04 Feb Greek White Bean soup (Fasolada)
This winter my family and I happened to travel to snowy Utah, USA.
It was my first time there and we loved our new experience of snow tubing. We tried to build a snowman too but it wasn’t our thing. After playing with the snow I could not think of any better meal than a warm soup. A soup to warm us up and fill us with energy. The Greek bean soup fasolada.
This time I am making it with sausage and crumbled feta. If you want to avoid it is easy, just skip that step and have a vegan – vegetarian option of fasolada as originally is.
What we need:
- 500gr (1 pound) white beans, medium size
- 3 carrots, sliced
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced
- 5 cloves of garlic, sliced
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2- 3 bay leaves
- 1 whole red apple, saved
- 2 lt of water
- 1-2 beef sausages, sliced
- crumbled Feta cheece (to serve)
- dry oregano (to serve)
In a bowl, add the beans and fill it with enough water to completely cover them.
Allow them to soak for 8-12 hours or overnight.
Then drain the water and wash them well with very cold water.
Drain again and set aside.
Place a pot over medium heat and immediately add the sliced sausage and saute until it’s golden. Then remove and set aside. In the same pot add the onion, carrots, bell peppers and sauté for 15-20 minutes, until the vegetables soften while stirring occasionally.
When all the vegetables have softened, add the tomato paste and sauté while stirring. Add the beans, bay leaves, garlic and the whole apple. My mom’s advice to thicken the soup. We will remove it when the soup is done.
Add the water and cover the pot.
Simmer for 1 – 1 ½ hours.
Check on the soup from time to time in case a little more water needs to be added. If you do add more water make sure it is boiling so that the boiling process is not interrupted.
About 10 -15 minutes before the soup is done, add salt and pepper and cover with lid again.
When ready, remove from heat, remove the apple from the pot and discard.
Add the sausage and serve with extra virgin olive oil, feta cheese, oregano,salt and pepper.
Enjoy
Watch the recipe here:
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