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Greek style giant beans in tomato sauce

abbietaylor7
Oct 23, 2023
2 min read

Updated: Jan 3, 2024

Greek style creamy butter beans oven baked in a rich tomato and oregano sauce topped with melted feta cheese.

Creamy butter beans oven baked in a rich herby sauce topped with melted feta cheese.

I recently went on holiday to Greece and my favourite thing to do when on holiday is eat the local cuisine. This giant beans dish known as ‘Gigantes plaki’ was my favourite dish all throughout the holiday. This dish is super simple but packed full of flavour and nutrients. Naturally as I usually do when inspired by cuisine I had to recreate the dish at home. Most of the giant beans dishes I had in Greece came topped with feta cheese which obviously I had to ask to be made without as its not vegan so at home was my opportunity to have this dish with vegan ‘feta’ and let me tell you this levelled up a dish I did think could be levelled up. This dish is made with pantry staples and is super cheap- you may even have the ingredients in your cupboard right now so give it a go!

Ingredients and substitutes-

Butter beans- traditionally this dish uses Greek giant beans that are cooked from dry however I am using butter beans as they are readily available to me and are similar in size and taste. Feel free to experiment with beans in this dish.
Tinned tomatoes- fresh tomatoes can be used for this recipe. I would recommend tipping 600g of fresh cherry tomatoes into a baking dish that you can cover, salt them and drizzle olive oil and roast with the lid on until the tomatoes pop. Then mash the tomatoes and add the seasonings and beans and bake as the rest of this recipe states.
Vegan feta- this is not essential but gives a salty, tangy kick to the beans. I used violife "greek white block"
Oregano- the Greek love oregano and these tomatoey beans and oregano are a match made in heaven. You can use fresh but also dried is perfectly fine- just make sure you use plenty for that authentic flavour.
Extra virgin olive oil- An absolute staple of a Mediterranean diet- do not skimp on the amount of extra virgin olive oil you use in this dish.

Top Tips!

Perfecting the sauce

In the method section of this recipe I recommend the sauce to be simmered for 10 minutes however you may cook for longer for a deeper flavour. At this point you need to check the seasonings and make sure the sauce has a rich flavour and that the herbs and salt have developed the sauce (make sure it doesn’t just still taste like tinned tomatoes alone).

Beans adding

The beans are pre-cooked in this recipe so they need to be added after the sauce has simmered to stop them from going mushy, also try not to stir the mix lots whilst cooking let them sit in the sauce and soak up all of that flavour.

One pot

use an oven proof pan with a lid to make this dish in one pan and save on washing up!

And now for the recipe!

Greek giant beans in a herby tomato sauce

Serves- 4 Time- 1 hour

Ingredients-

720g or 3 tins cooked butter beans
800g or 2 tins chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp parsley
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
50g vegan feta cheese

Method-

1. Heat the oven up to 200C

2. Heat up a generous glug of olive oil and add in your diced onion. Fry this until softened then add in your mince garlic.

3. Turn down the heat to low and stir in all of the dry herbs, stir well to coat the onions in herbs.

4. Now add in your two cans of tomatoes and fill one up with water and add that.

5. Bring this up to a light boil and add the lid. Simmer this sauce for 10+ minutes until you’re confident the flavours have combined and the sauce doesn’t just taste like tinned tomatoes.

6. Now time to add the drained butter beans to the sauce. Stir gently and add the lid back on. Pop this in the oven for 30 minutes.

7. After 30 mins take the dish out and add your feta crumbled on top. Return to the oven with the lid off and bake for a further 10 minutes or until the feta has melted and started to go golden.

8. Sprinkle some fresh parsley on top and serve up straight out of the dish!

9. Serve up with some bread to mop up that leftover sauce and enjoy!

FAQ-

· Can you reheat this dish?- yes these beans reheat well as the flavour develops even more overnight. You could even make these a day ahead and leave in the fridge to reheat and serve the next day.

· What can I eat this dish with?- This can be eaten as a meal with some grilled veg on the side however if you fancy having a full Greek night have these as a side dish to a vegan gyros or souvlaki, I love to cook different country theme nights for my family!

Why not try these other bean recipes?