Creamy Green Beans and Mushrooms

Green beans, lightly boiled, then tossed with sautéed mushrooms and onions, held together with sour cream sauce.

By
Elise Bauer
Elise Bauer
Elise Bauer

Elise founded Simply Recipes in 2003 and led the site until 2019. She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University.

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Published November 19, 2011
Elise Bauer
Creamy Green Beans with Mushrooms in a bowl
Elise Bauer

Around holiday planning season a lot of people come to this site searching for green bean recipes. We have several, but most of them are geared to the summer, when we have a bountiful supply of fresh green beans.

I wanted to make something that would work well with fresh or frozen beans, so we could enjoy it during any season.

In this creamy green beans with mushrooms recipe, we first lightly boil green beans (I used frozen), then toss them with cremini and shiitake mushrooms and onions that have been sautéed in butter.

At the very end sour cream is added to bring everything together. If the sour cream seems odd, think of this as a stroganoff. With green beans.

Creamy Green Beans with Mushrooms in a bowl
Elise Bauer

Okay, I'll be the first to admit it. This is not the most attractive dish I've ever made. (The photo might be pretty, but that has more to do with the lighting than anything else.) In fact, I hesitated posting it, because, well, I like my food to look appealing.

But, you know what? It tastes great! Even reheated leftovers. So, here's my advice. Sprinkle it with lots of parsley and go for it.

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Creamy Green Beans and Mushrooms

Prep Time 5 mins
Cook Time 15 mins
Total Time 20 mins
Servings 4 to 8 servings

I used a combination of 3/4 lb of cremini and 1/4 pound of shiitake mushrooms for this recipe. The ratio of mushrooms to beans is 1:1. If you wanted, you could use all shiitake mushrooms, but use half as much, because they pack so much more flavor.

Prep mushrooms while salted water is coming to a boil in step 1.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound green beans, fresh or frozen, cut into 1-inch pieces (if fresh, remove ends, if frozen get pre-cut)
  • 1 pound mushrooms (cremini, button, shiitake), thickly sliced
  • Salt
  • 1/2 cup onions, chopped
  • 2 Tbs butter
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 Tbsp freshly chopped parsley for garnish

Method

  1. Boil salted water:

    Put 2 quarts of water, salted with 1 tablespoon of salt, in a pot to boil while you cut the mushrooms and onions.

  2. Dry sauté the mushrooms:

    Heat a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add the mushrooms to the pan and dry sauté them until they begin to release their water. Sprinkle them with a little salt. Once they have released most of their water, remove them to a bowl and set aside.

    put raw sliced mushrooms in a hot pan
    Elise Bauer
    cook mushrooms until they start to release water
    Elise Bauer
  3. Boil green beans in salted water:

    Add the green beans to the boiling water, and time them for 5 minutes, or until just tender. (No need to defrost frozen beans.)

  4. Cook onions:

    Add butter to the hot sauté pan. Once the butter has melted, add the onions. Cook until the onions are beginning to brown.

  5. Add green beans and mushrooms to pan with onions:

    As soon as the green beans are cooked just tender, strain them. Add the mushrooms to the pan with the onions, then add the green beans.

    add green beans to mushrooms in pan
    Elise Bauer
  6. Add sour cream, salt, pepper:

    Remove from heat. Stir in the sour cream. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Taste and add more salt if needed.

    add sour cream to green beans and mushrooms
    Elise Bauer

    Sprinkle with parsley and serve.