Egyptian-style green bean stewfeatured
A couple of weeks ago we went on one of my favourite excursions. Grocery shopping in Queens. Yes, under the right circumstances, grocery shopping is one of my favourite things to do. I even chose grocery shopping in Queens as a birthday treat a few years back and couldn’t have imagined a better way to spend my day.
I stumbled on some long green beans, aka Chinese long bean, at Patel’s in Jackson Heights. Normally I would have passed right over these, as I’ve never cooked or eaten these. But my dear foodie friend Sahar of Sahar’s Plate had just posted a delicious recipe for these long beans, which in Palestine are commonly eaten and known as loobia, and I wanted to give them a try.
To Egyptians though, loobia are white beans. These long beans are not eaten in Egypt, though regular green beans are very popular and known as fasoolia. In Lebanon, fasoolia refers to the white beans that we call loobia, which means long green bean in Palestine, and Lebanese loobia are regular green beans. Confused yet? Me too.
Regardless of the endlessly confusing nomenclature of Middle Eastern dishes, I decided to give these a try and cook them the way I grew up eating green bean stew, Egyptian fasoolia.
For simplicity’s sake, I’m just going to call this Egyptian-style green bean stew. You call it what you’d like.
Your meat of choice is stewed until super tender in a richly spiced tomato sauce then green beans are added and cooked until just tender. Serve this over Egyptian rice and vermicelli for a super comforting and healthful dish.
Making Egyptian green bean stew
This stew is made by stewing meat until tender in a rich tomato-based sauce, before adding your green beans. Beef or lamb, boneless or bone-in, are commonly used in such stews, but my favourite meat to stew is bone-in goat meat, so that’s what I went with.
You can use whatever stew meat you like, and whichever green bean you prefer or can get your hands on.
For these long beans, I just had to trim them and cut them to my preferred size. Then I treated them just as I do regular green beans.
You will begin by stewing your meat with warm spices, onions, garlic, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes and carrots. Once your meat is very tender, you add the green beans and cook, until just softened while still retaining some bite.
A squeeze on lemon on top helps to balance the richness.
Serve over Egyptian rice with vermicelli for a super comforting meal.
Bel hana wel shefa! Enjoy!
Egyptian-style green bean stew
Ingredients
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb goat, lamb or beef for stewing
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 small onion chopped
- 3-4 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp allspice
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp coriander
- ½ tsp Aleppo pepper
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tomatoes chopped
- 1 cup carrots sliced
- 3-4 cups green beans, regular or long/Chinese about 3/4 lb – 1 lb, trimmed and cut to desired size
- ½ lemon juiced
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a pot on medium high heat for a few minutes.
- Season meat liberally with salt and pepper and add to pot. Sear on all sides until well-browned.
- Add chopped onion and spices, turn heat down to medium.
- Once onions have softened, add minced garlic and stir continuously for 2-3 minutes.
- Add tomato paste and continue stirring a few more minutes.
- Add chopped tomatoes and carrots.
- Add enough water to just cover meat, about two cups.
- Bring to a boil, cover pot and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook until meat is very tender. Cooking time will depend on your cut of meat. I used goat here and cooked for about 1.5 hours.
- Once meat is very tender, taste and adjust seasoning, then add green beans.
- Cover and cook until tender but not mushy, about 10 minutes.
- Squeeze lemon juice over stew, and serve with white rice or Egyptian rice with vermicelli.
