Time for the next post in my fasoulia series. I believe fasoulia khadra translates literally as “beans with meat.” My last post was based on Israeli recipes for this dish. This time we take just a small step to the east, across the Jordan River, to the country of Jordan. Not surprisingly this is essentially the same dish, except we add some meat. I knew when I started on this set of exploration that the differences from one country to the next might be a lot harder to see than they were with feijoada. Down the road I have Palestine on the list of counties to examine this dish in, but that might be the point at which I have to just say “OK, this really is the same recipe I shared for Jordan” But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. (One of the recipes i looked at said that they use Cumin in one of those countries, and coriander in the other. Nearly every other recipe I looked at called for both of them, though, so that’s not going to work out as a differentiator for me. )
So far finding source recipes for this set of exploration has actually been easier than I expected. Other than Egypt, where I had to resort to searching in Arabic and relying on Google translation, I’ve been able to find enough English language recipes that claim to represent the particular country I’m looking at to work with. Of course that may or may not lead to some less authentic recipes, but hey- I’m a white dude living in northern Minnesota; I probably shouldn’t be making any claims of authenticity anyway.
Again, this is probably not exactly the best season to make this dish. Garden fresh tomatoes and beans would really elevate the flavor several notches. But even with subpar grocery store tomatoes and slightly wilted beans in the middle of December it turned out pretty tasty.
I said this is basically the same recipe as I shared last time. Except it’s not really. Yeas the main ingredients are tomatoes and green beans, and the cooking method is the same, but the spices are different, and the addition of beef really does change the flavor.
Next time (which probably means next year- I’ve only got a couple days at home before New Years) we’ll be back to a dry bean fasoulia.
Fasoulia Khadra
Serves: 4
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 1:30
Total: 1:45
20-24 oz. beef stew meat, in two inch cubes
Salt
Black pepper
1 lb. green beans
5 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 ¼ lb tomatoes, roughly chopped
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 ½ teaspoons ground coriander
1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
Optional:
1 ½ cans diced tomato, in place of fresh
½ cup tomato puree
Season meat with salt and pepper to taste. Place in a small pan and add just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and skim off any foam or scum that rises to the surface. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Set meat aside and reserve 1 cup of the broth.
Meanwhile, trim your green beans and cut into 2 inch pieces.
Heat oil in a heavy pot and sauté the onion until golden, 5-10 minutes. Place onion, garlic, tomato, ¾ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper, coriander and cumin in a blender, along with the reserved meat broth. Puree until smooth.
Return the tomato puree to the pot, along with the cooked meat and green beans. Bring to a simmer and cook, covered, over low heat for about 1 hour, until the meat is tender.
Serve over rice, with a dollop of Greek yogurt.
Lorin cooks Legumes 
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