Green Beans in Olive Oil
The most classic of the Turkish olive-oil dishes: green beans cooked down with tomato and onion, eaten cool.
- Time
- 45 minutes
- Serves
- 4
- Level
- Easy
- Cuisine
- Turkish
Green beans in olive oil are a fixture of the summer table and probably the most frequently cooked dish in this family. The recipe rests on three ingredients — beans, tomato, onion — and it is precisely that simplicity that makes the fourth one, the olive oil itself, audible on the plate. There is no spice for it to hide behind.
The word zeytinyağlı in the name describes a method: the vegetable is cooked slowly in oil, releases its own liquid, and is then cooled before eating. Green beans served hot are a different dish; what this recipe is after is the texture that appears once it has cooled and the oil and tomato have run into one another.
Directions
- Heat the olive oil in a pan and soften the onions until golden.
- Add the grated tomatoes and cook until the liquid has reduced.
- Add the green beans and continue to cook for 5 minutes.
- Add the sugar, salt and pepper. Pour in the hot water and cover.
- Cook over low heat for 40-45 minutes, until the beans are tender.
- Let it cool to room temperature before serving. Excellent with rice or bread.
Tips & storage
Don't skip frying off the beans. The five minutes after the tomato liquid has cooked away coat the surface of the beans in oil and stop them collapsing later. Recipes that add water straight away give you boiled beans.
Grate the tomatoes, don't chop them. Grating leaves the skin behind; chopped tomato skin curls up as it cooks and stays in the mouth.
Sugar balances acid. A teaspoon does not sweeten the dish, it rounds off the sharpness of the tomato. If the tomatoes are very acidic, add half a teaspoon more.
Go easy on the water. The beans release their own liquid; too much water dilutes the flavour. Lid on, low heat, patience.
Storage. Three to four days in the fridge, and better on the second day. Bring it to room temperature before serving and pour over a little fresh extra virgin — which is where having stored the oil properly makes the difference.
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