Growing up, I was a very picky… I mean a VERY picky eater. Looking back, I feel like I made my mom struggle so much to make sure I get proper nutrition in me. However, I do remember loving her green been stew, also known as Fassoulia. My favorite part of the dish was the tomato juice that it was cooked in. I loved dipping my bread in the yummy tomato broth and getting to just eat full on bread alone. I feel like my kids have picked up on some of my bad habits but somehow feel proud of them.
This dish is definitely one of my childhood favorites and love to make it for my family. Luckily, my two girls and husband love it too.
Over the many times I have prepped this dish, I am pretty happy to how I have made the recipe fit to my own style. Although, the original recipe is as tasty, I just love to incorporate the addition of fennel into the dish. Also pre-boiling the beans seem to help with the cooking time and flavor.
There are lots of benefits to making this dish besides the fact that my family loves it. Anabelle and Ariana love to form an assembly line and help me with prepping the string beans and cleaning the garlic. Then the rest is pretty simple and the results take me back to my childhood. Here are the rest of the great features of this dish:
- Vegetarian/Vegan
- Healthy
- Kid Friendly
- Budget Friendly
- Can be made in advance and it tastes even better the next day
- Easy and Quick ( if you exclude cooking time)
- High Fiber/Low Carb
- Great flavor
Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 3 lb green beans, cleaned and cut in half if big
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 whole head of garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 fennel with stalk and strands, chopped
- 4 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp pepper paste
- 1 tomato, chopped
- water
- 1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped (optional)
- salt/pepper to taste
Directions:
Clean and prep the beans. Boil water in a 4 qt pot, add salt and beans to boil for 5 minutes. Remove and drain beans.
Cooking up the garlic, onion and fennel.
End Result of my favorite stew!
