My Big Fat Greek Bean Adventure

Spring holidays are normally a time to get together. I wish so badly that you could be here, welcomed with a hug and your drink of choice. Imagine an appetizer spread fit for an army. Dave Brubeck on the speakers. Comforting food smells emanating from pots and pans. Flowers. Fancy cutlery. Cloth napkins.

Instead, I have to hold onto this precious dream for a time when it’s safe to come out. In the meantime, we’ve held onto each other in our tiny kitchen. And gotten creative with limited ingredients. Grocery shopping remains a high-risk adventure that Guillaume bravely undertakes.

“They were out of dried beans...except for these,” he said a few weeks ago, handing me a sizable bag of large Lima beans.

Seeing them, I chuckled. Of course. The universe certainly has a sense of humor sometimes.

What now seems like a lifetime ago, I was living in Astoria, Queens, and attempting Rena Salaman’s recipe for baked gigantes in a light tomato-based vegetable sauce with dried oregano and thyme. These gigantic white Greek beans are creamy and delicious — when prepared correctly. I’d only ever had them in restaurants.

With the exact amount of dried gigantes from the closest Greek market, I followed the recipe precisely, including the overnight soak. Only they never really got tender during the stovetop cooking step, and instead of giving them more time in boiling water, I rushed them into the oven, thinking that baking would help. Nope. They were still crunchy.

Fast forward to a party at my old apartment in Gunbarrel, Colorado. The local Mediterranean specialty food store didn’t carry the beans so I bought dried gigantes from Greece online.

But something happened to them during the overnight soak. They shriveled in an odd way. Not so much shedding their skins as warping completely. I plowed ahead and made the dish, but the entire texture was off. Online reviews I saw later revealed that others had the same issue.

And now, here we were with a big bag of large white dried Lima beans. They aren’t exactly the gigantic Geek ones, but a decent substitution. There was only one thing to do.

Guillaume has been transforming dried beans in his pressure cooker for years. Making black beans was one of the first things he tried when he first bought a pressure cooker. Fortunately the Bob’s Red Mill large Lima bean package had stovetop and pressure cooker instructions.

We learned a couple lessons along the way. One, that removing the skins from the beans is easier to do after they’ve soaked overnight than after they’re cooked. And two, that they foam up a lot in the pressure cooker so adding a little oil beforehand might help prevent the hot water from spewing.

Even with those hiccups, the end result was delicious. The beans were tender and flavorful. We ate them as a main course for dinner with a side of feta and some crusty bread. It wasn’t homemade bread — my boule that day was an inedible disaster. But I still hope that someday it will work out. Going to take these beans as a promising sign.

Mediterranean Baked Beans
Adapted from The Greek Cook: Simple Seasonal Food

Serves four generously as a main course.

14 oz. dried large Lima beans
⅔ C. olive oil
1 Tbsp. neutral oil for cooking the beans
2 yellow onions (approx. 300g)
1 celery stick
2 carrots
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 can crushed tomatoes (14 oz.)
1 Tbsp. tomato concentrate OR 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1¼ C. hot water
½ tsp. granulated sugar
3 Tbsp. parsley
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Special equipment: A 6-quart pressure cooker saves a lot of time, but the beans can be cooked in a large pot of boiling water on the stovetop.

The night before: Measure out the dried beans, place them in a large bowl, and cover them completely with lots of cold water. Cover with a plate or plastic wrap and let the beans to soak overnight. They expand like crazy — I used one of our largest glass mixing bowls and the beans were practically up to the rim by the morning.

Prep the beans: Remove all the skins from the beans before you drain them. It’s easier to do this prior to cooking them. The skins are kind of tough and don’t work well in this particular dish. (Don’t add salt to uncooked beans or it will negatively affect the texture.)

Update May 28, 2020: Despite removing the skins and adding oil, our pressure cooker still overflowed a bit. Be careful! Also 6 minutes produced better results than 7 minutes.

Cook the beans: Put the drained beans in a 6-quart pressure cooker with a tablespoon of olive or vegetable oil. Add water to the fill line. Bring to high pressure and cook for 6 – 7 minutes.

Alternatively, place beans in a large pot and cover them with water. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer, and cook for an hour or until the beans are tender but not disintegrating.

Drain the cooked beans and set them aside. At this point you can cover and store the beans in the refrigerator if you’re not making the dish right away.

Prep rest of ingredients: Remove the ends from the onions, peel them, and finely chop them. Set the onions aside in a bowl.

Trim the celery stalk ends and dice it. Peel and remove ends from the carrots and dice them. You want the celery and carrot pieces roughly the same size as the onion. Put these vegetables together in a bowl. Peel, trim, and mince the garlic. Rinse, dry, and mince the parsley.

Add 1¼ C. hot water to a glass measuring cup. Dissolve the tomato paste or concentrate in it.

Measure out the dried herbs. Measure out a generous teaspoon of salt and grind some black pepper in it according to your preference. Put the sugar into a small container. Open the can of crushed tomatoes.

Put the rack in the center and preheat oven to 350°F.

Assembly and baking: Add ⅔ cup of olive oil to a large high-sided nonstick skillet. This seems like way too much oil. Trust me, it’s right. Set heat to medium and, once the oil is hot, add the onions. Use a wooden spoon to make sure all the onions are evenly coated. Lower the heat slightly if they seem to be cooking too fast. Sauté until they’re translucent and golden.

Add the celery, carrot, garlic, dried oregano, and dried thyme. Stir to combine using a wooden or non-metallic spoon. Sprinkle lightly with some salt and pepper. Continue cooking for a few more minutes until the garlic gets aromatic and the veggies seem like they’re beginning to get tender.

Stir in the crushed tomatoes, cover the pan with a lid, and cook for 10 minutes. Lower the heat if it seems too bubbly.

Remove the lid, and add the tomato-water. Carefully tip the beans into the pan along with the minced parsley and granulated sugar. Season with the ground black pepper and teaspoon of salt. Stir to combine, taste for flavor, and add more seasonings if needed. Don’t be scared to add more salt. The beans can handle it.

Pour the bean mixture into a 9x13-inch casserole dish. Bake for 30 minutes. You can add more water if they seem like they’re starting to dry out, but I found that ours didn’t need it. You want the top of the beans to get slightly caramelized, deepening the flavor. Serve with crusty bread to mop up the juices.