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KO's Fasolia Fornou Plaki (Baked Beans)

These Greek Baked Beans are so delicious, so luscious and so good for you! 

Traditionally lima beans – ‘gigantes’ – are used in this dish, but I decided to use the humble cannellini bean instead. I feel the smaller size of the cannellini beans works in harmony with the other ingredients better. Try them and let me know your preference!

Course: Breakfast, Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine: Greek
Keyword: baked beans, beans
Ingredients
  • 250 g cannellini beans
  • 1 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), and more for drizzling
  • 2 medium-large brown onions, diced
  • 2 medium carrots, cut into half round slices (approximately 3mm thick)
  • 8 8 large sprigs celery herb, diced/chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tsp cracked black pepper
  • Fresh or dried chillies to taste
  • 600-700 ml passata
  • 400 ml water
  • 1 heaped tablespoon tomato paste
  • 4-6 tsp salt, (to taste)
Instructions
Preparing the beans

  1. Sort through the beans and discard any chaff or odd looking beans

  2. Place them in a medium sized bowl and add enough water to cover them 2-3 times

  3. Leave them to soak for 12-24 hours

  4. Drain and rinse them well before placing them in a medium-sized pot with enough water to boil them gently for 45-60 minutes, until they soften

Preparing the fasolia fournou plaki

  1. Add the oil to a large, heavy-based baking pan and heat on medium-high heat

  2. Add the onions and sauté till translucent

  3. Add the carrots and celery herb and sauté briefly

  4. Add the garlic, pepper and chillies in turn and stir through with each addition

  5. Add the cannellini beans and sauté briefly

  6. Add the passata and mix in well

  7. Add 400ml of water to the passata bottle, swish it around inside the bottle to capture any remaining passata and then add this to the baking pan

  8. Add the tomato paste and mix it through thoroughly

  9. Lastly add the salt and stir it through well

  10. Cover the pan with aluminium foil, leaving vents at both ends

  11. Place the pan in an oven pre-heated to 200°C and bake for 1 hour

  12. After 1 hour remove the foil and gently stir the baked beans

  13. Generously drizzle EVOO onto the baked beans and gently mix it through

  14. Bake the beans for a further 15– 20 minutes, till the edges darken a little

Serving the fasolia fournou plaki

  1. Serve the fasolia with crusty bread, feta and olives

  2. Kali Orexi!

Recipe Video

Key Points

 

  • Traditionally this dish is made with lima beans ‘gigantes’. You can substitute the cannellini beans with lima beans!
  • Depending on how ‘al dente’ you would like the beans to be at the end of the baking process, you will need to adjust the amount of time you boil them beforehand. If you prefer the beans a little firmer, boil them for 45 minutes. If you prefer they have a softer texture, boil them for 60 minutes.
  • If you can, do use ‘celery herb’ in this recipe. It adds such an incredible flavour to this dish. If you cannot find ‘celery herb’ you can use regular celery, just dice it quite finely.
  • The bottle of passata I used had a volume of 630ml. I used the entire amount.
  • The tomato paste is optional given the amount of passata used. If you prefer your beans to have a lighter tomato flavour, omit the tomato paste.