Laziness Optimized Green Bean Casserole 2025-11-26

Description: A riff on the standard back of the can recipie that is dead simple to make

Reading Time: 3

Tags: food

I'm partway through reading the book You Gotta Eat recently, which is a tour-de-force about cooking with minimal effort. In line with these ideas, the following is how I've tweaked the traditional Green Bean Casserole recipe.

This tastes better and is easier to make than the recipes on the back of the mushroom soup or fried onion packaging. It's optimized for mixing all the ingredients together without pre-cooking the green beans, using minimal tools, and having few if any leftover ingredients.

(This is a double batch)

Time: 2 hours total, but only about 10 minutes of actual effort.

Servings: 10-12

Tools

• Oven
• 13x9 baking pan (I use a Pyrex one)
• Aluminum foil
• Mixing bowl or large (4 cup) measuring cup
• 1 teaspoon measuring spoon (optional, see below)
• Rubber scraper

Ingredients

• 48 oz of frozen french-cut green beans (3x 16oz, or 4x 12oz bags)
• 10.5oz can of condensed mushroom soup (Campbell's usually)
• 10.5oz milk (any kind)
• 1 cup Cheddar or similar shredded cheese (frozen is fine)
• 6oz container of fried onions (French's are better than generic)
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce (best) OR 2 teaspoons Soy Sauce (a single-serve takeout packet is about 1 teaspoon)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.

2. Empty the frozen green beans into the 13x9 pan. French cut are best as they cook faster. Sprinkle cheese on top and shake to mix in.

3. Empty the can of mushroom soup in the mixing bowl or large measuring cup. Scrape out last of the soup with a rubber scraper. Fill now-empty can with milk, empty into the same container.

4. Measure (or guess if grinding fresh) 1 teaspoon of black pepper into the bowl. Add either the Worcestershire or soy sauce into the bowl. This gives a good umami kick to the dish.

   Tip 1: A restaurant take-out packet of soy sauce is usually around 1 teaspoon in size, so use two or three of those if you have them handy.

   Tip 2: If you use soy and have fish sauce available, adding a half-teaspoon of that can also help with umami, but isn't strictly necessary.

5. Stir bowl ingredients with rubber scraper until mixed, pour over the green beans and cheese in the 13x9 pan. Container will be very full at this point, so be careful not to slosh liquid over the sides - wipe sides if this happens.

6. Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil, tenting it in the middle so it doesn't stick to the mixture.

7. Put pan in the oven for an hour, to cook the beans and let everything mix. You don't really have to wait for the oven to get up to temperature, just extend cooking time appropriately.

8. Take out of oven and remove foil. Mixture will be quite liquid/soupy at this point, but will have reduced in volume. Stir in half of the container of fried onions (which will thicken it slightly) with rubber scraper, then spread the rest of the onions on the top.

9. Return uncovered pan to the oven for 30 to 40 minutes to cook off some liquid - check periodically to make sure that the onions on top have browned but not burned.

10. Remove from oven, let cool slightly and enjoy!