Fasolada Recipe (Greek White Bean Soup)

Photo: White bean soup by goblinbox_(queen_of_ad_hoc_bento), CC BY 2.0. Placeholder until original photography is shot.

In short

Fasolada is a Greek soup of dried white beans simmered with onion, celery, carrot, tomato and a generous quantity of olive oil. Often called the national dish of Greece, it is naturally vegan and is thickened only by the starch of the beans themselves.

Fasolada is routinely called the national dish of Greece, and the claim survives scrutiny better than you might expect. It is what people actually ate, several times a week, for centuries, in every part of the country. It is cheap, it keeps, it is filling, and it is permitted during every fasting period.

It is also very easy to make badly, and the way it goes wrong is always the same: not enough olive oil and not enough time. Fasolada is a ladera dish. The oil is not a garnish, it is what turns bean water into soup, and it goes in at the start as well as at the end.

There is no stock in it. The liquid is water, and everything it tastes of comes from the vegetables, the beans and the oil.

Key preparation steps

Soak the beans overnight and simmer them in plain water first.
Build the base with a lot of olive oil, celery and carrot.
Add tomato only once the beans are tender.
Finish with raw olive oil and let it sit before serving.

Which beans, and do you have to soak them?

Medium white beans, sold as haricot, navy or cannellini. In Greece these are simply fasolia. Cannellini are the easiest to find and work well.

Soak them overnight in plenty of cold water. It shortens the cooking substantially and gives a more even texture. If you have forgotten, cover with boiling water and leave for an hour, which gets you most of the way.

As with all bean cookery, no salt and nothing acidic until the beans are tender. Salt early toughens the skins and tomato added early can stop them softening altogether.

How much olive oil?

At least 120 ml for six servings, and a good number of Greek cooks would use more. Half goes in with the vegetables at the start, and the rest is poured over raw at the end.

The oil emulsifies with the starch released by the beans and that is what gives fasolada its body. Without enough of it you have vegetables floating in cloudy water.

The final raw pour matters as much as the cooked oil, because heat drives off the fresh grassy aromatics. Use a good peppery Greek oil for it.

Getting the texture right

Fasolada should be thick enough that a spoon leaves a brief trail, but it is a soup rather than a stew. It thickens as it stands, so stop slightly looser than you want it.

The traditional way to thicken it is to crush a ladleful of the cooked beans against the side of the pot and stir them back in. That releases starch without turning the whole thing into a puree.

Cook it long enough that some beans are starting to break down while most hold their shape. Ninety minutes of gentle simmering after the initial boil is about right.

What goes with it

Bread, olives, raw onion and feta if you are not fasting. That is the traditional accompaniment and it is a complete meal.

Salt cod, bakaliaros, is the classic pairing on days when fish is allowed. A few drops of vinegar stirred into the bowl at the table is common and worth trying.

It is unambiguously better on the second day. Make it in advance if you can.

Tips from my kitchen

Boil hard for five minutes first

The initial hard boil and change of water removes compounds that cause digestive discomfort and gives a cleaner-tasting soup.

Keep the celery leaves

The leaves carry more flavour than the stalks. Chop them in with everything else rather than discarding them.

Finish with raw oil, every time

Cooked oil and raw oil taste different. The final pour is where the peppery, grassy character comes from.

Frequently asked questions about Fasolada

Is fasolada really the national dish of Greece?

It is very widely described that way, on the grounds that it was the everyday food of ordinary households across the whole country for centuries. There is no official designation, but the claim reflects a real place in Greek life.

Can you use tinned beans for fasolada?

You can, and it takes about thirty minutes. The texture is softer and the soup thinner, because you lose the starch released during long cooking. Crush more of the beans to compensate.

Is fasolada vegan?

Yes, entirely. It contains no animal products at all, which is why it appears throughout the Orthodox fasting calendar.

Why won't my beans soften?

Old beans, hard water, or salt and tomato added too early. Keep anything acidic out of the pot until the beans are already tender.