GREEN BEANS STEW
This Middle Eastern one-pot dish usually called "fasoolyah" requires very few ingredients and is incredibly easy to make!
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, full
1 onion, thinly sliced
500g lamb shanks
2 tomatoes, chopped
One bag frozen green beans
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
1 garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons coriander, roughly chopped
PREPARATION
1. In a large cooking pot, over medium-high heat, sauté the garlic cloves and onion slices until soft and translucent.
2. Add the lamb shanks, searing them until they’ve browned, then add the chopped tomatoes, moving them around until they’ve softened.
3. Next, add the green beans, and pour boiling water over them until the liquid has covered the meat.
4. Add tomato paste, lemon juice, salt and pepper and stir to combine all the ingredients. Taste as you go, to make sure the flavor is to your liking. Add more lemon juice if you like it tangy or more seasoning if you like it to stand out more.
5. This step is more of a side note: I like to add a small teaspoon of white vinegar, just to get rid of any meat odor - but you may skip this step if you prefer.
6. Allow the water to come to a boil, then cover, reducing the heat and bringing it to a simmer for one hour. Check on it after half an hour, to make sure the water hasn’t completely evaporated. If you feel the water volume has reduced tremendously, add more water, cover, and let it continue to cook. The idea here is to have enough sauce remaining for it to be a stew, so water is important.
7. Once the hour is up, in a separate frying pan, sauté the coriander and minced garlic until fragrant, then immediately add it on top of the stew without mixing.
8. It is now ready to serve, and you can choose to have it with a side of rice, bread, salad or all three.
Notes:
Green beans are resilient, that is why they can be added to the stew early on in the process to cook with the meat. Other vegetables, such as okra or cauliflower are more likely to fall apart and would have to be added towards the end of the process for a quick boil before serving.
If using fresh green beans, you’ll first want to blanch them in salted boiling water until bright green (about 2-3 minutes), then move them to a bowl of icy cold water to stop them from cooking.
