Greek Baked Beans – A Taste of Greece in a Bowl
Greek Baked Beans are a simple way to add more fiber and protein to your next meal. This recipe is quick and easy enough for a weeknight dinner but delicious enough for company. It’s also perfect for a meatless Monday, as it contains no meat or dairy products!
Here is one of the tastiest baked bean recipes you’ll ever taste, compliments of one of my wonderful readers, Debra! It’s ideal as a side dish throughout the year! This recipe for baked beans is different from the ordinary and could even make you a bean convert. For me, it worked! Super-healthy and very filling! Greek baked gigantes, also known as Gigantes plaki, is a traditional dish made of “giant” beans baked in a tomato sauce with lots of fresh herbs for a very distinctive flavor. It takes some effort to make this Gigantes dish, but it’s well worth it!
With a fragrant, rich tomato sauce, the beans will be cooked up creamy and soft. Try to obtain the actual gigantes beans at Greek or ethnic stores to make the authentic Gigantes plaki dish; if you can’t, use huge lima beans, elephant beans, or butter beans as a replacement.
Ingredients
- 1 lb. dried gigantes beans
- 2 onions
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup tomato sauce (or a can of chopped tomatoes)
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley (or more if you like)
- 1/2 cup chopped dill
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Place beans in a baking dish, and add olive oil, garlic, and salt. Mix well. Bake for 45 minutes (or until desired tenderness). Remove from oven, and serve with bread or pita chips if you’d like! Top with cheese if desired.
Tips
To ensure your baked beans are extra tasty, here are some tips:
Use a good quality tomato sauce. The better the quality, the better your finished product will taste!
Bake at a high temperature to get that caramelized outer crust on your beans—this is an important part of the flavor profile! However, don’t bake them too long—you want those creamy insides to still be intact.
Make sure not to overcook your beans so they get mushy (and yucky). Baked beans should have a nice firm texture when done in order to bring out their natural sweetness and rich flavors.
Use good-quality olive oil for sautéing; this helps add richness as well as aroma and flavor profiles that compliment other components such as tomatoes or balsamic vinegar.
Substitutions
There are a couple of other possible substitutions you can make to this recipe. If you do not have gigantes beans, you can substitute brown rice or white rice in their place. You could also use dried beans instead of canned ones if that suits your taste better. When making substitutions like these, keep in mind that they will affect the consistency and taste of your final product so start by adding a quarter cup at a time until it reaches its desired consistency!
Nutrition Info
One serving of these Greek Baked Beans has about 238 calories, 2 grams of fat, 17 grams of carbohydrates and 11 grams of protein. This recipe also contains a significant amount of dietary fiber (6 grams) and vitamin A (10% DV).
Enjoy this classic Greek Recipe as a filling vegetarian supper or as a delectable starter on crusty toast. Don’t forget to sprinkle some salty feta crumbles on top as a garnish. Greek baked beans are a delicious side dish that you can serve with Greek food. They’re easy to make and packed full of flavor! You can substitute your own favorite herbs and spices for these ingredients as well, so feel free to get creative!
