Greek Style Green Beans (Fasolakia) Stovetop & Instant Pot Options
[I made these saucey Greek Style Green Beans *aka Fasolakia* for Earth Fare!]
We’re getting ready to head to Greece again in about a month, and I’ve already got visions of all the delicious food we’ll eat swirling in my head!
The food in Greece is something that I fell in love with right away when I first landed there to study abroad. And one of my favorite Greek dishes still to this day is green beans in tomato sauce. 😍
In Greek, they’re called Φασολάκια–pronounced fah-so-lah-kia. And they’re GOOD. 
I like to use frozen green beans for this fasolakia recipe, because:
- Frozen veggies are wickedly convenient and a lifesaver on busy nights.
- The green beans in this recipe get stewed down quite a bit, so the frozen ones work perfectly since we’re not going for a crisp texture.
I used to sort of turn my nose up at soft-cooked green beans. I only wanted them crispy and al dente. But then, I had these green beans in Greece.
And then I had them a million more times.
And I was sold on the stewed green bean method. 
The green beans are cooked down in lots of olive oil, grated onion, tomatoes, and garlic–transforming them into the healthy comfort food of my dreams. In Greece, this green bean recipe (fasolakia) is eaten often as a light main dish and served with salty feta and crusty bread.
The sweetness from the onions and tomatoes pairs up perfectly with the briney feta. And the garlicky-tomatoey-olive oil sauce action that pools at the bottom of your plate just asks to be sopped up with a hunk of bread.
Fasolakia can also be eaten as a side dish and served up with some grilled chicken or beef patties.
Notes on making perfect Greek style green beans
- Grate your onion instead of dicing. I picked up this trick from an authentic Greek Yia-Yia (Grandmother). Grating the onion allows it to sort of melt into the sauce, making it thick and sweet. (in a sultry, savory-food kind of way)
- If you can, make your Greek green beans the day before serving. Like most stewed dishes, it just gets better with a nap in the fridge.
- This may seem odd, but I love eating these beans cold, straight out of the fridge! They’re good hot too, but I think I got used to eating them cold when we lived in Greece (with no microwave and sweltering heat)
- Don’t skimp on the olive oil. It really makes it delicious. Plus, eating olive oil with tomatoes helps us better absorb lycopene!
- I usually make these on the stove top, but I’ve also made them before in the crock pot and instant pot with good results.
The crusty bread and the feta cheese are pretty perfect food matches for these Greek green beans, I won’t lie. (Goat cheese is also great)
BUT if you happen to have dietary restrictions that prevent you from eating either or both of them (🙋🏻♀️ hi! That would be me) don’t sweat it.
They’re still 100% delicious without them. Trust me 😋
Kali orexi!
Greek Style Green Beans (Fasolakia)
Ingredients
- 2 16 oz bags of frozen green beans (about 8 cups / 900 grams) - I used Earth Fare brand
- 1 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes - I used Earth Fare brand
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- About 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 yellow onion
- 4-5 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoons dried oregano
- Salt and pepper to taste
To Serve (optional)
- Feta cheese
- Organic baguette
Instructions
- Peel the onion, and grate it using a cheese grater.* Finely mince the garlic. Reserve.
- Heat a large pot to medium high heat and add ¼ cup of the olive oil.
- Add the onion with the onion juice, and garlic to the olive oil. Add a generous pinch of salt and sauté for 5-7 minutes, until onions and garlic are fragrant and liquid has reduced.
- Add oregano and sauté for another minute before adding the tomatoes, tomato paste, green beans, another very generous pinch of salt, pepper, and another generous glug of olive oil. Mix to combine all of the ingredients.
- Allow the mix to come to a simmer and reduce heat slightly. Cook, covered, for 30-40 minutes, stirring every so often to keep the bottom from scorching. You’ll want to cook until the green beans are VERY tender. If after 30-40 minutes there is still a good amount of liquid, cook uncovered until liquid reduces, stirring to keep them from burning on the bottom. On the other hand, if you don't have enough liquid, add a little water or broth. You want the green beans to be nice and saucy but not soupy and the amount of liquid will depend a lot on the type of pot you're using.
- Taste, and adjust seasoning to your preference.
- Serve with feta cheese and crusty bread, if desired.
Instant Pot Instructions
- Turn your Instant Pot to Saute mode and add 1/4 cup of the olive oil. Follow the same directions as above, adding 1/4 cup broth or water before closing the lid and setting for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes in the Instant Pot, do a quick release of the steam. Open the lid and stir. If there is extra liquid that needs to be reduced, turn the Instant Pot back to saute and reduce until liquid has thickened up.
Notes
-Grating the onion can be kind of a pain, but it's the way I was taught from a real deal Greek Yia Yia! As an alternative, you can send the peeled onion through a food processor to grate it, or just finely dice if you prefer 🙂
-In my opinion, the flavor of this dish improves after a night in the refrigerator, although it is still delicious the first day!
-Some people like to add a squeeze of lemon juice at the end of cooking. I don't, but feel free to add it in if you prefer!
-Many fasolakia recipes call for adding a little sugar (or ketchup, which contains sugar). I personally prefer to leave this out but if you prefer things a little sweeter, feel free to add a bit of your favorite sweetener.
22 responses to “Greek Style Green Beans (Fasolakia) Stovetop & Instant Pot Options”
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My husband is Greek and this is pretty much his exact recipe. Although most of the time he’s too lazy to grate the onion. We made this tonight with fresh beans from our garden. So delicious!
Isn’t it the best?! I can’t wait to have the real deal when we visit Greece at the end of August! I bet it was so good with the beans straight from your garden 🙂
Does anyone else add a dash of cinnamon?
I’ve never added cinnamon, but I can definitely see that! I love cinnamon in savory recipes like moussaka!
Thank you for the recipe! Made it tonight and it is delicious. I put the onion in my cuisinart and saved my fingers from being grated.
Great idea with the food processor! Less tears also 😉 So glad you liked it!
Hi Allyson, Approximately how many ounces in a small bag of Earth Fare beans? Thanks!
Hi Alexis, I don’t have the ounces right now (I can check and get back to you later on that) but you’ll need about 8 cups of green beans! Basically a big pot full 🙂
Are the canned tomatoes that you use sodium free? Or salt free?
Hi Cheryl they are not but you could certainly use sodium free!
Do you change anything when you use the slow cooker?
No I use the same ingredients!
Making fasolakia in crockpot
How long do i cook. ? On low?
Hi Katina, I haven’t made these in the crockpot in a long time, but I’d say maybe 6 hours on low, maybe 4 hours on high. You can’t really go wrong, you just want the beans to get nice and soft!
[…] there in the past. I totally trust Allyson and her taste, so when I was craving Fasolakia, I went straight to her blog and I adapted this recipe. If you don’t follow her on instagram or her blog, you should! She […]
These are excellent! I made them tonight, and they’re delicious with and without feta on top. Notes: I used a 32-oz. bag of frozen cut green beans (and kept the quantities for all of the other ingredients the same); I found that to get the beans tender enough, they needed to cook covered for about 50 minutes, by which time the liquid was so reduced that no further cooking was needed.
That’s so great to hear! Thanks for letting me know about your adjustments too 😊
[…] FasolakiaGreen beans in tomato sauce. […]
8 Cups of beans is 2 litres right? Seems like a lot for four to six People?
I’m not sure in litres – I measured 8 cups frozen, these beans cook down a lot! In Greece it’s less of a side and more of a main with feta cheese and bread!
[…] there in the past. I totally trust Allyson and her taste, so when I was craving Fasolakia, I went straight to her blog and I adapted this recipe. If you don’t follow her on Instagram or her blog, you should! She […]
This is very similar to a Turkish recipe that we love. Instead of oregano, add 2 tsp each of freshly ground coriander seed and smoked paprika. Serve on rice.