A greek vegetarian dish of very tender yet still whole giant butter or lima beans, lightly bathed in a sauce of simmered tomatoes, vegetables and all the fresh herbs I have in my garden, but mostly accentuated with oregano and paprika.
I’ve made and published this recipe before, using the dry bean (or unsoaked method) and then boiling and cooling down with cold water method and reboiling again, to avoid breaking down the beans and keeping them whole (see old recipe here).
That method is appropriate for more fragile or lower quality beans. If you can get the beans from northern Greece, especially Kastoria or Presbes, then you can try this soaked bean method too, which is less complicated, but still requires long and gentle simmering time, as well as oven baking time, to make them just right.
This is a dish that you need to check on often, simply because the age of the beans can alter the cooking time from 30% to 50%. Older beans that were dried and packaged years ago will require more cooking time, while fresher beans, under one year old, will cook faster.
Either way, to get tender, melt-in-your-mouth beans that still remain whole, will require repetitive checking of the beans during the stovetop simmering time as well as when they are baking in the oven.
During the stovetop preparation, it will resemble a stew, but when transferred to the oven-baking dish, they will be spread out and laid flatter, to allow the liquids to be absorbed and also evaporate, for a denser finished result.
A guaranteed method to get perfectly tender and whole beans is to be gentle. Let them cook the time that they need and if possible, prepare the dish the day before and when they’re ready, just cover them again with aluminum foil or a lid, in a turned-off oven, after they’ve baked enough, according to your taste, and let them cool down in the still warm oven, similar to slow-braising of meats, until the next day and simply gently reheat everything.
A healthy preparation that is served warm as a main dish or in smaller quantities, as an appetizer or ‘meze’, at room temperature, that can be accompanied with bread, feta cheese or smoked sausages (for a less vegetarian version).
Let’s say it together : Fasolia (beans) Gigantes (giant) Plaki (flat or laid-out) … :)
