Fasolada — Greek Bean Soup
The Greek white bean soup often called the national dish — slow-simmered with carrot, celery and a great deal of olive oil.
Method
- Drain the soaked beans, cover with fresh cold water and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, skim, then drain again. This first boil removes the compounds that cause indigestion.
- Return the beans to the pot with fresh water to cover by 5cm and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Add the onions, carrots, celery, garlic and bay leaf and continue simmering for 30 minutes more.
- Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste and half the olive oil. Simmer for a further 20 to 30 minutes, until the beans are completely tender and starting to break at the edges.
- Season with salt only now. Salting at the start keeps bean skins tough no matter how long they cook.
- Crush a ladleful of beans against the side of the pot and stir them back in. This thickens the soup naturally, without flour.
- Add the oregano and simmer for 5 minutes more, then taste and adjust the seasoning.
- Stir in the remaining olive oil off the heat — this final raw addition is traditional and carries much of the flavour — followed by the parsley.
- Serve hot with lemon wedges, olives, feta and bread.
How to make Fasolada — Greek Bean Soup
Fasolada is often called the national dish of Greece, which says something about a cuisine famous abroad for grilled meat. It is a plain bean soup, lifted by a generous quantity of good olive oil and the sweetness of long-cooked carrot and celery.
Salt at the end
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Beans cooked in salted water keep tough skins however long they simmer. Add salt only once they are tender, then taste again after ten minutes, since beans absorb seasoning slowly.
Olive oil in two stages
Half goes in during cooking and half is stirred through raw at the end. The raw addition keeps its peppery character and gives the soup its body and shine. This is not a dish to make with a thin drizzle.
Thicken with the beans
Crushing a ladleful of cooked beans and stirring them back in gives a creamy texture without any flour or cream, and keeps the soup looking rustic rather than smooth.
Serving
Lemon squeezed in at the table is normal and lifts the whole bowl. Bread, olives and feta make it a full meal, and fasolada is better on the second day.
Traditional Greek cookery; fasolada is a staple of fasting periods and winter cooking. Editorially researched from widely documented preparations, and not kitchen-tested by Axadle.
Naturally free from gluten, dairy, egg and nuts.
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