A Special Request and Pumpkin Pie Bites

Two days until Thanksgiving, and we got a special allergenista request for Green Bean Casserole, which was the 3rd most popular question asked to the Food Network about Thanksgiving! It’s going to take some time, but the results are well worth it if you are a fan of this dish. I have never had Green Bean Casserole, but I got lots of tasters sans allergies to let me know if I got it right.

Green Bean Casserole

This dish will take several steps including, making the cream of mushroom soup, making the fried onions and finally assembling and finishing the final dish, let’s get started.



Cream of Mushroom Soup
2 tablespoons oil
½ cup onion, diced
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
Kosher salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
¼ cup white wine
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons allergen free flour
4 cups chicken stock (use vegetable stock if you want vegetarian)

Take sauce pan and heat over medium heat.
Add oil and and heat another minute.
Add onions to pan and cook slowly until soft and translucent.
Next, you are going to add mushrooms, you may have to add in batches, if you put too many in at once you will steam the mushrooms instead of sautéing them.
As you finish one batch of mushrooms, remove and add another until complete, season with Kosher salt and black pepper to taste.
Once all mushrooms are cooked, add all back to the pan and add white wine to deglaze pan, cook until dry.
Add olive oil and allergen free flour, whisk for 2 minutes.
Slowly begin to add chicken stock and simmer for 20 minutes.
Place soup in blender and blend until smooth. Set aside.

Onion Strings
1 onion, cut in ½ and then into thin ½ moon strips
2 cups rice milk
1 cup allergen free flour
1 tablespoon thyme, minced
Kosher salt to taste
black pepper to taste
1 quart oil

Take onions and put in a bowl with rice milk and allow to soak for 1 hour.
Mix together allergen free flour, thyme, salt and pepper.
Take a large stock pot and fill with oil.
Bring oil to 365°F.
Take onions out of rice milk and coat with flour mixture.
Add to oil in small batches, large batches will lower the temperature of the oil too much and make the onion strings soggy.
Remove strings from oil once they are golden brown, place on paper towel to drain, add additional salt/pepper if necessary.
Set aside.

Finally, the end dish

2 pounds green beans, trimmed and cut in ½
2 tablespoons oil
1 red onion, diced
2½ cups cream of mushroom soup
Kosher salt to taste
black pepper to taste
French fried onions

Take a large sauce pan and fill with water 2/3rds, bring to boil.
Add green beans and cook for 2-3 minutes, until tender.
Immediately, immerse beans in ice water to stop cooking process, remove and set aside.
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Take a large saute pan and heat over medium heat.
Add oil and heat another minute and then add red onion.
Cook onion until soft and translucent.
Add green beans to pan and cook for two minutes.
Add cream of mushroom soup and thoroughly incorporate, heating thru.
Season with Kosher salt and black pepper to taste.
Top with French fried onions and bake in oven for 10 minutes.
Enjoy!

Now for dessert!

I had the most difficult time with a pie crust free of the Big Bad 8 and gluten, the crust is very delicate and falls apart easily. So I decided to rethink this recipe and came up with pumpkin pie bites – they are fun to make and the kids can help. Consider them pumpkin pie amuse bouche!

Pumpkin Pie Bites



Pie Crust
1½ cups allergen free flour
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons Earth Balance Soy Free Buttery Spread
6 tablespoons cold water

Sift all the dry ingredients together and place in a food processor.
Add buttery spread in tablespoon amounts to food processor, pulse twice.
Add cold water, a tablespoon at a time, distributing the water evenly throughout by pulsing after each tablespoon.
When the mixture sticks together, but is not doughy, roll out onto a table or pie mat dusted with flour. Roll until the dough is about 1/8” thick.
Use a cookie cutter to cut round bite sized shapes, makes about 20 discs.
Bake at 425°F for 10 - 15 minutes.
Set disks aside to cool.

Pumpkin Filling
1 can pumpkin
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1 cup rice milk
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon water.
1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Mix pumpkin, sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and milk together in a saucepan.
Heat mixture thru.
In a separate bowl, mix together corn starch and water until smooth.
Add cornstarch slurry to pumpkin mixture and bring to boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, set aside to cool.

Take pie crust bites and assemble on a plate.
Use a pastry bag to put pumpkin on discs or use a spoon if necessary.
Sprinkle top with powdered sugar.
Enjoy!