Fasolada is the Greek bean soup that people outside Greece rarely meet and Greeks eat constantly: white beans, tomato, carrot, onion and celery, and far more olive oil than seems reasonable. Diane Kochilas’s version uses two thirds of a cup for six, half of it poured in after the pot comes off the heat, and that last pour is the point of the dish.
It also fits the Orthodox fast, mostly. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America lists the foods given up on fast days, “in order of frequency of prohibition, meat (including poultry), dairy products, fish, olive oil and wine”, while “fruits, vegetables, grains and shellfish are permitted throughout the year”. On the stricter days, then, even the olive oil goes, and fasolada with it. On the gentler fast days the church describes, food may be “cooked with olive or vegetable oil”, and a pot of beans in oil is exactly what a kitchen keeping those days reaches for.
- Warm half the olive oil and soften the dried onion and garlic in it for two minutes, without colouring.
- Add the drained carrots, the plum tomatoes crushed in your hand, oregano, chilli, pepper and 600 ml of water. Simmer 15 minutes.
- Drain and rinse the beans. Mash a ladleful of them to a rough paste and stir it in with the rest. Simmer 15 minutes more, until thick enough to coat a spoon. Add water if it gets too thick to pour.
- Off the heat, pour in the rest of the oil and the vinegar. Season with salt, then leave it five minutes before serving.
Serve with bread, and olives if you have them.
Serves 4.