Green Bean Casserole

One nice lunch idea is a green bean casserole. I like green bean as a vegetable and I often cook it on the stove. But baking green beans with other vegetables and hot dog, covered with tasty bechamel sauce is among my favorite casserole recipes. Baking hot dog with vegetables is also a nice way to make the dish kid friendly and trick them into eating them.

INGREDIENTS:

500 gr. fresh or frozen green beans

1 potato (100 gr.), diced

2 carrots, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1/2 bundle of fresh parsley, chopped

5 tablespoons of basil tomato sauce

3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

1 big onion, chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

250 gr. hot dogs, sliced

For the bechamel sauce you will need:

4 tablespoons fresh butter or olive oil

4 tablespoons all purpose flour

500 ml. warm milk

50 gr. grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 ground nutmeg

Step one: Saute the onion and garlic on the olive oil, add hot dogs, carrot, potato, green beans, pepper and tomato sauce. Stir well for 2 minutes, turn of the stove, add the parsley, salt and pepper and leave it in the skillet until later.

Step two: Prepare the bechamel sauce. In a dip pan warm butter until it melts. Add the flour and stir vividlyuntil it is cooked and starts to change color. Add the mild gradually, stirring well to avoid crumbling. When the milk gets thicker add another quantity of the warm milk until it is finished and you have a nice, shiny , thick and smooth bechamel sauce in the pan.
Take it from the fire and add Parmesan cheese and nutmeg. Add a pinch of Kosher salt if you think it is needed.

Step three: Assemble the casserole dish. Take a baking pan. Pour the vegetables and hot dogs inside. Level them with a spoon, top it with bechamel sauce and bake in a preheated oven for 45 to  60 minutes (until the bechamel sauce  turns red) on 200 degrees Celsius 390F.

This green bean casserole is good to be served with white goat cheese or feta cheese and bread or some variation of flat bread as pita gyro on the side.
If you like basil, sprinkle some fresh basil leaves on the top.
And if you do not have basil tomato sauce, plain tomato sauce or fresh tomato is just fine.