The everyday Greek bean soup: cannellini beans slow-cooked with carrot, celery and tomato, finished with raw olive oil and a hit of vinegar.
Prep
15 mins
Cook
45 mins
Servings
6
Per serving
£0.90
Difficulty
easy
Often called the national dish of Greece and made from almost nothing. The whole character comes from how much olive oil goes in and the sharp splash of vinegar at the very end, which lifts the entire pot.
Heat the olive oil in a large pan over a medium-low heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook for 12 minutes, stirring, until softening but not coloured.
Six tablespoons of oil looks like a lot. In fasolada it is the point, and the soup tastes flat and thin if you cut it back.
Stir in the garlic and oregano and cook for one minute, then add the tomato puree and let it fry for a minute until darkened.
Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for five minutes before any stock goes in, so they lose their raw edge.
Tip in the drained beans, the stock and the bay leaves. Season with the salt and pepper and bring to a gentle simmer.
Cook uncovered for 30 minutes, until the carrots are completely tender and the broth has thickened slightly from the starch the beans have given up.
Crush a ladleful of the beans against the side of the pan with the back of a spoon and stir them back in. This thickens the soup without a blender and keeps the texture rustic.
Remove the bay leaves. Stir in the red wine vinegar off the heat, then taste. It should taste bright rather than sweet; add a little more vinegar if it does not.
The vinegar goes in at the end, never during cooking. Added early it boils away and you lose the lift entirely.
Ladle into bowls, pour a generous spoonful of extra virgin olive oil over each, and scatter with the chopped parsley and any reserved celery leaves.