I love lathera! Lathera as I’ve mentioned before, are a whole category of Greek recipes where vegetables are cooked in olive oil and tomato along with herbs. We eat this as a main course along with bread and feta cheese. I would say that this is the secret weapon of the Greek diet, it is why Greeks consistently have the highest intake of vegetables (per person) in the world. These dishes are very filling, because you basically consume about 4 servings of vegetables in one sitting, plus the olive oil provides satiety.
You probably will have guessed this, but lathera are very healthy. Not only are they a vegetable based meal, they are rich in fiber, antioxidants, good fats, vitamins and they are cheap. One serving does not cost more than 2 dollars.
And yes, they are easy to make. Lathera are made with seasonal vegetables. For example in the winter a typical dish is cauliflower, in the summer green beans and okra are very common. But lathera are perfect for the summer, especially as the warm weather has us craving vegetables rather than meat.
We may not all have the time to find and clean fresh vegetables, so frozen can work fine. And if you do not have fresh tomato, you can use crushed tomatoes (look for BPA free containers).
This particular recipe is a classic. Green beans stewed in olive oil and tomato. Some people make them plain, others add potato and carrots as well. It is very easy, but the secret to making it delicious, is the olive oil. Do not -I repeat- Do not, try and make this with a few teaspoons of olive oil, you will need a half cup of olive oil per one pound of vegetables. Just to understand the importance of olive oil in these dishes, the word “lathera” means “the ones with the oil”. Not adding the olive oil will result in watery green beans that will taste bland. Olive oil helps bring out all the flavors and make this dish feel rich. You may be worried about calories, but remember that this is a main course and the rest of the ingredients pretty much have minimal calories so the result is a moderate calorie dish.
Ingredients
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 pound green beans
- 1 medium potato sliced (1/4 inch thickness-cut in half)
- 3 medium tomatoes grated or 12-15 ounces chopped tomatoes
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- fresh pepper
Instructions
- In a medium pot, heat olive oil at medium to low heat. Sauté onion until soft.
- Add potatoes and beans and mix until beans and potatoes covered with the olive oil. Heat for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, parsley, sugar and salt and pepper and mix.
- Add hot water just enough to half cover the beans.
- Simmer with the lid on for about 40 minutes (do not boil).
- The beans are ready once there is no water left and the beans are soft.
- Enjoy with bread and feta cheese
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Photos by Elena Paravantes © All Rights Reserved
59 Comments
Fasolakia: One of my favorite summer dishes!
Mine too!
And they are great cold!
Thanks Art! Yes, I forgot to add this in may post. Lathera are best served at room temperature.
Ill try it and let you know. Ive been changing our meals to more like greek and blue zone.
Looks delicious! Can’t wait to make it tonight!
Lots of great variations. Add chunks of chicken or lamb. This year I cooked lamb shanks in the tomatoes before adding the beans for Easter. We usually do a couple of legs on the rotisserie, but wanted something different this year.
Thanks for sharing. A common combo is okra with chicken.
Just put this on the stove with zucchini, red pepper and potatoes with the oil and tomatoes. I also added some dry dill . It’s really smelling good in here. Serving with cod!! Can’t wait.
Enjoy! Love the addition of red pepper, its almost like briami (Greek version of ratatouille)
My Dad made this but he also added a squeeze of half of lemon. Yummy.
Interesting, I’ll try that next time!
i have been eating this sice my childhood. One of my favorite dishes all year round. My mother used to add some garlic however and there were only one type of green beans, in those days, flat green beans, they call them in California Italian green beans for some reason.
Thanks for sharing Michael! We use those wide green beans too, we call them fasolakia platia (wide green beans).
I find it amusing how anything remotely ‘Mediterranean’ tends to be called Italian in the US lol (e.g flat leaf parsley is Italian parsley, mixed dried herbs are Italian herbs over there…)
thank you dear Michael…we cut them also in two vertically ,then into 2 horizantally…
but this loks great ..ı will try definetly …thank you for all your postings..
Fasolakia always reminds me of summer! This dish is a great way to use those garden fresh vegetables, especially tomatoes. I like to add fresh, chopped garlic to the dish, as well.
How does one grate tomatoes?
Not sure what a “medium pot” is, and I think I added way too much water, but this did turn out great. Very tasty.
You just use a grater, it will be pulp. It gets messy, but worth using fresh tomatoes if you have them.
A staple in my house when I was growing up sometimes my mother would throw in a few chunks of stew meat too. We don’t use sugar in our recipe …Either way a very delicious meal!
[…] you do this? Use the unique technique of cooking vegetables with olive oil and tomato (learn how to here). Greeks have a special category for these dishes known as the ones “cooked in oil”. Almost any […]
Have tried this for the first time today and love it. The Med. diet is the best thing for long life so they say. For my first attempt I added chopped garlic cloves a mixture of Italian herbs and some bell peppers to the beans with oodles of EVOO and a tin of chopped tomatoes. I also make my own 100% rye bread so with genuine Greek Feta this meal was a real feast par excellence!
Great! Thanks for sharing Roger.
[…] tomatoes or tomato paste play an important role in my kitchen. I occasionally will make Greek style lathera green beans and peas using frozen vegetables. At that point I will also use preserved tomatoes or tomato paste. […]
I cooked this recipe for dinner last night, however I used half the olive oil. I get not using only a few teaspoons of oil, but a half cup (24 teaspoons) seemed like a lot. So I decided to try 1/4 cup. I thought it came out just fine, still quite rich to me, and delicious. In fact, I thought 1/4 cup was almost a little too much. I asked my brother, who dined with me, and he said it was perfect. I ate every bite and still had a little oil in my bowl when I finished. Personally I can’t imagine having twice the oil I had in the finished dish, but I guess that’s just personal preference. It was delicious and I’ll be making this again perhaps trying other veggies. How about substituting half the green beans with artichoke hearts?
Hi Scot. Glad you enjoyed it. Yes, these dishes use quite a lot of olive oil, which provides flavor, richness and satiety, especially having it as a main course. Yes, the Mediterranean diet is not a low-fat diet, but as I mentioned this would be a moderate calorie dish. Traditionally, they actually used even more olive oil. If you get a chance again, make it with the half cup and see how it is. I’ve made it with 1/4 and with 1/2 and in terms of taste and texture there is a difference. Yes there should be oil left in the pot and dish.
Artichokes would work great. There is actually a Greek traditional dish with artichokes made with potatoes which I will share soon. Happy Holidays
Can l use honey instead of sugar in this recipe?, l am trying to remove refined sugar from my diet. Thanks
You could, although there really is no difference health-wise, all are simple sugars.
your explanation of the importance of the amount of olive oil used is invaluable. love love love the 411. thank youuuuuuu 🙂
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Love your blog and a lot of your dishes remind me of my Yiayia’s!
Fasolakia is one of my faves, but was surprised to see no garlic in your recipe. Any particular reason for omitting?
Thank you Libby. No particular reason. We did not traditionally use it, in this particular recipe.
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Is there a use for the left over oil in the pot?
When you serve it you generally do not strain it from the olive oil, there should be some olive oil in plate when served. Generally, if you want you can dip some bread in the oil, but you cannot re-use it for cooking purposes-
you can drizzle it on some bread.
Omg…..I just love these green beans.
Thanks Ricky! Me too!
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I made this tonight. Second time. It is SO good! It is even better the second or third time around!
Thanks Cynthia! I agree!
Amazing recipe! It really tastes like more than just the sum of its parts. I added a clove of garlic, but that’s all I changed. This is my favorite side dish ever.
Thanks!
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Made this for lunch without the sugar, totally delicious.
Hi Elena. I made this last week with our green beans fresh from the garden and some passata with one tomato. It was delicious both room temperature and cold on the next day. My question is do you think this would freeze well? I currently have lots of green beans (and my neighbour kindly gave me a big bag also).
Thanks for the recipes – we have enjoyed each one that I have made
Hi Susan. Yes, green beans will freeze well.