Potato & Porcini Green Bean Salad (or Casserole!)

Last week, we were invited to a potluck dinner and asked to bring a hot vegetable dish.  I browsed through my recipes here and didn't see anything that jumped out at me as easy and fast to make enough food for ~20 people, so I started digging around on the internet again and found this recipe.  This might be one of the best simple recipes I've ever made.  I made the salad variant (5 ingredients total, and water and salt are two of them) for the potluck and then made the casserole variant (a whopping two more ingredients) last night.  While it might not be quite as complex of a flavor as my other green bean casserole, it also only takes a few minutes to make and is almost as good.  The dried porcini mushrooms give the entire dish a delicious flavor.  It's also a convenient and easy gluten-free and vegan recipe (unless you use turkey stock instead of water, which I might have done last night for the casserole version).  Enjoy!

Potato & Porcini Green Bean Salad (or Casserole!)

Ingredients:

• 1 ounce dry porcini mushrooms
• 1 cup water, boiling
• 2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed
• 2 pounds potatoes, sliced in 1" pieces
• 1 teaspoon sea salt, divided

To turn it into a casserole:

• 3 eggs, room temperature
• ¼ cup Grana Padana cheese

Directions:

1. Put the dry mushrooms in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and put aside for about 5 minutes.
2. In the meantime, trim the beans and slice the potatoes to size.
3. Pour the mushrooms and their liquid into the pressure cooker, then top with potatoes and sprinkle with half of the salt.
4. Next, put the steamer basket directly on top of the potatoes and fill with green beans and a sprinkle of salt.
5. Close and lock the lid of the pressure cooker. Turn the heat up to high and when the cooker reaches pressure, lower to the heat to the minimum required by the cooker to maintain pressure. Cook for 5-7 minutes at high pressure.
6. When time is up, open the cooker by releasing the pressure from the valve slowly.
7. Pour the beans out onto a large serving platter and, using a slotted spoon, pull out and distribute the mushrooms and potatoes. Mix lightly to incorporate and drizzle with a bit of the cooking liquid before serving.

To turn it into a casserole:

1. Instead of pouring green beans onto the serving platter, pour them back into the pressure cooker on top of the potatoes.
2. Mix in the eggs and tumble the whole mixture onto a wide and shallow oven-proof serving platter.
3. Sprinkle with Grana Padana cheese and slide under the broiler for about 5 minutes or until the cheese is fragrant and has just begun to turn golden.
   

Notes:
I used Parmesan cheese instead of Grana Padana and turkey stock instead of water.  

Comments

[Hippressurecook]

I looked at your fave recipe - and think you might like this more if you saved the cooking liquid from the beans/potatoes/mushrooms and made a roux out of it (using the cooking liquid instead of milk) - and maybe add a little crumbled garlic on the top, too!

Ciao,

L : )