WHITE BEAN DIP WITH FETA CHEESE AND OLIVES

This is a great tasting dip, folks!  Its taste is amplified because it contains roasted a roasted shallot, some roasted garlic, plus the juice of a grilled lemon. 

Pulse a few beans in the food processor along with a host of flavorful Mediterranean ingredients and you get an extremely tasty, creamy and healthy dip! 

• Healthy because the dip is low in fat compared to most other dips out there. 
• Healthy because it's high in protein, calcium and fibre.  
• Tasty!!!  
• Spread the dip on toasted pita slices and you have an irresistible treat!  A really, really delicious and healthy treat!

This recipe is fast to make.  It took me about 20 minutes, and that included cleanup. Who doesn't love the dishwasher??? 

***Here is a tip about feta cheese and olives: 

As these are salty ingredients we Greeks always rinse some of the brine from them.

For the feta cheese: just place the cheese into a bowl and pour water over it. Change the water once or twice, drain, and you're done. The feta will be significantly less salty. If for dietary reasons you want to remove lots of salt from the feta cheese, you can let it soak in water. Experiment with how much time is appropriate for your taste and dietary needs. 

For the olives: they usually also need a good rinsing. Once the job is done, place them into a container and pour a combination of canola and olive oil over them. (Olive oil congeals in the refrigerator, so it must be mixed with another type of oil to keep it from solidifying). The oil should come almost but not quite halfway up the container. Cover, shake gently to coat all the olives and store in the refrigerator. This can be done with just about any type of olives except the sun-dried variety. Those don't get rinsed because they will absorb water and will no longer be sundried.

How to make white bean dip with feta cheese and olives:

Ingredients:

2 (15-ounce) cans white beans such as Great Northern  

5 cloves of garlic, roasted and mashed

1 shallot, roasted and chopped

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

black pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley 

3 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, save a few for garnish

the juice of one grilled lemon

1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives

8 ounces feta cheese

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

• Cut the lemon in half, brush each half with olive oil and grill. This can be done on the stovetop. 
• Drain and rinse the beans. Place them into the food processor and add the juice from the grilled lemon.   
• Add the roasted garlic, the roasted shallot, olive oil, feta cheese, rosemary, oregano, parsley and black pepper—no need to add salt because the feta cheese and olives contain enough of it.
• Blend in the food processor until all the ingredients are smooth and creamy.
• Add the olives and walnuts. Pulse a few times until they're coarsely chopped. Small pieces of each should be visible in the dip.
• Place into a bowl and refrigerate for 4 to 5 hours. The dip is better if it gets a chance to rest. And really, aren't we all better when we get a chance to rest? 

Take the dip out of the refrigerator and place it into a serving bowl. Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil on top of the dip. Decorate with a few rosemary leaves, and serve with your favourite crackers.  

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!

BORLOTTI BEANS IN A MEDITERRANEAN BEAN STEW (BARBOUNOPHASOULA)

Borlotti beans! Gentile's, my favourite grocer here in suburban Philadelphia, had them for sale. "Wow," I said to myself, "barbounophasoula!" I made a beeline for the display, got a  bag and filled it to the top. Since childhood, I've loved eating these beans! Cooked with olive oil and tomatoes, seasoned with parsley and bay leaf, they are so good, even children with finicky tastes will not refuse them. Or so I believe. The bean shells have a bright red colour, and I think it's the colourfulness of the crop that makes them attractive to children. That's how I learned to love them. I liked sitting in front of a table where the red borlotti beans had been scattered and helping to shell them.  

Cute!

Once the shells were opened, pearl-like beans spilled out, soft and fresh, their creamy flesh speckled with deep-pink markings. They were just beautiful!  

Of course, when cooked, the beans turned brown, but it seemed to me that the beautiful colours transformed themselves into tasty food notes that I just loved to gobble up. So I have always been excited about borlotti beans. The Greeks call them barbounophasoula, which I've noticed is quite a long word ... The word describes the appearance of the beans. "Barbouno" is taken from the word for red mullet, a fish that is very plentiful in Mediterranean waters and has the same red on white markings as the beans. "Phasoula" is the word for beans. Indeed, the common bean belongs to the genus Phaseolus vulgaris, and that is the genus that borlotti beans belong to. They are widely cultivated in the Mediterranean region. Italians love to cook them in "Pasta e Fagioli" and also include them in minestrone. We Greeks stew them with tomatoes in a sauce that turns luscious from the flavour of the bean liquor. I believe the best way to enjoy them is while they are fresh, so stock up when you can find them, shell them and freeze them for later use. Of course, they can be had dried, but the dried ones need to soak overnight before they're cooked. 

Borlotti beans are sometimes referred to as Roman beans, and they are related to cranberry beans but don't confuse them with pinto beans, which have a somewhat similar appearance but quite a different taste. Here is my recipe for borlotti beans cooked Greek style:

Ingredients:

About 2 pounds fresh, shelled borlotti beans
1 large red onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 bunch Italian parsley, chopped
1 can (15 ounces) diced tomatoes (it would be marvellous to use fresh tomatoes)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 celery ribs, diced
1 small pepper: use a hot pepper if you like, or use a sweet Italian frying pepper.
1 bay leaf
dash of oregano
salt and black pepper to taste
olive oil
2 cups vegetable broth
water

Directions:

• In a large pot heat the olive oil and sauté the onions and garlic. 
• Add the beans, mix, then add the celery and pepper and stir for a few minutes. 
• Add the tomatoes, the tomato paste, the parsley, the oregano, the bay leaf, the black pepper, and the vegetable broth. Mix well. 
• Add enough water so that the beans are covered by liquid. The amount of liquid should reach about 1/2 inch over the beans. How's that for scientific measurement?
• Bring to a boil, lower the heat to simmer and cover. Let cook for 45 minutes to an hour.  Check occasionally to make sure that not all of the liquid has evaporated. About 30 minutes into cooking, season with salt and drizzle some olive oil (3 or 4 tablespoons), over the beans.  
• When ready, the beans should be soft and most of the liquid should have cooked off. The stew is a stew and should not be soupy. You should have a  nice, slightly thickened sauce. 
• Remove the bay leaf, place the borlotti beans into a serving bowl, and bring them to the table.  They are ready to eat. I hope you enjoy them! 

Any leftovers? They'll make a great lunch! Mix them with fresh tomato and parsley and enjoy them on a slice of bread.

GREEK LENTIL SOUP (Fakés Soupa, Φακές Σούπα)

I have been trying to get around to making Greek lentil soup for a month now. Today was the day. I added lots of soup vegetables to compliment the lentils. I used parsnip and leeks which are not found in traditional versions of Greek lentil soup, but why not amplify its flavour a bit? The amount of tomato used depends on the cook. If you like a really strong lentil flavour, cut down on some of the tomatoes and tomato paste. The important lesson is that anyway it's cooked, lentil soup is always fragrant and tastes oh so good. 

Lentils are very high in protein, dietary fibre, thiamine and iron: they are a very healthy food. Before cooking them, be sure to soak lentils for about an hour. Soaking not only makes them softer for cooking, but also increases their nutritional potency. 

Ingredients:

2 cups green lentils

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, divided, chopped

2 leeks, washed very well, white and light green parts, chopped

4 or 5 cloves garlic, smashed, peeled, chopped…I love smashing garlic!

6 stalks celery, chopped

4 carrots chopped
2 medium size tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

optional - 1 parsnip, chopped very thinly, or better yet, grated 

4 tablespoons parsley, chopped

1 or 2 tablespoons tomato paste, depending on how "red" you want the soup to be

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (well, I may have used a little more) 

1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried Greek oregano  

6 cups of vegetable stock or filtered water, plus additional liquid  as needed

optional - vinegar to be served on the side 
optional - some grated Pecorino Romano cheese to top the soup if you're like me and do not like vinegar 

Lots of vegetables in this soup...  More than can be seen in the photograph! 

Directions:

• Pick over the lentils to make sure there are no small rocks or other debris mixed in.  Rinse them and place them in a large bowl.  Cover them with water.  Let them sit in the water for about one hour.  Drain and reserve. You'll notice that as the lentils soak and absorb water they will start to turn greener than they were in their dry state.
• Heat the olive oil in a large heavy Dutch oven and sauté one of the onions, the leeks, and the garlic for 10 minutes.  (You may think we are using a lot of leeks and onions, but you'll see that they will decrease in volume as they are being  sautéed). Turn off the heat. 
• Add the other onion, the celery, parsnip, tomatoes, carrots, thyme, and 2 tablespoons of the parsley. Mix well
• Add the drained lentils and mix well.  
• Add the liquid, the tomato paste, and the bay leaf.  Season with salt and pepper, turn up the heat and bring to a boil. 
• Cover, reduce the heat and simmer for about an hour. If the heat is on low and you are using a heavy Dutch oven, you don't even need to lift the lid and stir the soup. Just let it simmer.
• After an hour check on the soup, give it a good stir and add the oregano. Taste it and season with more salt and pepper if needed. It will probably need to cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.
• At the end of the cooking time add the rest of the parsley.  You may need to add more liquid to bring the soup to the consistency you prefer.

I served it with toasted olive fougasse bread.  It was bakery bought and  excellent!

• Serve the lentil soup hot.  Offer some vinegar at the table because it's a tradition to top the soup with vinegar. 
• This was a great Sunday dinner!  

CHICKPEA SOUP or GREEK REVITHOSOUPA (Ρεβιθόσουπα)

Revithia is the Greek word for chickpeas or garbanzo beans. I made revithosoupa for dinner today, and it was about time! We hadn't had it in a while; it was good to eat a simple, meatless, warm bowl of soup. Revithosoupa is a filling Greek soup that is a standard in the Greek cooking repertoire. Some versions are kind of plain, others like mine are well flavoured because I like to mix in spices and vegetables. Plain or spiced up this soup is good. It's the chickpeas that give it a lot of favour. Ideally, it should be made with dried chickpeas that have been soaked overnight in water and a little bit of salt. However, cooking it that way requires prior planning ... To make a quick revithosoupa, go ahead and use canned chickpeas. 


Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cans of 15-ounce canned chickpeas rinsed and drained.
• 1 large onion chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, diced
• 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 leek, white and light green part only, chopped
• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon dried mint or 1 teaspoon fresh
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 quart vegetable broth
• 2 cups water

Directions:

• Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot. Add the onion, leek, garlic, celery and carrots. Sauté until the onions are soft.
• Add the chickpeas, and stir them around for about two minutes or so and then season them with salt and pepper.
• Add the liquid, oregano, rosemary and mint. Bring to a boil and cover, then lower the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes.
• Add the parsley and lemon juice during the last 15 minutes of cooking. Serve while hot and enjoy!

JACQUES PEPIN'S THIRTY MINUTE CASSOULET

Old recipes can and should be adapted to suit today’s lifestyle. Here is a new and healthier version of cassoulet, the countryside classic dish from France: Thirty-Minute Cassoulet, adapted from Jacques Pépin's Fast Food My Way

I draw the line when it comes to making a traditional cassoulet. For one thing, the traditional version takes something like three days to prepare, and for another, it includes a liberal amount of duck fat plus the rind of almost a whole pig ... I'll pass.

Duck fat and pork rind were used in kitchens of centuries past. Caloric intake during those times was high, but people burned calories faster than we do because they were highly mobile and engaged in significant labour. The country folk who prepared cassoulet used fat as a method of preserving food plus they were careful to use all parts of any animal they slaughtered.    
Today’s lifestyle is different and comparatively more sedentary. Additionally, we are all of us aware of the health risks associated with eating foods high in fat content. There's just no need to cook like that anymore. 

Jaques Pépin, gentleman chef extraordinaire, offers us a recipe for a cassoulet that can be cooked in less than one hour. Convenient, tasty, and healthier. Thank you, Chef Pépin.

JACQUES PEPIN'S THIRTY MINUTE CASSOULET:

                                     

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound rolled shoulder ham (also called a daisy ham or Boston Butt), tough outer skin removed, cut into four pieces

1 pound Italian sausages, cut into 3-inch pieces

1 pound skinless chicken thighs

1 cup sliced button mushrooms

1 cup sliced carrots

1 diced onion
1 can (14.5 ounces/400 grams) whole peeled tomatoes, chopped

4 cloves garlic crushed

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves

2 bay leaves

2 cans (15½ ounces/450 grams each) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed 

black pepper

coarsely chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit /180 degrees Celsius.   
• Heat the oil in a large skillet and add the ham, chicken and Italian sausage.
• Cover and cook over high heat for 10 minutes, turning occasionally.
• Add the mushrooms, carrots, onion, garlic, thyme, and bay leaves. Mix well and cook for another 10 minutes.
• Add the beans, tomatoes and pepper 
• Bring back to the boil, cover, and cook in the oven for 30 minutes.
• At serving time, discard the bay leaves, cut the ham into slices and the sausage pieces in half, and arrange the meat on a platter with the beans.
• Sprinkle the parsley on top.

or FASOLADA IS GREEK FOR BEAN SOUP!

Fassolatha is the Greek word for bean soup. This traditional, rustic soup is a meal that is simple to make, easy on the budget, and big on deliciousness. A favourite winter food, it definitely warms one up on a cold day! 

Beans are very nutritious. They contain almost no fat, are high in protein, fibre, complex carbohydrates, and are a great source of calcium, potassium, B vitamins, and iron. How perfect is that? Considering beans were one of the first crops to be cultivated by humans, they have played an integral part in the development of civilization. 

Fassolatha is a staple in Greek cuisine. I would call it Greek soul food. I would also call it the Greek national dish. Greeks not only savour a bowl of fassolatha, but they also respect it! Stories of hard times abound in Greece, times when folk would have beans to eat and nothing else. For example, during the World War II years, people would stow away a sack or two of dried beans to make soup with. Cooked with just water and perhaps some dried herbs, those dried beans were used to produce meals that would help folks survive winter. My older relatives would often recount stories of their experience during the brutal nazi occupation of Greece, and they would tell me how they staved off starvation through a steady diet of fassolatha. My father has said that during the war, to have had beans to eat was like being rich with gold! 

Fassolada, a rustic and satisfying soup. There is nothing fancy about it but it's delicious and sustaining.

Of course, during those times the soup was made without any oil; there was no oil available, therefore Greeks used just plain water. My mother told me that she didn't see a single olive for all the years of the nazi occupation, something I find to be an unsettling fact in a nation that produces high amounts of both olives and olive oil. Regrettably, most everything produced by Greeks was appropriated by the nazis. And yet, and yet ... fassolatha kept the Greek population going and resisting. Thyme and oregano grew wild on the hillsides, and the Greeks would pick them, and they would pick whatever other greens grew wild, and along with beans, they would have a war-time feast. 

Unfortunately, famine still exists in the world, and there are people (even in the good old USA), who do not have the means to supply food for their family. Among all the inequities in the world, this is one of the most horrible and painful. 

I always have a certain amount of reverence and love in my heart when I make this soup. It is Greek soul food, and much like American soul food, it has been on the table in good times and in bad, in times of plenty and in times of want.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 olive oil
• 1 large onion chopped
• 3 ribs of celery, leaves included, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped 
• 1 bell pepper, diced 
• optional: a small hot pepper, sliced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 can whole tomatoes: I'll let you decide on the size of the can. 
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
• 2 teaspoons of dried oregano
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 1 pound dried beans which have been rinsed, soaked overnight, and drained 
• 6 to 8 cups water, and go ahead, substitute vegetable broth for some of the water, but make sure its salt content is low: beans will taste better when cooked fully before adding salt. 
• 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
• another 1/4 cup olive oil

Directions:

• In a soup pot heat 1/4 cup of olive oil and add the onions, celery, pepper, and carrots.
• Saute until the onions are translucent. Add the tomatoe paste and stir for about two minutes.
• Add the black pepper, thyme, rosemary, and oregano. 
• Carefully fold in the beans and the canned tomatoes.
• Add the 6 cups of liquid and bring to a boil. As the soup cooks, a certain amount of the liquid will evaporate. If you don't like a thick soup, you may need to thin it out with more liquid. 
• Lower the heat and simmer for about two hours: cook until the beans are soft. 
• It was my mother's idea to start using canned beans. It's faster and convenient she said, plus "if they already soften them for us, why should I bother soaking them overnight?" However, what really prompted her to start experimenting with canned beans was that the dried ones in the US do not have a flavour or substance similar to those in Greece. But somehow, the canned ones fit the bill perfectly. If you will use dried beans check the expiration date: when dried beans have been hanging on the shelf too long, they will never soften no matter how long they are cooked for. 
• About 10 minutes before turning off the heat add the parsley, the other 1/4 cup of olive oil, and salt to taste. Remember that salt always gets added last. 

Sometimes the soup is accompanied with lemon slices. 

Serve with some nice fresh bread and a salad, or ... Today, while the soup was cooking I decided to make some (Greek-style) empanadas for accompaniment. They turned out delicious! 

Greek-Style Feta Cheese Empanadas!

To make these empanadas you will need a package of ready-made empanada disks. A good brand to buy is the one from "Goya Foods," found in your grocer's freezer. There are ten empanada disks per package. Defrost according to instructions. 

Additional ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup of ricotta cheese
• 2 Kalamata olives pitted and diced (optional)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint 
• A little olive oil and some Pecorino Romano cheese
• Some water and a pastry brush

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350-degrees F/180-degrees C. 
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Make a cheese stuffing by mixing all the ingredients.
• Take an empanada disk and using a brush, wet its circumference with a bit of water.
• Place about a tablespoon of the stuffing on one half of the disk.  
• Fold over the other half, joining it to create a half moon shape. 
• The water you've used will make the two layers of dough adhere to themselves. Create a decorative edging using the tines of a fork. 
• Place the empanada on your prepared baking sheet 
• Repeat!
• Brush the tops with some olive oil and sprinkle Pecorino Romano cheese as a topping. 
• Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the dough develops a nice crust. 
• These are not traditional empanadas, but the combination of cheeses and the fact that they are baked and not fried makes them irresistible. They are reminiscent of a Greek tyropita.