Greek White Bean And Tomato Soup

Fasolatha is one of the most favorite wintry comfort foods in Greece. It’s a simple, healthy, easy-to-make white bean and tomato soup. Delicious and nourishing, all made from scratch using basic fresh ingredients. This old-fashioned Greek soup is made on the stovetop using dried white beans that have been soaked. We never cook using canned beans in Greece. In fact, I’ve never come across them in a grocery store either. They’re very old-fashioned when it comes to cooking in Greece. And they truly believe, that something that’s cooked from scratch, is always healthier.

Why Dried Beans?
It’s best to cook this soup using dried beans because you get a much more nutritious, thick, and creamy soup. Dried beans have more nutrients (protein, fiber, iron, potassium, and magnesium) than canned beans. Plus they don’t contain sodium. So you get to decide how much you add. Also, slowly cooking the beans from scratch means they release their starch into the soup. Yielding a thick and creamy soup.

Ingredients:
500 grams /17.6 dried Cannellini beans (or other small white beans)
2 ½ liters (10 cups) boiling hot water (or half water and half vegetable stock)
160 grams (1 large) onion finely chopped
1 bay leaf
2 carrots sliced ½ cm (¼ inch thick)
150 grams (1 + ½ cups) chopped celery (include some of the leaves as well)
150 grams (medium-large) extra ripe tomato hand grated, skin discarded
1 tablespoon tomato paste
160 ml (⅔ cup) extra virgin olive oil + a bit extra to serve with
freshly ground pepper
Optional: hot red pepper flakes or 1 small chili pepper

Instructions:
Prepare The Beans: Soak beans in plenty of water for about 1 hour at room temperature.
Half fill a large cooking pot with water and add the beans. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cook for 2-3 minutes and then drain beans in a strainer. Don’t rinse with cold water as this will make their skin come off.
Cook The Beans: Place beans back in a cooking pot. Pour in 10 cups (2 ½ liters) of boiling hot water or vegetable stock. Add the bay leaf, and onion. Season with salt and bring to a boil. Drop heat to low and simmer covered for about 1 hour. Add the tomato paste, grated tomato, celery, carrots, olive oil, and tomato paste. If using a chili pepper add it at this point as well. Season with ground pepper. Raise heat to medium and simmer covered for 30 minutes more. Giving it a stir every 10 minutes or so. Then raise heat to medium-high (keep it on medium if on a gas stove). Stir often until the soup thickens (see note 1 below). Let the soup stand for 15 minutes partly covered before serving to bring out its flavors and thicken even further. Serve with a drop of raw extra virgin olive oil, plenty of freshly ground pepper, and hot red pepper flakes if you want it spicy.

Notes
Note 1: If you want the soup extra thick and creamy, take a spoonful of the soup with a ladle and blend in a small food processor or add to a blender. Blend until smooth and mix it back into the soup.

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