I cook every month with a group of talented bloggers. We are challenged with a concept and asked to remake it into a Five Star Makeover.
I was not happy this month with our mission to remake the green bean casserole that is typically served at Thanksgiving. The components of the green bean casserole are cream of mushroom soup, canned green beans, french fried canned onion rings. Frankly, there was a time I would use these “cream of ” soups to make dishes, but I abandoned that long ago, and I’ve opted for fresher ingredients, so even thinking about this casserole didn’t inspire me. But, not to miss a challenge, I knew I could find a way to make it my own.
The purist in me just wanted to roast onions, mushrooms and green beans together, making it a more farm to table dish. I did that twice, ate it all, but then thought I might want to still do something a little extra. I did what I always do when I want to make things special.
I get out the rolling pin. I made the same sage sprinkled pie crust I used in these little turkey pies. I used fresh green beans, fresh mushrooms, panko bread crumbs, Spanish onions and heavy cream. If you’ve ever caramelized onions in a frying pan, you know how good that is. Try adding in heavy cream at the end and take this to a whole new place. Heavy cream tends to just make everything better and you don’t need much.
This was put together without a real recipe, and you can play around with it. In retrospect, I could have added in a dash of nutmeg and used white pepper.
Of course, the beauty of a tart depends on a nice pie crust, and I promise you a perfect pie crust here. Just make a half recipe, and make sure you add in the chopped fresh sage (or dried) with the flour, before adding in the butter.
GET PIE CRUST RECIPE HERE. Make 1/2 and add in herbs with flour before you add the butter.
- Pie Dough (see link for recipe below)
- 1 cup fresh green beans
- grapeseed or olive oil
- 1 onion sliced
- 2 cups mushrooms sliced
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
- salt and pepper for seasoning
- few sprigs of fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ cup panko crumbs
- Steam green beans until softened (10 minutes) Plunge into ice bath to keep green color. Set Aside.
- In heavy frying or cast iron pan, saute mushrooms until golden brown. Remove from pan. Set aside. In same pan, add onions tossed with olive oil. Cook on low heat 20-30 minutes until softened and caramelized.
- You can make four small tarts, or one larger tart. Layer with onions, mushrooms, heavy cream, cream beans. Top with panko bread crumbs and bake for 20 minutes at 400 if making small tarts, 40 minutes if making one large tart.
Oh wow Angela! This is delightful…the crust alone is a must try! Really creative and delicious way to present for the challenge!
This is definitely more special than just roasted veggies. Really beautiful. Love the idea of adding cream to the caramelized onions. Also, looks like your site is back up??? Good news!!
i was totally going with the roasting route, i have never been a fan of green bean casserole! i still might try to get to it, with a goat cheese-roasted mushroom sauce?
Its looks wonderfully fresh 🙂 Im glad you stuck to your guns instead of bringing the cans out haha.
I am a tart and proud of it…LOL. This is really a fantastic idea and love the sage crust….
What a fantastic idea! And vegetarian 🙂 Will be trying it out some time for sure 🙂 Thanks Angela!
Hi Angela – so sorry you didn’t like the makeover idea. But look what you turned out, seriously beautiful! Exactly what a gourmet makeover is all about. Brava! Super creative, super inspired. Bet these would be a big hit on any Holiday table.
LL
Love it! Even though I don’t often take out my rolling pin, I’m a sucker for a savory tart.
I’m also fascinated with the idea of a touch cream to caramelized onions and will definitely try that one day.
Beautiful!! I must admit, one of my guilty pleasures at Thanksgiving is the green bean casserole made with canned cream of mushroom soup and those french fried onions!! I am soooo guilty. But this tart has opened my eyes. I want to try this recipe. xo
I love the idea of the tart with green beans! Sounds excellent with sage crust!
I love what you did for this makeover! You’re right, a touch of cream really is all you need to get big results. I also love that you’ve been enjoying roasted onion, mushroom, and green bean together – definitely going on my menu!
A fantastic idea! This tart look really good. A wonderful choice of toppings…
Cheers,
Rosa