142: Fasolakia

It's hard to make big masses of things in tomatoes look good sometimes, but believe me- this is delicious. I think my goal is to learn all of the "things braised in tomatoes" dishes from cultures around the world, at least as an entry point into the flavors of their cuisine, as there's no way I can not enjoy that kind of dish.

This is green beans braised in tomatoes, and it's greek. Dill weeks become greek weeks, so it goes. I can't remember how I came upon this dish, but as soon as I saw it had a name on one blog, I googled it and opened up like four different recipes to see how it generally came together. One had sweet potatoes in it, which I might try one of these days. Anyhow, here's about what I did:

Ingredients (approx as always):
1 medium/large onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Pinch red pepper flake
1/2 tsp oregano (dried)
1 14ish oz can diced tomatoes (or a few fresh ones, I ate all mine this week like handfruit)
1 lb of green beans, ends trimmed, cut into inch or so pieces (minus snacks)
2 Tbs parsley, chopped
~1.5 Tbs dill, chopped
salt, pepper, olive oil as needed

That is what I added, next time I may go a little lighter on the herbage.

Start your onion in a pot with some olive oil with a little salt, saute until translucent, maybe getting a little brown. My pot was a little small so it was more a sweat than a saute. Add the garlic, pepper flake and oregano, stir until fragrant. Add your tomatoes and let em simmer a bit. Add the green beans, bring up to a simmer and let those go.

I think mine were in about 20 minutes before I added my herbage. Some recipes said to add it right when they come off the heat, some when you added the tomatoes- I split the difference. I went a little light, let them go another 10 minutes or so, then added a little more when I took the beans off the heat.

This was lovely with a little crusty bread. But I had already eaten all the things when I made this, otherwise there would've been an egg poached in it, or fried over easy on top. But that is what leftovers are for.