Fasolada
This soup is often called the national dish of Greece, though it contains not a gram of meat. Its flavour rests on beans, olive oil and tomato, so all three must be good. Two rules decide the outcome: tomatoes and salt go in only once the beans are softening — the acid in tomatoes stops beans from softening — and the oil is poured in generously at the end, since it stands in for the fat that meat would give.
Your own work in that: 5 min.
- Soaking the beans 720 min
- Cooking the beans 50 min
- Vegetables 35 min
- Olive oil 5 min
- Resting the soup 15 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneSoak the beans overnight
Cover the beans with cold water three fingers above the grains and soak overnight. Beans roughly double in volume — with too little water the top layer dries out and stays hard after cooking.
Ingredients: 400 g white beans · 2000 ml water · 2 pcs bay leaves
Boil and discard the first water
Drain, cover with fresh water, bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes, then drain again. That water carries off the grey scum and some of the oligosaccharides responsible for wind — the soup comes out cleaner and easier to digest.
Ingredients: 400 g white beans · 2000 ml water · 2 pcs bay leaves
Discard the first water — with it the scum and the wind.Cook the beans with bay, without salt
Cover with fresh water, add the bay and simmer gently 40 minutes, without salt or tomato. The acid in tomatoes stops beans from softening — added too early, it leaves them cooking for a very long time and they may never soften fully. Salt also goes in later, as the soup reduces considerably.
Ingredients: 400 g white beans · 2000 ml water · 2 pcs bay leaves
Add the vegetables once the beans give
When the grains begin to soften, add the onion, carrot, celery with its leaves and garlic and cook 20 minutes. The celery leaves matter here — they give a herbal note the stalks alone cannot.
Ingredients: 2 pcs onions · 3 pcs carrots · 3 pcs celery · 4 cloves garlic · 300 ml passata · 1 tbsp tomato purée
Vegetables only now — and celery with its leaves.Only now the tomatoes and salt
Check that the beans are tender, and only then stir in the passata, purée and the salt. Cook a further 15 minutes until the soup thickens. Tomato purée alongside passata gives a depth of colour and sweetness passata alone lacks.
Ingredients: 2 pcs onions · 3 pcs carrots · 3 pcs celery · 4 cloves garlic · 300 ml passata · 1 tbsp tomato purée
Crush some beans against the pot
Crush a few beans against the side of the pot with the ladle and stir. The released starch thickens the soup without flour or blending — fasolada should be thick but with whole beans inside.
Ingredients: 400 g white beans · 2000 ml water · 2 pcs bay leaves
Pour in the oil without stinting
Off the heat, stir in 100 ml of olive oil and keep the rest to pour over the bowls. The amount looks large, but oil replaces the meat fat in this soup — with less, the soup comes out lean and flat.
Ingredients: 150 ml olive oil · 2 tsp salt · 1 tsp black pepper · 1 tsp oregano · 4 tbsp parsley · 1 pcs lemon
Oil in place of meat fat — do not stint on it.Rest a quarter hour and season
Leave the soup 15 minutes before serving — the flavours draw together and the oil binds with the broth. Season with pepper, oregano and parsley. Serve with a lemon wedge and, if you have them, olives and bread.
Ingredients: 150 ml olive oil · 2 tsp salt · 1 tsp black pepper · 1 tsp oregano · 4 tbsp parsley · 1 pcs lemon
Before you start
Small beans, not butter beans
Greeks use small white beans, which cook faster and break down better, thickening the soup. Large butter beans stay mealy inside, take noticeably longer, and the soup still comes out thinner.
Acid only at the table
Greeks squeeze lemon or splash vinegar into fasolada in the bowl. Acid added to the pot before the beans are tender stops them softening; added at the table it balances the oil and lifts the whole.
Four days in the fridge
Fasolada keeps four days in the fridge and is better on the second. It thickens overnight — when reheating, loosen it with boiling water, not cold. It freezes well; after reheating add a spoonful of fresh oil, as its aroma fades with long heating.
