(note…updating entry from 2007)
If you’re reading my blog, no doubt you love food and all the trappings that come with it. One of those trappings is grocery shopping and I still do get excited when a product or a particular produce appears in the stands.
If I was in Kansas, born a girl and had a little runt named Toto, I would jump up and click my heels in glee. Instead, I did the dude-thang and pumped my fist in the air. Runner (pole) beans are back!
If there’s a dish that’s made in every Greek household, it has to be Fassolakia. This is a braised beans dish that’s simmered in a pot and usually served as a vegetarian meal. If one searches on the internet or Greek cookbooks, you’re bound to find an array of recipes for this simple yet wholesome and delicious dish.
The main (and most important) ingredient in this dish are the fassolakia or beans. The particular bean used for this dish are known in Greek as Barbounia and in English they are known as runner (pole beans).
The runner bean is different from your regular bean. The runner bean is a broader, longer bean than the green bean we’re all used to seeing. It differs from the common bean in several aspects: the cotyledons stay in the ground during germination, and the plant is a perennial with tuberous roots (thought it is usually treated as an annual). The main difference between runner beans and plain ole’ green beans is…they are sweeter and tastier!
Before we get to the recipe, look for runner beans. This dish just isn’t the same with regular beans and it has to be one of the easiest and tastiest of the Greek “one-pot” dishes.
Fasolakia With Veal
1/3 cup olive oil
3 medium onions, sliced
2 lbs of fassolakia (runner beans), washed and ends broken off
5 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/2 bunch of parsley, chopped
4 Tbsp. of finely chopped mint
1/2 bunch of fresh dill, chopped
3 large ripe tomatoes, passed through a box grater (skins discarded)
1 kg. or 2 lbs. of good stewing veal, cut into large portion sized pieces
salt & pepper
2 large potatoes, skinned
- Using a pressure cooker, place your veal (season with salt & pepper) and enough water to cover your meat in the vessel. Close the cooker (according to manufacturer’s instructions), bring it to a whistle, lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Allow sufficient time for the pressure to subside, open your pressure cooker and reserve the meat and good veal stock.
- In the same pressure cooker (now you’re simply using it for braising), add your olive oil and onions and saute for 5 minutes to soften. Now add your beans, garlic, parsley, dill, mint, tomato and bring to a boil. Season with salt & pepper, cover the pot and lower the heat. Simmer for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, add your veal, some of the veal stock (depends how thick or thin you like your stew) and the potatoes and simmer for another 30 minutes. Adjust for seasoning and serve.
(FYI…no need for a knife here as the veal is fork tender, moist and flaky).
36 Responses
Thanks for visiting my post.
Great pics of your delicious meal!! :)
runner beans… ive never heard of them!
A delicious recipe as always Peter. When we lived in Ontario we used to grow scarlet runner beans up the decking. We loved the beans and the hummingbirds loved the scarlet flowers.
This is what authentic Greek food is all about. A staple dish in every Greek household. A slab of feta on the side and some good crusty bread completes this meal for me. Nice job!
K
I’ve always thought of them as Italian beans – I love them and always plant them. In late winter – early spring they are available in all of the markets here, the green bean is much less common – except in summer.
I just picked a basketful yesterday and hope to get one more before they quit producing…so I can try this! I’ll have to do it slowly in the oven though… Yum!
That looks tasty. I will have to look for fasolakia (runner beans) at the market this weekend. I like the sound of veal so tender that you don’t need a knife.
This looks awesome. I remember picking these beans for my mother who used them a lot, but not in this way (she wasn’t Greek either). Thanks for visiting my blog as well!
Just delicious. There is a restaurant here that serves a very delicious version of Fasolakia, and I love it.
You call them barbounia? What we call barbounia (barbunya in Turkish) is completely a different kind of bean. I’m surprised.
Burcu, Barbounia is the name given to these beans and red mullet (as do the Turkish, but why we call do very different foods by the same name is beyond me!
i’m so hungry. looking at this hearty meal is pure torture.
beans, potatoes, meat, garlic and tomatoes: how can you go wrong!
Hi Peter,
I will be trying several of your dishes this week. Today I made this one, but with beef, not veal. I’ve never had veal actually. This dish was excellent. Really scrumptious. Thanks a lot for teaching me how to use runner beans. I’ve always seen them in the supermarket and never knew what to do with them, so have never bought them till now! Yum!
Sharlene, runner beans are so much tastier that your regular beans.
I’m glad you enjoyed this dish, it’s one of my faves from when I was a kid.
Nice one, Peter, I’ll have to try this version.
This is an exactly like a recipe we make for string beans, but we don’t use dill. The potatoes really make it the best, don’t they?
Nice homey food, Peter. I love it!
We Greeks have a knack for cooking green vegetables within an inch of their life and somehow making them taste better. :) This is the kind of dish to me that tastes even better cold for lunch the next day, or strands of beans plucked right from the serving dish as dinner is being cleaned up!
Ok, I’m not being a smartass, but a few years ago, I grew these runner beans in my garden…I even took them to the county fair and won a blue ribbon! (My tomatoes? Not so good.) They are easy to grow, and you are right to be so excited. The dish is perfect. Your great cooking is only surpassed by your passion for good food…and why and how it’s so good!
Thank you for the introduction to a vegetable I haven’t tried before. I’ll be on the lookout for them.
Wow Peter that looks so good. Too bad I didn’t have this recipe yesterday. I hunted for a decent bean and potato recipe! I’ll try this next time!
Gosh, I have been craving this for awhile. I think I’ll bug my mom to make it. It looks fantastic!!!
Looks yummy! I LOVE runner beans!
Bravo Peter … your pics look exactly like my mom’s dish.
Paul
I would’nt need the meat at all, just a little crusty bread to sop up the juice! We always called them pole beans or Italian flat beans.
This looks wonderful! I’m not sure if I’ve had this specific type of bean, but I do enjoy green beans. With the fresh dill & mint, it’s bound to be delicious.
Yeap! Sounds great Peter! This bean looks like ours here.
The kind of stew I would have :D
Can I have mine with veal, please?
Oh, delicious! I could just eat that for breakfast right now.
i think in france they call it coco flat beans.;anyways staring at this veal dish makes me gain weight already!! it looks so succulent!! i cant get it out of my head!!:-)
You’re right, they must be great with or without the veal. My mom used to make fassolakia but without the dill and mint and I believe these are great additions.
It’s lunch time here and I would gladly eat this right now :)
So cool – I make a very similar veal dish sans beans that seems to braise forever (I don’t have a pressure cooker – will tell you about that another time – i’m way too dangerous with a toy like that). I’m going to have to try it with the runner beans which I adore.
The beans look so delicious. I have bookmarked it.
We grew our own pole beans for the first time last year, and loved them. I’ll bookmark this recipe for when ours come on line this year.
Oh, yum! I love fassolakia! I’ll try to find some in the market tomorrow so I can make this; my mouth is already watering.
Blather From Brooklyn
Peter,
This dish takes me back to my childhood!!!!
Yia mas!!!!!!!