com
detnews.com
en.wikipedia.org