Fasoulada 

(Greek bean soup)

Take a pound of white butter beans (the sort you get dried in a packet) 

Check them for stones etc and wash them.

Bring them to the boil and leave for a couple of hours to soak.

Drain the water away, and add fresh water (about a pint).

 Then boil them in a pressure cooker for 25 minutes (that is, at low heat 25 minutes after the pressure cooker starts whistling - which needs full heat for about ten minutes first).

 While that is happening, cut up some celery (Greek-style celery is different from English-style celery, you wouldn't eat Greek celery raw unless you had a gun to your temple, but I imagine English-style crunchy celery will do just as well, maybe better)

Add some:-

 parsley

 A couple of carrots (thinly sliced)

A couple of onions (thinly sliced)

3 cloves of garlic (keeps the vampires away).

A tablespoonful of tomato puree

Once the beans have done their 25 minutes in the pressure cooker, add the other ingredients, together with a very liberal dash of olive oil, a level tablespoon of salt, and some pepper.

  Also add more water - how much you add depends on how watery you want it to be (No...?!), you will have to judge by eye.

I also add several rings cut from a green chilli pepper to bring a flush to the cheeks - but that is a matter of taste.

 By the way, if you _do_ cut a chilli pepper, make sure you wash your hands _immediately_ afterwards, as if you absent-mindedly rub your eyes, nose or mouth you will spend the next half hour in dire agony - Mrs. Beaton never used to give advice this good... :))

  Anyway, pop the lid back on the pressure cooker and put it back on the full heat until it whistles, then 10 to 15 minutes on low heat.

Open the pressure cooker, and see if the carrots are soft. If not, boil with lid off on medium heat for another 10 or 20 minutes until they are.

 And that's bean soup, national dish of Greece (deux points). It should be accompanied by a retsina (ideally) or a white wine. If you have used a chilli pepper in it, it should also be accompanied by a wad of Kleenex...

Recipe supplied by:- Bryan Hollamby

Home / Main Page / Holidays / Rick's Page / Lorraine's Page / Recipes / Links