White broad bean salad (Salatet Fassoulia)

December 26, 2009  •  Category:

 

I don’t know about you but the last thing I want to worry about today is cooking something elaborate!  A simple and delicious and healthy salad of fassoulia or beans is the ticket! Just boil the beans or buy them canned and quickly whip up a lemon, garlic and olive oil dressing; throw a handful of chopped parsley and you are good to go. Plus you can serve leftovers as part of your mezze table, should you need to, as this salad is considered a mezze item. Now I realize for a lot of folks, freezing weather does not really induce one to crave a salad; no problem, just eat it warm!


These beans were harvested much earlier from our land in the Shouf mountains and frozen. Buttery and soft, it was a delight to eat them with a garlic-lemon dressing and  a copious amount of extra-virgin olive oil, also from our olive trees. Not to worry, you can have a wonderful meal with store-bought beans. Serve it with a nice chunk of feta cheese, some olives and bread and feel great.

TO MAKE THE DRESSING:

  • Juice of one or two lemons
  • Extra-virgin olive oil, double the volume of lemon juice
  • 2 or more cloves of garlic, mashed in a mortar with a pinch of salt

After mashing the garlic, place it in a bowl, add the lemon juice and mix well; add the olive oil and mix well to emulsify. Pour on the beans and add some chopped up parsley.

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Comments

9 Comments  •  Comments Feed

  1. Rosa says:

    A lovely salad!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

  2. Ivy says:

    The simplest food are the best. We call them fassolia in Greek.

  3. Azita says:

    these are my favorite beans. a simple light and healthy recipe!

  4. Murasaki Shikibu says:

    My grandma used to boil these beans for us in salted water and we used to just eat them. 🙂

  5. Ayline says:

    I love this salad. Robust flavors. Have you been able to find this fassoulia here in the US? My mom years for them and I want to get them for her.

    • Joumana says:

      Ayline: no, I can’t say that I have; here they are in season again and all the little grocers in the Chouf are selling them

  6. Andrew says:

    I had this salad at a Lebanese restaurant in New York and had to find the recipe. Thank you!

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