Fasolakia: Greek Stewed String Beans

A few weeks ago one of the largest Greek Orthodox churches in Sacramento held their annual Greek Food Festival. We've attended the festival several times in the past. Although we didn't attend this latest one, my daughter and her boyfriend did. A few days later they brought us a Greek-style lunch and some goodies they got from the festival.

Sarah made some tabouleh and fasolakia to go with the loukaniko and psomi she bought at the festival. Loukaniko is a sausage flavored with fennel seeds and orange peel. My husband's favorite! Psomi is Greek peasant bread, baked in a circle and crusted with sesame seeds. We grilled the sausage, spooned mounds of tabouleh salad on our plates, served up the fasolakia, and cut up chunks of bread to sop up the sauce with. A wonderful meal!

About a week ago, I picked up some fresh green beans at the farmer's market and a rosemary foccacia bread. We had enjoyed the fasolakia Sarah made earlier so much that I wanted to make some myself. Friends of ours were coming over for dinner that night, so I wanted to somehow make the green beans into a one pot meal. I didn't have any potatoes on hand, but I did have some frozen skinless, boneless chicken thighs. I decided to add some chunks of sauteed chicken thighs to the green bean stew. I also didn't have any fresh parsley on hand, so I used about 2 tablespoons of dried parsley and added 1 teaspoon each of dried Greek oregano, dried mint, and dried dill weed (a classic Greek combo of flavorings). With the bread to dip into the flavorful sauce, I had a perfect home style Greek meal. This was the kind of meal my dad loved, with lots of vegetables & lots of broth.

A couple of notes: Greeks love vegetable stews. Their stews will often prominently feature one vegetable as opposed to an assortment of vegetables. Fasolakia features green beans. You could do the same thing, with the same flavorings, using all zucchini, or green peas, or even okra. Also, Greek people like their vegetables cooked all the way through. None of that crisp-tender stuff.

Here is the original family recipe with notations about making it low sodium. The combination of herbs made the sauce so flavorful that we didn't even miss the salt. Also, here is a video from the TV series we produced for our local cable access channel.

Fasolakia
(Greek Stewed String Beans)

A flavorsome combination of green beans stewed in a tasty tomato sauce. Simple, healthful, and delicious. A wonderful holiday alternative to the usual cream soup based green bean casseroles.

2 pounds string beans, fresh or frozen
2 onions, chopped
2 – 4 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup olive oil (I use about 1/4 cup now)
1 - 8 ounce can (no salt added) tomato sauce
¼ - ½ cup fresh parsley, chopped (I used 2 tbsp. dried parsley)
1-2 teaspoons mint (I used 1 tsp. each of dried mint, oregano, & dill)
2 potatoes, peeled and cut in 1-2 inch chunks (any kind of potato will work)
2 carrots, sliced
1 cup water or low sodium broth (I used low sodium chicken broth)
2 teaspoons salt (I omitted)
Pepper to taste

In Dutch oven, sauté onion lightly in olive oil. Add tomato sauce, string beans, and remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer over medium heat for about 60 minutes or until all vegetables are tender. Check after 30 minutes; add more water or broth if necessary. Serve hot or room temperature.

More Helpful Products

Why do I search out low sodium products? Because sometimes I need a break from making everything from scratch.. When you're on a low sodium diet, the quick fixes that others may turn to when pressed for time or energy, don't work for you. Take out pizza? Chinese to-go? Deli meats? Fast food? Frozen dinners? Canned soup? Nope! None of those time & energy savers are acceptable. So when I find a low sodium product that I can use, I grab it. 'Cause I never know when it'll come in handy.

Saffola Mayonnaise... There are some advantages to having store bought mayonnaise on hand. For one thing, it lasts a long time because of its professional canning process. And it's ready-made & convenient. Homemade mayonnaise is wonderful and is not difficult to make. It's great for when I'm going to use a cup or more at a time. But for quick swipes on sandwiches or brushing on chicken or fish before dredging in crumbs, I prefer to use an already prepared mayonnaise.

I've checked out the brands available online at low sodium web sites. Spectrum makes a 16 oz. eggless/vegan light canola mayonnaise that has only 65 mg. sodium per tablespoon. It's available at both Healthy Heart Market ($5.65) and Saltwatcher ($4.25). Saltwatcher also carries Spectrum Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise with only 30 mg. sodium per tablespoon ($6.99 for a 12 oz. jar -- pricey but low in sodium). Spectrum mayonnaise varieties are also sold in most health foods stores. The natural foods sections of my local grocery stores carry both the light and regular version. I'm not a fan of most low fat/low cholesterol products, and I'm not vegan, so the light version does not really appeal to me. The regular Spectrum mayo does not have a lower salt content.

Healthy Heart Market also carries Pacifica Culinaria Avocado Oil Mayonnaise. It has only 20 mg. of sodium per tablespoon, but it costs $10.50 for a 12 oz jar. That's a little too expensive for me. Saltwatcher carries La Costena Mayonnaise with Lime Juice. It has 65 mg. of sodium per tablespoon and costs just $2.75 for a 14 oz. jar.

Regarding grocery store mayonnaises, Best Foods/Hellmann's is pretty typical as far a sodium content goes -- 90 mg. per tablespoon. However I've found something that just about matches the more expensive Spectrum products and is available at ALL my local grocery stores. It's Saffola Mayonnaise with only 70 mg. sodium per tablespoon and coming in a 24 oz. jar. It's made by the same company that makes Saffola margarine and cooking oil. The company seems to be revamping its website & product line, so who knows how long the mayo will be available.

Smart Balance Unsalted 50/50 Butter Blend Sticks... I was updating my list of low sodium products the other day when I discovered that unsalted Saffola margarine was no longer available at my favorite local grocery store. So I studied the butter/margarine section to see if there was anything new to take its place. My eyes lit upon a new product from Smart Balance -- unsalted butter blend sticks -- 50% real butter & 50% Smart Balance Spread. It's supposed to be good for baking. Although I normally use regular unsalted butter, I bought some just for the heck of it.. One note, however: Apparently the unsalted variety is only available on the West Coast.

Dorot Cubes... These are wonderful teeny-tiny frozen cubes of crushed herbs. So far, I've only seen them at Trader Joe's, but they're great and super handy. I usually keep a couple of trays each of the crushed basil and the crushed garlic. The basil has about 10 mg. sodium per cube, while the garlic has about 20 mg. per cube. They are a product of Israel. When I'm in a hurry, it's so easy to pop a couple of the tiny Dorot cubes into whatever I'm cooking. Yes, I have fresh garlic on hand as well as frozen home grown basil leaves. But sometimes I don't feel like crushing garlic or chopping basil. I do have my lazy days!

Safeway Eating Right Frozen Dinners... OK, OK! I know frozen dinners are NOT good eating. But every once in a while I need help. I've looked at the Healthy Choice frozen dinners and ended up wondering where the "healthy" part was. The salt content is outrageous. But I'm always on the look out. You never know when some product might be low sodium.

A while ago, Safeway came out with an entire line of Eating Right products. For the most part they're low fat and some have added fiber. The problem with most so-called low fat/low cholesterol products is that in order to make them taste good, the salt & sugar content are increased. But I dutifully checked out the Eating Right frozen dinner options. Most of them have about 470 mg. sodium per meal. That's actually pretty good for a frozen dinner, but not good enough for someone on a low sodium diet. I did find two dinners that could honestly be considered low sodium: The Five Grain Chicken with Plum Sauce dinner has only 190 mg. sodium, and the Butternut Squash Ravioli dinner only has 330 mg. Not bad for frozen dinners. Both dinners have about 300 calories, so they're not exactly filling. They don't taste particularly special, but they're not horrific. They're only good for emergencies.

Sure Jell Premium Fruit Pectin... No, I don't use it for making jams or jellies. I mainly use it for salad dressings. For years I noticed that some recipes for homemade salad dressing mixes called for a bit of fruit pectin as a thickener. But I never paid much attention. Then a few weeks ago I read someone's hint about lowering the calorie content of bottled salad dressings by adding water. It didn't sound like a perfect solution to me. Yes, the calorie count would be lowered but the texture would be runny. I wondered about the Sure Jell thing. Could I lower the salt content of my husband's favorite salad dressing, Bob's Big Boy Blue Cheese, and still keep a good consistency? I decided to experiment.

I mixed two teaspoons of Sure Jell in 1/4 cup of water. I let it sit for a while and stirred until it was well combined. Then I stirred it into the jar of Bob's blue cheese dressing. I refrigerated it and tasted it about an hour later. The texture was just fine, not runny at all. And the taste was still very good.

Now I have a sure-fire way of reducing the sodium content of a salad topped with Bob's blue cheese. The first thing I do is dress the salad with a flavored olive oil, either garlic or rosemary. By pre-dressing the greens with an olive oil, the Bob’s Big Boy flavor goes a long way and I’m able to use less dressing. And since the dressing I'm using has had its sodium content reduced (thanks to Sure Jell), I'm better able to control the sodium content.

Smart Balance Smart 'N Healthy Microwave Popcorn... Most microwave popcorn is deadly. It's so salty that after just a few handfuls, my husband's feet swell up and fluid starts accumulating in his lungs. How do I know? Because a friend always brings some when he visits. A few times my husband joined him in snacking but no more. Even I can't eat the stuff. It's so salty that my mouth starts burning. Between the phony butter flavoring that congeals almost immediately and the humongous amounts of salt, I don't see how anyone can eat such a vile product.

But Smart Balance to the rescue again. Its Smart 'N Healthy microwave popcorn is pretty good: 1/3 of a bag is only 85 mg. sodium. And the good news is that I can find it at all my local grocery stores.

The Low Sodium Pantry: Vinegar

When you remove extra salt from your cooking, vinegar becomes a favorite friend. I always have at least five kinds on hand: Red wine, white wine, dark balsamic, white balsamic, and unseasoned rice vinegar.

The balsamic vinegars have a touch of sweetness, and the rice vinegar is very mild. Flavored vinegars are great too. I usually have some raspberry vinegar on hand along with Trader Joe’s Orange Muscat Champagne vinegar. Probably the most expected use for all these vinegars is in making salad dressings. That goes without saying.

Basic Vinaigrette

1/2 cup olive oil (Extra Virgin has a stronger flavor & will solidify when refrigerated)
3 tablespoons vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1-2 teaspoons honey
1 clove crushed garlic
1-2 tablespoons water

Combine ingredients in jar & shake or whisk together in bowl.

By changing the vinegars and/or oils, adding different herbs, using different sweeteners, or substituting different ingredients for the mustard & water, you can come up with a variety of flavors. For example, changing out just a couple of tablespoons of plain olive oil with a flavored oil will add an entirely new dimension. Similarly, using a flavored vinegar or citrus juice for the acidic ingredient will do the same. Instead of honey for the sweetening, consider using brown sugar, maple syrup, or even jams/jellies. Pepper jelly adds a nice combination of sweet & spicy. And ketchup or even mayonnaise can be substituted for the mustard.

I make a delicious & easy Raspberry Vinaigrette by using raspberry vinegar and Torani Raspberry Syrup in place of the mustard, honey, & water in the basic vinaigrette recipe. Many variations are possible from such a simple & basic recipe.

When making classic American potato salad, I toss the drained, warm potatoes with some of the basic vinaigrette (I usually add a bit more vinegar). It flavors the potatoes nicely and adds moisture so I don’t end up overdoing the mayonnaise. The vinegar provides the zip that salt usually adds. I do the same thing when making old-fashioned American macaroni salad too. Oh, and I do NOT salt the cooking water for either the potatoes or macaroni.

I make quick dressing combos for both cooked and raw vegetables too. Usually equal parts vinegar & oil with a little added sweetener. I vary the oils and vinegars used and add whatever herbs or spices I think appropriate. Top the vegetable off with some toasted nuts or buttered breadcrumbs and you’ve got a “fancy” no-salt vegetable dish.

I also use vinegar in cooking. Whenever I make a braised dish (stew or pot roast), I always add 1-2 tablespoons of vinegar to the pot. Red wine vinegar with beef or lamb and white wine vinegar with chicken or pork. Again, the vinegar adds a zip that salt usually provides. A splash of vinegar ten minutes before finishing cooking can also brighten a braised dish.

I also add some red wine vinegar to any type of tomato sauce I’m cooking (lemon juice is also good with tomato sauces). Sometimes the unsalted tomato products not only taste flat but they taste overly sweet. Reasonable enough – salt is a foil to the natural sweetness in tomatoes. So I’ll add a dribble of vinegar to my spaghetti sauce and chili during cooking. Again, a splash ten minutes before finishing cooking can also brighten tomato sauce based dishes. A light splash of sherry vinegar right before serving can also add some sparkle to bean soups.

You can easily make a balsamic vinegar reduction. You’ll end up with a dark brown syrupy glaze that can be drizzled on fish, chicken, or vegetables to add a sweet-tart zing to any dish. If you’re artistic, swirls of balsamic vinegar glaze make a lovely edible plate decoration sure to impress guests. (Please note: I am NOT artistic as the accompanying picture will show.) I use the dark balsamic vinegar from Trader Joe’s and buy two bottles. Rather than making a little bit at a time, I use up an entire bottle. That way, I have a good supply of balsamic vinegar syrup always on hand.

Balsamic Vinegar Reduction

Pour the contents of one bottle of balsamic vinegar into a heavy bottomed non-reactive saucepan (stainless steel works well). Bring the contents to a boil, and then lower heat to a simmer. (Because you’re dealing with vinegar and its fumes, be sure to turn on your kitchen exhaust fan. There’s no danger; it’s just that vinegar can be a strong odor.)

Continue simmering until the vinegar is reduced by about half. It should be slightly syrupy, similar to a glaze, and coat a spoon. Take the reduction off the heat when it is still just a bit thin. It will continue to thicken as it sits. Let the vinegar stand at room temperature until it is cool enough to pour into a plastic squeeze bottle (I use a picnic ketchup bottle). Store in the refrigerator.

Before using, be sure to set the bottle out until it comes to room temperature, or, if necessary, heat it a bit in the microwave or set it in a warm water bath (similar to what you do with crystallized honey.)

You can also make your own herb-infused vinegars. The Gardens Ablaze website gives complete directions and even suggestions for herbal combinations.

You can find wine vinegars and balsamic vinegar at most grocery stores, and rice vinegar is usually found in the Asian foods section of most grocery stores. Specialty food shops, Cost Plus World Market, Trader Joe’s, and even some natural foods stores also carry a good selection of vinegars, often including some flavored ones. I consider red & white wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and plain rice vinegar as basic necessities. But I do love the flavored vinegars as well.