Gigantes Plaki. These are the famous Greek baked beans. The ultimate in Greek comfort food! We eat them all year long, and they are perfect as a side dish or the main course.
We use Greek gigantic or giant beans for this recipe, but if you can’t find them, you can use Lima beans or butter beans. The gigantic beans are just a little bit bigger.
Ingredients:
1 bag of Gigantes (Greek giant beans)
1 brown onion (finely chopped)
2 celery stick (finely chopped)
1 carrot (finely chopped)
1 clove of garlic
1/2 cup of Greek extra virgin olive oil
1 container tomato sauce
1 tbsp of tomato paste
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup chopped fresh herbs (parsley & dill)
1 tsp dry Greek oregano
Salt & pepper to taste
Directions:
Soak a bag of gigantes beans in salted water overnight, approximately 12 hours. These are gigantic beans, so they need longer soaking.
Drain and boil the beans in a pot of water till softened for an hour.
To a medium sized baking pan, add the chopped onion, celery, carrot & garlic tossed in olive oil. Add the tomato paste. Then add the beans and tomato sauce. Add a 1 1/2 cups of water. Salt, pepper, and a little bit of sugar.
Cover with foil and bake for 90 minutes at 350 F. Remove the foil , and add the chopped dill, parsley, and dry oregano, stirring them into the mixture, and bake for another 30 minutes, uncovered, so that the sauce will thicken.
Remove from the oven and then stir the beans around to distribute the sauce evenly now that the excess water has evaporated.
I love to squeeze some fresh lemon juice for brightness! It is soooo flavorful! Enjoy with some crusty bread & some feta cheese (if not fasting for Lent).
Kali Oreksi!
on xenia street 