In a rich tomato sauce scented with bay leaves, this simple vegan dish is part of the traditional Greek foods we cook during Lent, hence the late, brilliant Martin Brigdale chose to photograph it at Meteora, the breathtaking site in Central Greece for my first book The Foods of Greece.
Serves 2 as main course, and 4 as side dish
Athanasia Moraiti, my late mother in law, cooked the mottled fresh cranberry beans together with potatoes and peppers, a combination I had not considered until I tasted it, and loved it. I was under the impression that shelled beans and potatoes were not the best combination for a hearty stew, but I was wrong.
Fresh cranberry beans, called handres (beads), are sold frozen in Greece; they are delicious and cook very fast. Dried beans of any kind, not just cranberry, can also be used for this dish.
Feta cheese, with its salty-sour taste, complements ideally this as any bean stew.
4 servings
