Gigantes (giant Greek beans) have to be my all time favourite comfort food. Living in Crete for three years confirmed my addiction to this Greek version of baked beans. Gigantes are usually serves as part of a mezze starter but make a great side dish too.
Gigantes (Giant Greek Beans)
The gigante is a type of bean. A great big enormous butter bean really. So if you can’t get hold of dried gigantes beans then don’t panic. Make do with butter beans or any other dried white bean really and you will get just as good a plateful of Greek comfort perfection.
This is basically baked beans in tomato sauce but Greek style and a whole lot tastier.
Two step recipe
As these are dried beans you will have to soak them overnight. Hardship I know, but, hell you can do this. I have every confidence in you!
Ingredients;
- 200g gigantes dried beans (or dried butter beans, or quite frankly any dried white beans will do)
- 1 carrot diced
- 1 stick celery diced
- 1 small red onion finely chopped
- 1 small leek finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- salt and pepper to taste
Method;
- Place dried beans in a pan and cover with cold water and leave to soak overnight
- Rinse the beans and place them in a pan and cover with water and bring to the boil then simmer for an hour at least, you want them tender
- Drain and reserve a cup of the cooking liquid
- Heat oil in a frying pan and saute the onion, celery and carrot for 5 minutes then add dried herbs and the garlic for 1 minute, set aside till beans are ready
- Pour the beans into an oven proof dish and add all the other ingredients plus the saved cooking water
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 30 minutes
Serving suggestion
Serve your gigantes (giant Greek beans) with some crumbled Feta and fresh dill on top and a drizzle of olive oil. You can serve these as a side veggie or as part of a mezze starter as they would do in Greece. Or you can be terribly British and serve them on toast, bloody marvelous. The Mediterranean diet meets the Great British nosh-up!
Kali Orexi!
Karon x
PS Here are some more of my favourite Greek mezzi recipes you might like to try;
Or just check out my entire section of Gorgeous Greek Recipes.
Gigantes (giant Greek beans)
Ingredients
- 200 g gigantes dried beans or butter beans
- 1 small carrot diced
- 1 stick celery diced
- 1 small red onion finely chopped
- 1 small leek finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- pinch of sugar
- salt and pepper to taste
- 400 g tinned tomatoes chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C
- soak the beans over night then drain and rinse
- Cover beans with water in pan boil then simmer at least 1 hour till tender
- Drain beans and reserve 1 cup of cooking liquid
- Heat oil in a frying pan and saute the onion, celery and carrot for 5 minutes then add dried herbs and the garlic for 1 minute, set aside till beans are ready
- Place the beans and all other ingredients in an oven proof dish and bake for approximately 25 minutes until everything is tender
- Serve with crumbled feta and a drizzle of olive oil
PIN ME FOR LATER
I used tinned beans for this recipe and was not disappointed. They are great on their own either as a light lunch, part of a meze or served on top of toast to soak up all the lovely juice. Well worth the time and effort but would make double amount next time so there is some left for the next day as it was just too good to leave.
Hi Sue
So glad you liked the recipe and that the tinned beans were such a success. Must say, Gigantes are the ultimate comfort food for me.
K x
Absolutely delicious and so simple to put together. I’ll be making this often.
Hi Christina
So glad it worked so well for you
K