Fasolatha (Greek white bean soup)

With this recipe you’ll be using dry beans, so for that you’ll need to soak the beans in water overnight, or soak them that morning if they’ll be soaking for at-least 8 hours.

To start cooking the soup, take a large pot, add the beans (not using the water you soaked them in), half fill the pot with water, till beans are covered) and bring the beans to a boil. Cook for 3-4 minutes and then drain beans in a strainer.

Add a little olive oil to coat the pot, add in the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano & thyme. Cook vegetables for only a few minutes to sweat it out and bring out the flavors.

Add the beans to the pot, add the water/broth, mix it up gently and bring to a boil. When that is at a boil, reduce heat to medium and let it simmer until beans get cooked and are tender, about 1 hour. (Soaking, boiling & rinsing them properly speeds up time.)

Add the bay leaf, fresh puree tomatoes, tomato paste & olive oil. Make sure there is enough liquid in the pot that there’s liquid covering, and a bit over, the beans. Season with salt & pepper, gently mix, with a wooden spoon.

Cook for about 1 hour 30 minutes more until soup gets nice and thick, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon so that the soup wont stick to the bottom of the pan. The olive oil works as a thickener, hence why it is important to use REAL olive oil.

Serve with fresh sliced bread and slices of feta cheese, this does not make it GF or Vegan anymore, but the soup alone is. People tend to serve this with a salty white fish, but you don’t have to. That’s traditionally used by Greeks for lent.

Ingredients

• 17.6 oz/500 grams dried Cannellini beans (use Great Northern Beans if you can’t find Cannellini) - Soak in water overnight or a minimum of 8 hours.

• 1 Large onion, minced

• 2 carrots, sliced

• 1 stick of celery, chopped

• 1 tablespoon oregano

• 1 teaspoon thyme

• 4-6 cloves of garlic

• 13 cups/3 liters water or vegetable stock

• 6oz/150 grams fresh tomato, grated

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

• 3/4 cups/150 grams extra virgin olive oil

• 1-2 bay leaves