A few weeks ago I posted a picture on Instagram after I was given some amazing sweet and crunchy green beans, wondering what to do with them. My good friend gave me her recipe for a Turkish dish called Taze Fasulye, so I decided to make it given I love Turkish food. Incidentally another foodie pal suggested making a Greek dish called Fasolaika and it turns out they are both pretty similar.
This recipe is so simple and tasty, with just a few ingredients you have a meal that is finger licking good, which is the essence of Mediterranean food. I like green beans which are flat as they are sweet and crunchy and retain a good texture when cooked. The regular rounded green beans will also work although will probably need less cooking time. This dish is usually served with rice but I think with the potatoes it has it can also be served as an all in one dish. The original recipe calls for 1 tbsp of Turkish red pepper paste (biber salçasi) which is simply red peppers cooked down and made into a paste, and whenever I go to London I like to buy a few jars and bring them over. However you can simply replace this by finely dicing a large raw or roasted red pepper (piquillo peppers work very well, use about 4 since they are quite small) and adding smoked paprika.
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Pin recipe Ingredients
- 500 g green beans
- 400 g new potatoes
- 1 large onion
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large red pepper + 1 tbsp smoked paprika*
- 200 g tinned tomato or 1 large tomato, diced
- 300 ml water
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 lb of green beans
- 14 oz of new potatoes
- 1 large onion
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large red pepper + 1 tbsp smoked paprika*
- 7 oz tinned tomato or 1 large tomato, diced
- 1¼ cups of water
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Finely dice the onion and gently sauté in the olive oil on a medium-high heat.
- If you have the red pepper paste add this to the onions once they are soft and continue to cook for a couple more minutes.
- If you don’t have red pepper paste then finely dice the red pepper (or piquillo peppers) and add to the onions and cook until they are soft and the oil has changed colour to orange and add the smoked paprika.
- In the meantime, wash the beans and remove the stalks and the stringy bits on the sides and snap them in half or dice them into 3-4 cm (1 to 1½ inch) long pieces.
- Add them to the pot and stir and put the lid on for a bit.
- Peel and dice the potatoes and add them to the pot and stir.
- Add the tomatoes, if using fresh cook until they have softened, otherwise stir and go to the next step.
- Pour water from a recently boiled kettle, enough to cover the beans and a little more (about 300 ml, or 1¼ cups in this case).
- Add some salt and black pepper to taste. When it starts to boil, continue cooking on medium heat. You’ll know it’s ready when you pierce the potatoes with a fork and it goes straight through.
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