Ina Garten’s Countdown to Thanksgiving Continues with This Chic Green Bean Side

We’ve been watching Ina Garten’s Instagram with bated breath ever since she announced that she’d be sharing a week’s worth of make-ahead Thanksgiving recipes. On Monday, she posted a pre-carved turkey and homemade gravy recipe. Yesterday, it was a drool-worthy mushroom-leek bread pudding packed with pancetta and Gruyère. Today, we feast our eyes upon a modern veggie side that blows the O.G. casserole out of the water: green beans gremolata.

“Thanksgiving classics always include green beans but instead of a green bean casserole, I make my Green Beans Gremolata with French string beans, garlic, lemon zest, Parmesan and toasted pine nuts,” Garten captioned the post. “They’re bright, crunchy and full of flavor. I prep everything in advance and reheat it before dinner. Is it Thanksgiving yet??”

Don’t get us wrong: We love a creamy, decadent green bean casserole. But there’s something to be said for substituting a lighter, more elegant vegetable side that won’t bog you down before you even finish your first plate. Garten also blanches the green beans (aka boils them, then transfers them to a bowl of ice water so they don’t lose their vibrant color), meaning they’ll be impeccably crisp instead of soggy and drenched in canned cream of mushroom soup.

But at the end of the day, what we love most about this recipe is that it can be made ahead and easily reheated right before the big feast (because you have bigger things—like roasting a whole turkey—to worry about).

Fingers crossed that the queen of chambray shares her go-to cranberry sauce or her favorite sweet potato recipe in the coming days. (Call us juvenile, but we hope there are mini marshmallows involved.)