Fasolada in Greece is not a recipe for special occasions; it is the food that lands on the table on Wednesdays and Saturdays. White beans, tomato, carrot, celery — and at the end a pour of raw olive oil that turns a soup into a dish.
The word for it is ladero: “oily”. In Greek cooking it describes a whole family of dishes in which olive oil is not there to fry things in, but is the sauce. Cook fasolada with too little oil and you get a healthy bean soup. With the right amount you get what Greeks mean when they say “fasolada”.
Serves 4. 20 minutes of work, 12 hours soaking, 70 minutes cooking.
| Amount | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 500 g | Dried white beans (medium-sized, e.g. cannellini) |
| 1 | Onion |
| 2 | Carrots |
| 1 stick | Celery |
| 2 | Garlic cloves |
| 400 g | Chopped tomatoes or passata |
| 100 ml | Extra virgin olive oil |
| 1 | Bay leaf |
| 1 tsp | Dried oregano |
| 1 bunch | Flat-leaf parsley |
| — | Salt, black pepper, water |
Soak the beans in plenty of cold water for 12 hours. Not hot water, and not for an hour — soaked beans cook evenly, while unsoaked ones burst on the outside and stay hard in the middle.
Drain the beans, cover with fresh water, bring to the boil and let them bubble hard for 5 minutes. Drain that water. This is not superstition: it carries off some of the oligosaccharides responsible for the well-known effect afterwards.
Dice the onion, carrot, celery and garlic finely and cook in 3 tbsp of olive oil for 8 minutes until translucent. Do not brown them — fasolada should stay pale and mild.
Add the beans, the tomatoes, the bay leaf and 1.2 litres of water. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently for 45–60 minutes until the beans are soft. They should be soft, but still hold their shape.
Salt goes in at the very end. Salted early, the bean skins stay hard and you end up cooking far longer. Season with salt, pepper and oregano.
Take the pot off the heat and stir in the remaining 70 ml of olive oil raw. Do not let it cook again. This is exactly the difference between fasolada and bean soup: the oil should taste of olives, not be boiled with the beans.
Leave it to stand for 15 minutes, then serve with parsley and an extra tablespoon of oil per plate. Bread, olives and, if you like, a squeeze of lemon.
In fasolada the oil is not a side ingredient, it is half the sauce. It goes in raw at the end — which is why you taste all of it, with everything it has.
A fruity oil with a trace of bitterness keeps the sweetness of the beans and the carrot in check; a mild oil makes the soup interchangeable. We use our Koroneiki from the 500 ml bottle — this is one of the few dishes where an early-harvest oil genuinely belongs.
Three days in the fridge; it is better on the second day. It freezes well, in portions, for 3 months — add a splash of water and a little fresh oil when you reheat it.
Usually: too old, soaked too briefly, or salted too early. Old beans will never soften, however long you cook them.
It is not compulsory, but it makes the soup easier to digest and the broth clearer. We recommend it.
Yes, in this version. It is one of the few traditional Greek dishes that manages without meat, fish or dairy — which is why it counts as fasting food.
Fruity, medium intensity, and it has to go in raw at the end. A robust oil for the pan, an aromatic one for the pot.
