Turkish Braised Green Beans (Zeytinyagli Taze Fasulye)

This braised green beans with tomatoes recipe is from Turkish cuisine. It is one of those simple dishes everyone knows in the country. If you happen to visit a Turkish family during summer, you are likely to see that they are making braised green beans for a quick lunch. People in Turkey have it once or twice a week as it is affordable, healthy, tasty and super easy to make. 

There might be variations in its cooking, but the taste is almost the same in the end. It might look and sound simple –it really is but we must tell you that you will be amazed when you taste it. We often enjoy Turkish green beans as a main dish paired with orzo rice pilaf or bulgur pilaf and cacik or yogurt. 

We used to think that everyone around the world eats green beans this way until several non-Turkish friends asked for the recipe. This simple dish is always one of the favorite dishes of our non-Turkish friends when they visit Turkey. 

There is a very similar recipe in Greece, which is called fasolaika. Unlike Turkish fasulye recipe, its Greek counterpart is often served with feta cheese on the top.

Green beans are mostly blanched or roasted and served as a side dish in other parts of the world. So this Turkish green beans recipe might sound unusual to most of our readers. Don't make your mind before tasting, we promise you will LOVE it!

What Is Special About Turkish Green Beans?

There is a category of dishes in Turkish cuisine called zeytinyaglilar, which means dishes with olive oil. These are naturally vegetarian and vegan. Seasonal vegetables are cooked with a generous amount of olive oil and served at room temperature. 

Braised green beans cooked in olive oil, zeytinyagli taze fasulye as we say in Turkish, is one of those dishes. This simple dish is a combination of runner beans, onion, tomatoes and lots of olive oil. Unlike most of the green bean recipes you know, this Turkish recipe wants you to cook the green beans until very soft. You don’t want them crispy or crunchy. 

Just like in our okra with tomatoes, which is another classic summer dish, good olive oil and good summer tomatoes do the work here. So choose your favorite products when you decide to make these recipes.

So if you haven’t tried green beans cooked in tomato sauce yet, it’s the time now! Everyone in the family will ask for more.

About The Ingredients

Green beans: The most popular green beans in Turkey are runner beans (çalı fasulye) and romano beans, also known as flat beans (Ayşekadın fasulye). So they are perfect to make this braised green beans recipe with tomatoes. But you can use long beans, string beans, haricots verts or French beans. Any green beans would work fine, just the taste would be a bit different.

Olive oil: We use a good amount of olive oil when making Turkish green beans recipe. So try to use a good brand. 

Tomatoes: We sometimes use canned tomatoes, but the result is always tastier when we use ripe summer tomatoes.

Sugar: There is often a little sweetness in Turkish vegetable dishes with olive oil (zeytinyaglilar) coming from sugar, but it is completely optional. You will still love this delicious dish! 

Alternative Add-Ins:

Turkish zeytinyağlı fasulye is really a simple dish and doesn't need any additions. But if you want to enrich the flavors a bit more, you can garnish it with some chopped parsley and lemon wedges. Oh and of course you can drop a few lemon juice in the dish as well. 

In some regions of Turkey, the green bean recipe calls for 1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste. You can add it in the pan after the onion is cooked. Give it a stir and then add the beans and follow the rest of the recipe.

How To Prepare Taze Fasulye

First, wash the green beans well. You can put them in a large bowl and wash them in batches. Then cut the ends off and slice them in two or three. 

You can even prepare them using your hands. Just snap the ends and then snap each into 2-3 pieces. Depending on the type of the green beans, you might need an extra step: Remove the string out of the beans. 

If you are using string beans, then you need to get rid of the string. To do this, snap the little bit of the one end and pull it all the way down. And then snap the other end in the opposite direction and pull the string down. 

So it is very easy to remove the strings on both sides of a green bean in this way. Don't try to open the pod as we do when preparing fava beans. What we want here is just to remove the strings. Then snap the green beans into 2-3 pieces.

How To Make

This is a very straightforward recipe. You really can't go wrong with it.

1. Cook the chopped onions in olive oil until translucent. 
2. Add in the prepared green beans and cook them covered for 3 minutes. Give it a stir. 

3. Add in chopped tomatoes and stir well. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook it covered for 5 minutes. 
4. Add in salt, sugar and pepper and hot water. Let it cook covered over medium low heat for 20-30 minutes or until the beans are soft. Check it after 15 minutes. If it is getting dry, add another ½ cup hot water.
5. Remove from the heat. Serve it either warm or at room temperature. Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil over the beans in the pot before serving. 

Tips

• We mostly chop green beans for this recipe, but it's okay to leave them as they are. Just trim off the ends.
• Cooking duration of this recipe might be different depending on the type of the green beans you use, so check it after 20-30 minutes. Keep cooking if they are still a little crispy because the green beans in this recipe are supposed to get tender.
• Don't worry, the beans won't get soggy even after 30 minutes.
• This green bean recipe is one of the dishes that is traditionally made in clay pots. So if you have one, try making this recipe in it.

Make Ahead and Storage

This is one of the best vegetarian dishes that you can make ahead. It tastes even better on the next day as the flavors combine better as it sits. 

You can keep it in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. It is better to bring it to room temperature before serving. So take it out of the fridge 15-20 minutes before serving. This is the most common way of eating Turkish green beans.

If you want to serve it warm, just heat it in a pan and then serve. 

Serving Suggestions

Zeyinyağlı fasulye makes an amazing summer lunch. We often serve it at room temperature with bulgar wheat or rice pilaf and yogurt. 

If you are planning to serve it as a part of a meze platter, then you can serve it along with eggplant salad, kabak mucver (fritters), imambayildi and kisir.

This classic dish also goes great with chicken or fish. So you can serve the leftovers as a side dish.

More Vegetarian Recipes

• Turkish Stuffed Peppers
• Zucchini Stew With Tomatoes
• Turkish Celeriac Recipe
• Piyaz
• Turkish Stuffed Grape Leaves

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