Fasulia
Ֆասուլյա·(fah-SOOL-yah)
The Suburban Kebab (Quick Weeknight Dinners)
Walk into the home of any first-generation Armenian-American in the Midwest on a Tuesday night, and this is what you will smell. Fasulia is the ultimate expression of how immigrant grandmothers adapted the slow, methodical cooking of the homeland to the realities of American suburban life. By swapping long-simmered lamb neck bones for aggressively browned ground meat, and leaning heavily on caramelized tomato paste and warm allspice, they engineered a weeknight masterpiece. Forget everything you know about keeping green beans crisp; here, they must be braised until meltingly soft and olive green, drinking up every drop of the spiced, savory broth.
Before you start
Frozen French-cut green beans make an excellent weeknight substitute.
If you are short on time, swap the fresh Romano beans for two 14-ounce bags of frozen French-cut green beans. Because they are sliced lengthwise, they absorb the tomato sauce rapidly and require zero trimming or prep.
Ingredients
- ground lamb or ground beef (80/20 blend)1 lb
- olive oil2 tbsp
- yellow onion1 large
- garlic4 cloves
- fresh Romano beans or green beans1 1/2 lb
- tomato paste3 tbsp
- canned diced tomatoes14.5 oz
- chicken broth or water1 1/2 cup
- kosher salt1 1/2 tsp
- ground allspice1 tsp
- ground black pepper1/2 tsp
- granulated sugar1 tsp
- Aleppo pepper1/2 tsp
Method
- 01
Brown the meat aggressively to build a deeply savory foundation.
Heat a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat, add the ground meat, and press it into an even layer. Let it sit undisturbed for a few minutes to develop a dark crust, then break it apart, cook until no longer pink, and remove the meat with a slotted spoon while leaving the rendered fat in the pot. If your meat was exceptionally lean, add the olive oil now.
- 02
Sauté the aromatics in the rendered animal fat.
Lower the heat to medium, add the diced onion, and cook for about 8 minutes until deeply softened and translucent. Add the minced garlic and cook for one minute more.
- 03
Bloom the tomato paste and spices to fake a long braise.
Clear a small space in the center of the pot and drop in the tomato paste, allspice, black pepper, and Aleppo pepper. Stir the paste into the hot fat and onions, cooking for a few minutes until it darkens to a brick-red color and smells incredibly aromatic.
- 04
Blister the green beans in the spiced base.
Return the browned meat to the pot, add the prepared green beans, and toss everything thoroughly to coat. Let the beans blister slightly in the heat for about 3 minutes.
- 05
Simmer the stew until the beans achieve total textural surrender.
Pour in the diced tomatoes with their juices, chicken broth, kosher salt, and sugar. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover tightly, and simmer for 35 to 45 minutes until the beans have lost their bright green hue and are meltingly tender.
Notes
Serve over a starch to soak up the broth.
Fasulia is best ladled generously over a bed of buttery vermicelli rice pilaf or coarse bulgur, with a wedge of crusty bread nearby. It tastes remarkably better the next day.
The traditional weekend method uses bone-in lamb.
If you have a few hours on a Sunday, swap the ground meat for a pound and a half of bone-in lamb neck or shoulder chops. Sear the chops, build the sauce exactly as directed, and simmer for two hours before adding the green beans for a final 45 minutes.
A vegetarian version is equally authentic.
As a traditional Orthodox fasting food, a meatless version is perfectly normal. Omit the meat, increase the olive oil to a quarter cup, and add a pinch of cumin and coriander to compensate for the lost umami.
From Cook Armenian in America.