Green Bean Casserole

This green bean casserole recipe is an updated take on the classic dish. It's made from scratch with fresh green beans and a creamy mushroom sauce.

Green bean casserole is always on my family’s Thanksgiving menu, right alongside the mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. We, like many folks, made the version with Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup, French fried onions, and canned green beans for years…until I set myself the task of making a homemade green bean casserole from scratch. Let me introduce you to the results: this green bean casserole recipe. It stars fresh green beans, crispy baked onions, and a rich and creamy mushroom sauce that blows the canned soup out of the water. Once I tried it, I couldn’t go back to…

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Sautéed Green Beans

This sautéed green beans recipe is a delicious, quick, and easy veggie side dish! Lemon juice, garlic, and fresh thyme fill it with bright, zingy flavor.

If you need a last-minute side dish for the holiday, this sautéed green beans recipe would be perfect. It calls for under 10 ingredients and cooks in under 10 minutes (bonus: no oven required!), so you can whip it up right before you eat. But don’t let its simplicity fool you. This sautéed green beans recipe might be easy to make, but it’s still bursting with flavor. I sauté fresh green beans until they’re crisp-tender and vibrant green. Then, I toss them with a zingy lemon-Dijon dressing. It gives the beans a bright, garlicky bite, making them so delicious that…

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Three Bean Salad

This 3 bean salad recipe is a fresh, fun twist on the American classic! I toss fresh green beans, kidney beans, and chickpeas in a bold, tangy dressing.

Like macaroni salad and potato salad, three bean salad takes me right back to my childhood. It was something I ate at potlucks, picnics, and even the occasional school lunch. I remember liking the sweet and tangy dressing, but the mushy canned green beans? Not so much. So, to kick off picnic salad season this year, I’ve got a new three bean salad recipe to share with you. In many ways, it’s just like the one I ate as a kid. It features dark red kidney beans and hearty garbanzos, and it’s tossed in a punchy (though considerably less sweet)…

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Minestrone Soup

This minestrone soup recipe is a delicious version of the classic Italian vegetable soup. Serve it with crusty bread for an easy vegetarian meal!

Today, I have two goals: to bake a batch of Christmas cookies and to make a pot of minestrone soup. To me, the two go hand-in-hand. After I spend an afternoon baking (and eating!) something sweet, I want nothing more than a warming, nourishing pot of soup for dinner at night. I love this minestrone soup recipe in particular because it’s so satisfying, but still light and fresh. Onions, carrots, and celery add depth of flavor to its herb-flecked tomato broth, and starchy beans and pasta make it nice and thick. I toss in green beans for texture, and, as…

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Green Beans Almondine

If you love low effort-high reward recipes, you need these green beans almondine in your rotation. They're super simple and absolutely delicious!

If you’re not one for green bean casserole, add this glossy green bean recipe to your Thanksgiving menu instead! It’s my twist on green beans almondine, or amandine in French. Though it sounds fancy, this classic French side dish is really just green beans topped with sliced almonds. It’s remarkably simple and absolutely delicious. Green Beans Almondine Recipe Ingredients To make this green beans almondine recipe, you only need a few basic ingredients: Fresh green beans, of course! French haricots verts are best here, as they’re more tender than other varieties of string beans. Sliced almonds – Their nutty crunch…

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Vegan Potato Salad

This vegan potato salad is fresh and summery, with a bright lemon dressing and lots of crunchy veggies. A perfect side dish for a picnic or cookout!

I served this vegan potato salad at our Father’s Day cookout a few weeks ago, and it was a huge hit. My family loved it, even though it’s not at all like the classic potato salad they’re used to. Instead of having an ultra-creamy dressing, it’s tossed in a bright lemon vinaigrette. In addition to potatoes, it’s filled with herbs and lots of crunchy veggies. A drizzle of rich, tangy vegan sour cream takes the whole thing over the top. All together, this vegan potato salad is fresh, flavorful, and summery. It’s one of my favorite salads I’ve made this…

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Green Bean Salad

This green bean salad recipe is super easy to make, but it's still delicious and complex. It's perfect for the holidays or dinner any night of the week!

I am so excited to share this green bean salad recipe with all of you! I first made it way back in the summer, on a day when I had a gorgeous bag of string beans in the fridge. They were long, slender, sweet, and snappy, and I knew I had to find a special way to use them. Each year, I enjoy green beans throughout the summer and fall. But no matter what season it is or what dish I’m making, they always remind me of Thanksgiving and my family’s classic green bean casserole. So as I pondered how…

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How to Cook Fresh Green Beans

Learn how to cook fresh green beans perfectly every time! Serve them as a side dish, or add them to your favorite green bean recipes.

Nearly all of my fresh green bean recipes begin with blanching the beans. If you ask me, everyone should learn this method for how to cook green beans. It’s quick and easy, and it yields beans that are vibrant, crisp-tender, and not at all mushy. They’re perfect for serving as a side dish or adding to salads and sandwiches. Heck, they even make a great green bean casserole! Below, you’ll find a step-by-step guide to how to cook fresh green beans, as well as my favorite green bean recipes. They include ideas for Thanksgiving, summer picnics, and dinners all year…

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Nicoise Salad

You won't miss the tuna in this vegetarian spin on a Niçoise salad! Olives, artichokes, capers, and lemon vinaigrette fill it with bright, briny flavor.

I first fell in love with Nicoise salad when Jack and I visited the city where it originated: Nice, France. While we were there, I ordered it everywhere we went. There’s something about the combination of crisp summer veggies, bright lemon vinaigrette, and briny olives and capers that I find absolutely irresistible. As an added bonus, hard boiled eggs and potatoes make it hearty enough to be a meal on its own. And in the summer, anytime I’m eating salad for dinner, I’m happy. If you’re familiar with traditional Niçoise salad, you know that it’s made with tuna. Of course,…

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Vegetable Soup

Make this easy vegetable soup recipe with whatever veggies you have on hand! Nourishing and light, it's perfect for warming up on cold nights.

This vegetable soup recipe is cozy, healing, and warming. It’s just the thing for cold nights, days when you’re craving a healthy reset, or any time you’re feeling a bit under the weather. I first started making it years ago, when I was bouncing back from a cold and had a ton of random veggies in the fridge. Using the ingredients I had in my pantry—vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, dried herbs, and vinegar—I transformed this jumble of vegetables into an amazing soup! Since then, I’ve made it again and again, with a different mix of veggies every time. No matter…

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Vegan Pasta Salad

This vegan pasta salad recipe is perfect for picnics! A creamy, no-mayo tahini dressing coats curly noodles, summer veggies, and briny artichokes.

This vegan pasta salad is basically a big bowl of sunshine! It’s full of colorful produce, like cherry tomatoes, yellow squash, and green beans, and artichokes and olives add delicious briny flavor. To tie it all together, I make a tangy, creamy tahini dressing. Because this dressing is totally mayo-free, it travels extremely well. As a result, this vegan pasta salad is a perfect dish to bring to a cookout or picnic. It’s so fresh, vibrant, and fun that I’m planning to make it all summer long. Once you try it, you will be, too! Vegan Pasta Salad Recipe Ingredients…

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A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.