Fasolatha is one of the most favorite wintry comfort foods in Greece. It's a simple, healthy, easy-to-make white bean and tomato soup. Delicious and nourishing, all made from scratch using basic fresh ingredients.
This old-fashioned Greek soup is made on the stovetop using dried white beans that have been soaked overnight. We never cook using canned beans in Greece. In fact, I've never come across them in a grocery store either. Except for these giant beans that are already cooked in a tomato sauce.
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We're very old-fashioned when it comes to cooking in Greece. And we truly believe, that something that's cooked from scratch, is always healthier. Now the only problem with dried beans is that they require quite some time (up to a few hours) in order to cook.
Why Dried Beans?
It's best to cook this soup using dried beans because you get a much more nutritious, thick, and creamy soup. Dried beans have more nutrients (protein, fiber, iron, potassium, and magnesium) than canned beans. Plus they don't contain sodium. So you get to decide how much you add. Also, slowly cooking the beans from scratch means they release their starch into the soup. Yielding a thick and creamy soup.
Cooking beans on the stovetop does take a couple of hours though. So if you don't have that much time to spare, you can always cook the beans in a pressure cooker. Just until they get tender and then finish off on the stovetop, along with the rest of the ingredients for the soup. Or you can use a slow cooker and slowly cook everything at once.
Pressure Cooker Instructions
- Bring beans to a boil along with 2-3 liters of water in a cooking pot.
- Cook for 3-4 minutes and then drain beans in a strainer.
- Add beans along with 1.5 liters of water in a pressure cooker and cook for about 20 minutes.
- Add remaining ingredients and simmer over medium heat while stirring occasionally until the soup thickens.
Slow Cooker Instructions
- Bring beans to a boil along with 2-3 liters of water in a cooking pot.
- Cook for 3-4 minutes and then drain beans in a strainer.
- Add the beans along with the remaining ingredients for the soup and 6 cups of water to the slow cooker.
- Cook for about 8 hours on low or 4-5 hours on high.
Other Traditional Greek Legume Soups:
- -Ancient Greek Lentil Soup
- -Vitamin-Packed Lentil Tomato Soup
- -Greek Chickpea Soup With Lemon & Oregano
How many times I've woken up on a cold & rainy wintry morning to hear someone in the family say -Now that's a day for some Fasolatha!
I don't know what is it with this soup that makes it feel so comforting. Maybe it's that nice and thick texture that's so perfect for dipping your bread in. Or maybe it's your body saying -Thank you for such a healthy and nutritious meal on such a bad day.
Whatever it is, it's one of the best and most nourishing meals to have.
How To Make Thick Bean Soup
To make a really thick Fasolatha you need some REAL extra virgin olive oil. If it's a good quality olive oil it will help thicken the soup. Extra virgin olive oil has a thick consistency that when slowly cooked, gives a soup a velvety thick texture. For best results, stir the soup often from the time you add the olive oil to it.
Here's a quality Greek extra virgin olive oil you can use. See also my post explaining how to skip fake olive oils.
What To Serve With Fasolatha
Now here's the best part of this delicious white bean soup recipe. The side dishes. Traditionally a Greek Fasolatha is served along with some salt-cured fish like sardines. This tradition goes way back to Ancient Greece.
Ancient Greeks used to make a salty sauce out of the innards of cured fish and use it to flavor all of their legume soups. Today we simply serve the salt-cured fish drizzled with olive oil and vinegar, as a side dish to this soup.
Fasolatha is also served with Feta cheese, olives, or even raw onions. In the Northern parts of Greece, you may even see this soup served with spicy Greek sausage. Since nothing goes better with beans than sausage!
Whatever you choose don't forget some rustic bread for dipping and a generous sprinkle of freshly ground pepper on top!
SIMILAR RECIPE
Greek White Bean Soup With Garlic & Lemon
A lemony version of Greek Fasolatha that's equally delish but also serves as the perfect base to incorporate some bacon, sausage, or your fave greens into it. Instructions for this are in the post. As well as instant pot + slow cooker recipe instructions!
Recipe
Fasolatha - White Bean And Tomato Soup
Ingredients
- 500 grams /17.6 dried Cannellini beans (or other small white beans) (soaked in water overnight)
- 1 large onion minced
- 2 carrots sliced
- 1 stick of celery chopped
- 150 grams / 5.3 oz fresh tomato grated
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 150 grams /5.3 oz olive oil extra virgin
Instructions
- Half fill a cooking pot with water and add the beans. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cook for 3-4 minutes and then drain beans in a strainer.
- Add all ingredients except the fresh tomato, tomato paste and olive oil in a cooking pot.
- Pour in 3 liters of water and bring to a boil over hight heat.
- Reduce heat to medium and simmer until beans get cooked and tender. It may take up to 2 hours depending on the variety of beans.
- Add the fresh tomato, tomato paste and olive oil. Make sure there is enough water as to cover the beans by ⅓. Season with salt and pepper.
- Cook for about 30 minutes more until soup gets nice and thick stirring occasionally so it won't stick to the bottom of the pot.
Nutrition
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This soup ended up being bland and basically all oil! I even used broth instead of water. Will not make again sorry
Simple, clean and rich! My family and I thoroughly enjoyed this soup. Thank you so much for the recipe. Your revithosoupa recipe was stellar as well. Take care and thanks again.
Not remotely enough tomatoes in this recipe to look like the image or be able to be called a predominately tomato soup. I had to add 3X, the amount. Not impressed with the ratio of items and lack of spices.
I tried this recipe and it was very bland. It tasted like water and oil. I ended up having to add other herbs and using stock cubes in exchange for the large amount of water used which I’m sure is the reason the soup was bland. It has a nice aroma in general but I had to add a variety of spices to really enjoy it.
You have to boil it more so it will be more velvet like sauce with bean not water with tomatoes
Can you do this recipe with canned white beans instead?
Never tried it myself but I think you can!
Made this soup, I did add a few fresh herbs from my garden that just enhanced flavor. It was very good, served with a warm crunchy sourdough garlic bread! Cant wait to try the butter beans!!
Crunchy sourdough garlic bread? You just made my stomach growl! Love the idea of fresh herbs as well.
I thought it was bland also with out any seasoning. I added about a tablespoon of Old Bay Seasoning...perfect add!
39g of fat per serving?!?!? Is that a typo?
My husband and I made this and really enjoyed it. My opinion is that homemade, whole food is healthiest. I think if you're craving more salt there is always the option of pairing with a salty fish; which I believe she suggested.
Thank you for the post. I'll enjoy exploring your site and trying a few more recipes.
Thank you, Caitlin. That's my opinion too and it's how most traditional Greek recipes are like. Nice to hear you enjoyed it 🙂
I'm afraid we found this to be very bland, which I'm not used to with Greek food. I doctored it up and it ended up fine. Sorry but this recipe as is didn't win us over.
That's all right. Glad you found the way to bring flavor to your liking 🙂
Looks delicious. Thanks for sharing your recipes and tips for slow cooker❤️
You're welcome Mimi 🙂
How much is 150g olive oil in volume measurements (tbsp, cups etc)?
It's about 1 cup.
250 gr is a cup
Why do you recommend grating the tomato? Mine just became a juicy mess
Because this way you get all the juice and flesh without the skin (that you would get if you were to use a blender).
Are the nutritional facts for the whole pot of soup? It just seems like a lot of fat and carbs per serving.
Just for one serving. There is plenty of olive oil used in this recipe. And every 100 grams of olive oil contain about 883 kcal. It is not an unhealthy fat though and it is not the same as consuming animal fat. As for the carbs, it's from the beans that also contain 132% of recommended daily dosage of fiber. So again they're healthy carbs not the same as carbs coming from bread for example.
790 calories?!
30 grams of fat Where does the sugar come from?
A serving?
Please explain.
TY
Olive oil has a high amount of calories. But they come from a healthy fat that your body is actually going to burn. There are 150 grams of extra virgin olive oil used in this recipe. If you divide it to 4 servings that's how you get the 30 grams of fat. As for the sugars other than refined sugar, there are also natural sugars found in fruits and vegetables like in the tomatoes for example. That's what it's referring to.
My thoughts exactly! I was certain a mistake had been made and that was the amount of calories and fat for the whole pot of soup. I keep coming back to this beautiful recipe but just can’t fathom having a bowl of soup that high in calories. I’m sure it’s delicious.
No seasonings for this soup?
Nope. The olive oil, tomato, and veggies give so much flavor to this soup that doesn't need any.