There are few dishes as quintessentially American as the green bean casserole. With 10,000 inquiries every year, The Campbell’s Company says it’s their most requested recipe, by far. For generations, it has graced Thanksgiving tables, potlucks and Sunday suppers.
From potlucks to TikTok, Grandma’s green bean casserole proves comfort food never goes out of style. Photo credit: Depositphotos.
Creamy, crunchy and just the right amount of retro, this humble dish stands the test of time. While food trends come and go, your grandma’s casserole still gets a lot of things right more than you might think.
The origins of a classic
The story of green bean casserole begins in 1955, when Dorcas Reilly, a home economist at Campbell Soup Company, was tasked with creating a simple recipe that used common pantry ingredients. Her solution combined canned green beans, cream of mushroom soup and fried onions. The rest, as they say, is history.
What was meant as a convenience recipe became a cultural touchstone. Since 2014, Campbell’s estimates 20 million American households serve the casserole every holiday season. However, it’s not just nostalgia driving its staying power. The dish embodies a set of principles that resonate as much now as they did in your grandmother’s kitchen.
Affordable comfort food
In an era of rising grocery bills and economic uncertainty, the casserole feels surprisingly modern. At its heart, green bean casserole is about making the most of affordable ingredients: canned vegetables, pantry staples and budget-friendly proteins if you choose to add them.
Dishes like this work because they stretch what you already have. It’s not about being fancy; it’s about putting something comforting on the table without breaking the bank.
That pragmatism feels especially relevant for today’s home cooks, who are balancing tight budgets with the desire to eat well. The humble casserole reminds us that delicious food doesn’t need to be expensive or require a long ingredient list.
The power of familiar flavors
There’s a reason you can taste a bite of homemade casserole and immediately feel transported to another time. The combination of a creamy base, tender vegetables and crispy toppings creates a comforting trifecta of texture and flavor. It’s not gourmet or cutting edge. But it’s deeply familiar, and sometimes that’s exactly what we crave.
Food psychologist Dr. Charles Spence of Oxford University has written extensively about the emotional link between taste and memory. Holiday classics like the casseroles or homemade cranberry sauce carry flavor nostalgia, a sensory trigger that instantly connects us to family traditions and shared meals. That sense of continuity is something fast-changing food trends can’t easily replicate.
Efficiency and ease in the kitchen
One of the most overlooked aspects of Grandma’s casserole is its practicality. Everything bakes in one dish, prep time is minimal and cleanup is easy. For mid-century homemakers juggling work and family, that mattered. For millennials and Gen Z trying to squeeze dinner into a busy weeknight, it still matters.
Casseroles are the ultimate hack for busy families. You can prepare them in advance, reheat them, freeze them; they’re a gift to anyone who doesn’t want to spend hours in the kitchen. The humble casserole embodies this principle perfectly. It’s not elaborate or complicated. But it works every single time.
Adaptable, then and now
Your grandma may have stuck with the original Campbell’s version, but the beauty of the casserole lies in its adaptability. Today’s cooks are putting modern spins on the dish, from vegan cashew-based cream sauces to air-fried onion toppings for a lighter crunch. Fresh green beans and wild mushrooms have replaced cans in some kitchens, but the spirit of the dish remains intact.
On TikTok, you’ll find dozens of riffs, with home cooks swapping fried onions for panko breadcrumbs, making green bean casserole with cream cheese, or turning it into a full meal by layering in rotisserie chicken. The casserole was designed for flexibility, and that’s part of why it continues to thrive.
A dish that brings people together
At its core, casseroles are also communal. It’s not a dish you make just for yourself; it’s meant to be shared. Whether it shows up at Thanksgiving or a church potluck, it’s designed to feed a crowd. That social aspect is one of the reasons casseroles in general are having a resurgence, particularly among younger generations craving connection.
The greatest strength of the casserole is its ability to evolve without losing its essence. Your grandmother’s version may have relied entirely on pantry staples. Your version may feature fresh, seasonal produce and a homemade bechamel. Both are still instantly recognizable as the same dish.
That adaptability is rare in food culture. Some dishes seem locked in time, while others feel endlessly trendy but ephemeral. Casseroles usually live in the sweet spot between tradition and innovation. It offers the comfort of familiarity with enough flexibility to stay relevant.
Why it still matters
In 2025, when recipes go viral and disappear in weeks, the green bean casserole’s endurance is remarkable. It continues to resonate because it checks boxes that remain timeless: affordability, comfort, practicality, adaptability and community.
It’s proof that sometimes, the simplest dishes carry the most staying power. Your grandma’s green bean casserole may not be the most glamorous dish on the table, but it still gets the fundamentals of good cooking right.
So, when you spoon that creamy, crunchy goodness onto your plate this holiday season, know this: you’re not just eating nostalgia. You’re celebrating a dish that has quietly, and effectively, been meeting the needs of American cooks for 70 years. And that’s no small feat.
Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju is a food and travel writer and a global food systems expert based in Seattle. She has lived in or traveled extensively to over 60 countries, and shares stories and recipes inspired by those travels on Urban Farmie.
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