If you’re seeking to cook Palestinian food to eat in solidarity, this is a great recipe to start with. These slow-cooked green beans in tomato sauce are comforting, earthy, and delicious. The tomato sauce sings with a hint of green chilies, coriander seeds, and lemon juice. The stew is traditionally served on top of a simple rice pilaf. It epitomizes good Palestinian cooking – humble fresh ingredients cooked well.
Recently a group of friends gathered in my home to cook Palestinian food to eat in solidarity and donate to Mennonite Central Committee’s humanitarian aid in Gaza. I organized the dinner honoring my late stepfather who passed away this fall. His peacebuilding values extended to how he cooked and ate. Over the years, when our country became involved in a conflict, he would seek out foods of the peoples our government considered “the enemy” to affirm our common humanity and refuse to dehumanize anyone. This stuck with me, and is one way I want to continue his legacy. At our dinner there were two Palestinian friends at the table who told family migration and cooking stories, and made sure the dishes resembled their food memories.
The dinner happened to be the first night of Advent, not planned but relevant. In our tradition, Advent is a time when we sit in the darkness and wait for an inbreaking of justice in the world.
This is inspired by the recipe in Reem Assil’s cookbook Arabiyya. It’s a beautiful book filled with passionate writing. We also made her Winter Tabbouli with orange & fennel and Ma’louba – upside-down rice with vegetables, both delicious. If you want to incorporate more Palestinian dishes into your cooking, I recommend her cookbook as well as Sami Tamimi’s Falastin.
You can choose to blend the tomato sauce with a hand blender. If you prefer to keep the sauce chunky, use a box grated to grate the canned tomatoes before adding them to the pan. I enjoy both styles.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 2 cups diced yellow onions (about 1 large onion)
- 1 serrano chili, minced
- 8 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds, toasted and ground (or 1 teaspoon ground)
- 36 ounce can whole San Marzano tomatoes
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 pound green beans, trimmed and cut in thirds (about 4 cups)
- juice of 1-2 lemons
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- In a heavy saucepan or Dutch oven, sauté the onions in 1/3 cup olive oil along with a generous pinch of salt on medium-low heat, until the onions are lightly caramelized, 10-15 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to cook for another 5 minutes. As the onions darken, stir to keep from burning.
- Either puree the tomatoes with a hand blender or roughly grate with a cheese grater.
- Once the garlic is fragrant and soft, add the coriander, tomatoes, chili, and another pinch of salt.
- Raise the heat to bring the mixture to a simmer, then lower the heat to maintain the simmer. Cook, uncovered, for 25-35 minutes or until the tomatoes break down completely.
- In a medium pan over medium-low heat, warm the neutral oil. When the oil shimmers, add the green beans, another pinch of salt, and the black pepper. Cook for 7-10 minutes, or until the beans are soft. Then add the tomato sauce and the lemon juice and mix thoroughly.
- To serve, transfer the beans to a serving plate. Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with optional Maldon salt for garnish.
