Greek Gigantes plaki - Giant Beans in Tomato Sauce from the Oven

The large white beans of northern Greece are precooked and then finished in the oven in tomato sauce. They soak up the sauce and turn creamy - an effect the stovetop cannot reproduce.

• 2 hours plus Einweichzeit
• 6 servings
• Main course

• vegan
• gluten-free
• nut-free
• lactose-free
• folatreich
• kaliumreich
• plant-based
• vitamin-k-reich

Ingredients

• 600 g Tomatoes (peeled and diced, or tinned)
• 300 g White beans (weighed dry, soaked overnight; in Greece the large gigantes variety, calculated here with white bean values)
• 200 g Onion (in fine strips)
• 50 g Olive oil (generously - in Greece olive oil is not an ingredient but the foundation)
• 20 g Parsley (flat-leaf, chopped, half of it only at the end)
• 18 g Garlic
• 15 g Dill (fresh, scattered over only after baking)
• 5 g Salt (only after the beans have been precooked)

Instructions

1. Soak the beans overnight, drain and precook them in fresh unsalted water for 50 to 60 minutes. They should still have bite - they carry on cooking in the oven. Keep the cooking water.
2. Heat the oven to 180 degrees.
3. Sweat the onions in the olive oil for 15 minutes, letting the garlic cook briefly with them.
4. Add the tomatoes and half the parsley and reduce for ten minutes. Season with salt.
5. Combine beans and sauce in a baking dish and add enough of the bean cooking water to barely cover.
6. Bake uncovered for 45 to 55 minutes until the surface has taken colour and the sauce is thick. Scatter over the dill and remaining parsley and serve lukewarm.

Warum die Bohnen in den Ofen kommen

On the stove the heat comes from below and the beans must be stirred, which breaks them up. In the oven the heat comes from all sides, nothing needs stirring, and liquid evaporates from the surface - the sauce thickens while the bean stays whole.

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