Middle Eastern Recipes Green Beans

Fasolia bi Zeit is a traditional green bean Middle Eastern dish. It’s so easy to make and requires very simple ingredients. This dish often made in Palestine, Jordan, and Syria.

Fasolia bi zeit translates into beans in oil, meaning green beans cooked with olive oil. This dish is so simple, and really loved in the Middle East. My mother-in-law shared this recipe with me after I went over for lunch and she served this delicious dish. Her version of fasolia bi zeit is so simple, yet so flavorful and delightful.

Interestingly enough, my mother-in-law comes from the Palestinian city Nablus, and she told me that they always cut the green beans lengthwise for extra flavor! I tried that, and they turned out great. Is it necessary though? I don’t think so. So do what you prefer, and the green beans will turn out delicious regardless of how you choose to cut them.

Za'atar Roasted Carrots And Green Beans

This recipe uses green beans, aka string beans or runner beans. An ingredient that I love to cook with in the summer!

The olive oil is an essential ingredient in this recipe, however, it does not use too much of it. And the flavors come from the onion, garlic, and tomato. I only season the green beans with ground black pepper and salt, but feel free to use any spices that you like such as cumin or baharat. The reason why I don’t add spices is that I like the taste of green beans to be obvious.

Start by heating some olive oil, then sauteing an onion until it’s soft and translucent. Add the green beans and shallow fry them for a few minutes. And finally, add the diced and peeled tomatoes, minced garlic, water or stock, salt, and black pepper.

Fasolakia (greek Green Beans)

Cover with a lid, and simmer on low-medium heat stirring occasionally until the green beans are soft. This should take around 25 minutes.

Click on “Saute” for 10 minutes, heat olive oil, cook the onion, and shallow fry the green beans. Then switch off the saute setting, and add the rest of the ingredients. Cover with the lid, make sure that the vent is in sealing position then click on “manual” or “pressure cook” and set on 5 minutes on high pressure.

Also, make sure to check out my seriously good Instant Pot garlic green beans recipe and there’s a Greek version of this dish (they also add potatoes), it’s called Fasolakia and honestly, it’s sooo good!

Lebanese Green Bean Stew (loubia B'zeit) By Zaatar And Zaytoun

We usually eat this with either rice such as Lebanese rice, or freshly baked pita bread, yellow onion wedges (raw), rocket (arugula) leaves, and olives.

Traditionally cold. However, I personally like to eat it warm right after it’s cooked. If I have leftovers, then I enjoy them cold. Feel free to drizzle some extra olive oil over the green beans if you’re serving them cold (that’s the traditional way).

You should also try this Greek version of the green beans, fasolkaia recipe. It’s very similar to this one, but usually served as a main meal as it also contains potatoes. It’s sooo good, promise!

Fasolakia Giaxni / Lathera (greek Stewed Green Beans)

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Fasolia bi Zeit is a traditional green bean Middle Eastern dish. It's so easy to make and requires very simple ingredients. This dish often made in Palestine, Jordan, and Syria.

Calories: 43 kcal , Carbohydrates: 3 g , Protein: 1 g , Fat: 4 g , Saturated Fat: 1 g , Sodium: 2 mg , Potassium: 93 mg , Fiber: 1 g , Sugar: 1 g , Vitamin A: 256 IU , Vitamin C: 5 mg , Calcium: 8 mg , Iron: 1 mg

Recipe Corner: Middle Eastern Green Beans With Lamb

This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.Middle Eastern Spiced Green Beans with Olive Oil and Tomato (Loubieh bil Zayt) is a dish that’s simple to make, but complex in flavor. This dish is heady with aromatic spices, onion, and garlic, and the green beans take on a nutty flavor after being toasted in olive oil.

I don’t think there’s anything more intimate than sharing a meal with someone. Food is so deeply intertwined in who we are…meals our moms made for special occasions growing up will always be special. Holiday foods remain festive in our minds and are reserved for once a year. And there’s nothing quite like the feeling of watching someone truly enjoy a meal you made for them.

Few things in life bring people together the way mealtime does, and once we focus on the food, we’re able to let the stress of the daily grind just sort of melt away, even if it is just for a brief moment. Along with breaking bread comes the connection to other people; more than the primal need to eat and nourish the ones we love, it brings sense of camaraderie and companionship. We can put our differences aside and let our common ground and the joy that goes along with sharing a good meal be the common denominator.

Middle Eastern Green Beans And Tomatoes Recipe

When Saghar from Lab Noon invited me to participate in her Virtual Midsummer Potluck for Peace, I was immediately intrigued. The idea is for everyone to bring a dish from their own cultural background and people talk and laugh and eat instead of fighting. I love it.

Instead of sharing a dish I grew up with, I wanted to share something else. Something from a culture that I had the opportunity to completely immerse myself in and will be forever grateful for the experience. I remember the first time I had this dish; I was living in Amman, Jordan at the time and my mother-in-law had invited a few ladies over for lunch. They made a day of it, cooking and getting work done as they laughed and chatted; they were making Ma’amoul (stuffed date cookies), Waraq Ainab (stuffed grape leaves), and Makdous (spicy oil-marinated eggplant). At the end of the day they divvied up the loot and all took some home to their families.

Lunch that day was simple, basically anything that was in the fridge was fair game. Fresh herbs, sliced tomato and cucumber, salty olives, labneh glistening with olive oil, fried eggs, hot flatbread (for scooping up everything else), and the best green bean dish of my life.

Ottolenghi Green Bean Salad

This dish comes from my cookbook, and here’s what I said about it: “I’ve been eating green beans all my life. I’ve always liked them well enough, but they never wowed me until I had this dish. The beans take on a slightly nutty flavor from being toasted in olive oil, and that, paired with the sweetness of tomato, savory flavor of garlic, and subtle spice notes of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves has left me with green bean cravings for the first time in my life.”

For the Meat Lovers: This dish is also wonderful with the addition of beef or lamb stew meat that’s been cooked until melt-in-your-mouth-tender.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links to products I believe in, which means that even though it doesn’t cost you anything extra, I will receive a small amount of money from the sale of these items, which helps me keep this site alive – thank you for helping to support An Edible Mosaic!Lebanese Green Beans are a warm, spiced green bean dish, combining tomatoes, green beans, cinnamon and cumin. These pair great as a side dish to your weeknight meals!

Middle Eastern Spiced Green Beans With Olive Oil And Tomato (loubieh Bil Zayt)

It is slowly simmered with diced tomatoes, onions and garlic, cinnamon and cumin which allows the flavors to really develop and become rich and warm.

I remember as a child walking into my Grandma’s house and knowing that Lebanese Green Beans were cooking by the smells coming from the kitchen.

These green beans are healthy and simple to put together–you need a can of diced tomatoes, a bag of frozen green beans (

Syrian Green Beans In Tomato Sauce

I make a batch of this and always have leftovers to eat throughout the week which is great when I need a quick, vegetarian side dish.

You can also modify this dish and add ham or stew meat to make it more of a meat a few minutes after sautéing your onions and then allow to simmer with the rest of the dish.

GREEN BEANS: The green beans are the start of the show. I use a bag of frozen green beans because I like the water that the frozen ones produce and help all of the spices and juices come together. You can use fresh green beans if you prefer.

Middle Eastern Green Beans With Persian Feta & Roasted Nuts

DICED TOMATOES: I use a can of diced tomatoes in my green bean side dish. It helps create a nice sauce for the green beans along with the spices.

[…] own version of braised green beans. Check out the Lebanese version with cinnamon and cumin known as lubee and the Greek style green beans with parsley and a little sugar known as fasolakia lathera. […]

[…] the best hummus and would often have a big bowl waiting at her house with pita bread,

Roasted Green Beans With Spiced Hazelnut Crumb And Tahini Recipe