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
I have adapted for mung beans my mother’s simple recipe for lentil soup, a winter staple in our house for as long as I can remember. She added mustard to all the pulses believing that it helped tame the occasional digestive issues.
Somehow inspired by the bean’s origin I add turmeric and my mung beans became a richer and more flavorful soup than the original lentils, I feel! This is a very filling Vegan dish.
Serves 6 to 8
The soup is inspired by the description I found in an ancient text. Greek volvoi are no longer exported, so you can use the lampascioni from Puglia, either sold roasted or in vinegar. Alternatively you can substitute pickled pearl onions, avoiding the bitter taste… More about Greeks’ love of bitter taste.
Scroll down for the second day Pasta & Lentil I usually whip up with our leftover lentil soup.
See also the Lentil Soup with Pickled cabbage, and the Linguini with Spicy Lentils and Caramelized onions from my Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts.
Makes 4 servings (more…)
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
