Giant Beans Baked with Tomatoes and Honey (Gigantes sto Fourno) GreekFoodTv☼

Serve Greek Gigantes with PDO extra virgin Greek olive oil for a healthy diet delight. Feta adds tang, too. For recipe, press more button.

Giant Beans Baked with Honey and Dill

6-8 servings

1 pound/500 g. dried Greek giant beans, soaked according to package directions
3 cups peeled, seeded, and grated plum tomatoes
2 medium-sized red onions, peeled and finely chopped
3 Tbsp./45 ml honey
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
1 cup loosely packed chopped fresh dill
2 cups/480 ml water
¼ cup/60 ml honey vinegar/oxymelo or red wine vinegar
½ cup/120 ml olive oil
2 Tbsp. tomato paste

1. Soak the beans overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 375˚F/190˚C. Rinse and drain the soaked beans.
3. Place the beans in a pressure cooker. Add water, about 2 inches/5 cm above the beans. Seal the pressure cooker. Start with a high flame, then lower the heat. Cook for about 10 to 12 minutes. Drain. (If you use a regular pot: Place in a large pot with enough water to cover them by 3 inches/8 cm. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.)
4. Place beans in a large baking pan. Add tomatoes, onions, honey, salt and pepper, dill and mix until well combined. Pour in the water, vinegar and olive oil. Add the tomato paste and stir to combine.
5. Bake for about 1 to 1 ½ hours, or until the beans are tender and the sauce is thick and creamy. Add more water throughout baking, if necessary, to keep the beans from burning.

This is the Greek Food Channel http://www.dianekochilas.com/
Come to visit Diane and Vassili at their GLORIOUS GREEK KITCHEN COOKING SCHOOL (Ikaria). They run cooking classes and organize culinary tours in Greece for recreational and professional cooks. They also own DV FOOD ARTS CONSULTING, a food marketing company that produces specialty books and other food-and-wine-related literature for a wide variety of clients and independently for the tourist and other markets. Diane consults on Greek cuisine for restaurants, retail outlets and producers of fine Greek foods. Vassilis Stenos (photographer) offers an extensive archive of food and travel photographs of Greece.

Diane Kochilas is an internationally known food writer, cookbook author, culinary teacher, food consultant and food "guru". She has more than 20 years' experience in the Greek kitchen. Diane divides her time between Athens, Ikaria, and New York. She is the consulting chef at Pylos, one of New York's top-rated Greek restaurants as well as consulting chef at Avli Restaurant in Chicago. She writes frequently for the US food press and appears regularly on American television. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, Gourmet, Saveur, Food & Wine, Eating Well and in other food and general-interest publications. In Athens, she is the weekly food columnist and restaurant critic for Ta Nea, the country's largest newspaper. She has written 19 books on Greek and Mediterranean cuisine, including the award-winning The Glorious Foods of Greece. Her books include: The Food and Wine of Greece, The Greek Vegetarian, The Glorious Foods of Greece, Meze, Against the Grain (good carbs), Mediterranean Grilling, Mastiha Cuisine, The Northern Greek Wine Roads Cookbook, and Aegean Cuisine (see below).