Fasolada: Niki Louca shares recipe for baked beans with tuna salad

Fasolada is one of those comfort foods that reminds us of grandparents, Greece, cold days, warm houses, fresh homemade bread – it embraces all those feelings of family and home.

My family and I would always have fasolada, and still do, with some sort of fish. My mum would usually serve it with shallow fried barbouni (red mullet) and homemade fresh bread. When she couldn’t get her hands on some fresh fish it would be with tinned tuna. I must admit, it is so much easier to prepare so over the years, I mostly serve it with tuna and occasionally I will serve it with fish – any fish you like (whitebait is also brilliant).

Niki Louca from My Greek Kitchen shares her favourite recipe which serves four with The Greek Herald. You can follow her on Instagram @mygreekkitchen for more!

Ingredients

• 6 big handfuls of dried white beans
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 medium size carrots
• 1 full stalk of celery, leaves included
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• Salt
• Water
• crusty break

For the tuna salad:

• 1 small onion – finely diced
• 1 tin tuna in olive oil (large tin)
• ¼ bunch of chopped parsley
• ½ lemon

Method

1. Soak beans from the night before.
2. In a heavy based saucepan add your soaked beans, olive oil, salt, tinned tomatoes and sliced carrots in the pot.
3. Top up with enough water to cover contents by approx. 3 cm.
4. Put pot with contents on medium heat till nearly cooked (approx. 1 – 1½ hours). Semi cover with lid.
5. Keep checking that the water level doesn’t drop too low otherwise the beans will burn. 
6. Add sliced celery, leaves and all – put lid back on and continue to cook (approx. 15 minutes). Once cooked adjust your salt if you’ve added extra water.
7. In the meantime, empty tuna contents in a small bowl, add finely chopped onion and parsley. Add a generous squeeze of a lemon and stir through.
8. Serve in individual bowls with crusty bread and a spoonful or two of tuna salad in the middle of the fasolada.

Niki Louca runs cooking classes in Melbourne. For more or to book classes visit My Greek Kitchen at www.mygreekkitchen.com.au or Instagram @mygreekkitchen. You can email Niki at: niki@mygreekkitchen.com.au.