Alton Brown says that these are the “Best Ever Green Bean Casserole“.Sure, I agree. These indeed are the Best. I say it cos the hater in the house actually took 3 extra helpings of this recipe. But I would be damned to know how the heck the food network photographer/cameraman managed to take such a beautiful picture of this! I simply failed to capture the deliciousness of the dish with this photograph. Well it was 9 pm, was hungry, no time to take photo , blah, blah and blah some more. But the essence is, pls don’t go by the picture. Make it! Its good!

I, of course, had to tinker with  the recipe. I really did not do much, I promise. Just little here and there to enhance the nutrition a bit. I mean its the holiday season – no point in cutting out the good stuff (read “fat”), but it does not stop from adding more nutrition to the dish now, is there? The wee little that I changed was use Soy flour instead of all purpose flour, use Panko enhanced with Italian seasoning instead of plain, steamed the beans instead of boiling, cut down little butter with olive oil and made it into vegetarian by using vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. See not many changes. Now right to the recipe.

Preheat Oven to 400F. Rinse the beans in cold water

Trim and halve them. Then steam them for 5 minutes. Just to blanch them a bit. Plunge them in cold water to stop them from cooking further. Drain and set aside.

Combine the onions, flour, panko and salt in a large mixing bowl and toss until combined.

Coat a sheet pan with nonstick cooking spray and evenly spread the onions on the pan.

Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake until golden brown, approximately 30 minutes. Toss the onions 2 to 3 times during cooking. Once done, remove from the oven and set aside until ready to use. Turn the oven down to 400 degrees F.

My Notes (Important pls note):

The original recipe says the oven temperature should be 475F. After reading the comments in that recipe, I found that many had issues with the onions getting burned at that temperature and cooking it for 30 minutes. Keeping that in mind, I reduced my temperature to 400F but found my onions were browned and few were almost getting burnt within 10-12 minutes (not to even speak about 30 minutes. Only baking sheet with some black stuff would have been left if I had not checked!) So I think better safe than sorry. Keep at 350-400F and keep a look out at your onions. You want them crispy but not burnt!

Melt the butter and olive oil in a 12-inch cast iron skillet, if you have it. Non stick will do too. Add the mushrooms, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper and cook,

stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms begin to give up some of their liquid, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and nutmeg and continue to cook for another 1 to 2 minutes.

Sprinkle the soy flour over the mixture and stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute. Add the broth and simmer for 1 minute.

Decrease the heat to medium-low and add the half-and-half. Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally, approximately 6 to 8 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in 1/4 of the onions and all of the green beans ( if you have a Oven proof skillet). I transferred it into a separate bake ware. Top with the remaining onions. Place into the oven and bake until bubbly, approximately 15 minutes.

Remove and serve immediately.Inspite of how it looks, the onions were v crispy and that mushroom sauce is to KILL FOR! Yeh to Alton Brown!

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