A quicker Fasolada (Greek Bean Soup) makes for a delicious and satisfying weeknight dinner. You’ll love the bold Greek flavors in this vegan and gluten free white bean soup with garlic, onions, celery and a generous drizzle of good Greek extra virgin olive oil. This Fasolada recipe takes a bit of a modern approach–a little shortcut makes all the difference!
Fasolada
Fasolada is a popular Greek bean soup, occasionally referred to as the national food of the Greeks!
The star ingredients in this simple bean soup are: white beans, celery, and extra virgin olive oil–in fact, a healthy amount of quality extra virgin olive oil makes all the difference.
Some variations of Fasolada include carrots and tomatoes. And if you want to stick with tradition, you’ll want to start with dry white beans, soaked overnight.
But this recipe is simplified and takes a more modern, quick-n-dirty approach!
The key difference in this Fasolada recipe is in using canned beans in place of dry white beans. Needless to say, this small change shaved off a few hours of soaking time, immediately transforming Fasolada into a weeknight recipe.
Yes, we take a shortcut here, but we don’t give up flavor. Absolutely not!
At the outset, I use a combination of onions, garlic, celery and bay leaf. Warm spices are stirred in to continue adding aroma and depth. Finally, a splash of zesty lemon juice and fresh parsley add brightness.
What to serve with Greek Bean Soup (Fasolada)?
When we eat fasolada for dinner, my family typically starts with a bright salad like this traditional Greek salad, or maybe even fattoush salad. No need for too many sides, just add some Greek olives and your favorite rustic bread.
If you love beans are are looking for more creations to try, don’t miss this Greek baked beans recipe, and be sure to check out our Best Bean Recipes roundup. 35 recipes for every occasion!
More recipes you may like:
Ribollita (Tuscan White Bean Soup)
Avgolemono: Greek Chicken and Lemon Soup
Kidney Bean Salad with Cilantro and Dijon Vinaigrette
Visit our collection of Mediterranean recipes and our top Mediterranean diet recipes.
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Easy Greek Bean Soup (Fasolada)
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: serves up to 6
Description
A quicker Fasolada (Greek Bean Soup) makes for a delicious and satisfying weeknight dinner!
Ingredients
- Early Harvest Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 celery ribs, chopped
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 4 1/2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
- 3 15-oz cans cannelini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp sweet paprika
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- In a heavy pot like this one, heat 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil over medium-high heat.
- Add the chopped onion, salt and pepper. Cook for about 4 minutes over medium-high heat, stirring regularly. Now add the garlic, celery, bay leaf, and oregano. Cook 5 more minutes, stirring regularly.
- Add broth, cannelini beans, cumin, paprika and cayenne pepper. Raise the heat and bring to a rolling boil for 3 minutes or so. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Ladle 2 cups of the soup into the bowl of a small food processor or blender. Blend, then return to the cooking pot. Simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Off heat, stir in about 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, the lemon zest, lemon juice and parsley. Transfer to serving bowls and top each bowl with another drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, if desired. Serve with your favorite rustic bread.
Notes
- Recommended for this Recipe: Our Early Harvest extra virgin olive oil.
- Visit our store to browse our all-natural and organic spices, olive oils and bundles!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Soup
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: Greek
This was absolutely delicious! Made it for dinner this evening and it was a huge hit with everyone. Already added to my Favorites and will certainly be making it again . It’s a keeper for sure. I love your blog and easy to follow , make and eat recipes. Thanks for sharing your recipe with us. 5 Stars by the way .
Delicious. One of my absolute favorites. I use vegetable stock to make it vegan. Just fantastic and healthy
I love some of your recipes, but your quantity means I have to pull out separate containers for some of the ingredients because you only want olives for decoration or whatever. This soup I don’t use up two cartons of broth. I use all of one and a small amount of another. I wish I could use up more ingredients in full for your recipes. It’d make more sense to me.
I strongly recommend better than bullion instead of broth cartons. You can make precise amounts and it lasts forever, even when opened.
Thanks for that tip, Kiki! We’ll check it out!
Hi Suzy
I love this soup but my partner has high cholesterol – is this amount of olive oil ok for people with cholesterol or should I reduce the amount or leave it out?
Thanks
Hi, Bill. Whether the amount of olive oil here would be okay for your partner is something we can’t really answer as we aren’t medical professionals who are familiar with his health needs. If you have concerns, I would definitely omit it, or at least omit the 1/3 cup added at the end.
Excellent recipe, delicious soup was worried about the amount of olive oil, but went ahead anyway using a good Greek oil as recommended. It did add to the dish and was definitely worth doing.
Served this with toasted sourdough. One of my roommates asked me to make it again soon! Minimal ingredients and straightforward recipe. Definitely recommend! 😀
Thanks, Ben!
After reading some comments I’m really excited to make this soup today.
What do you think about adding some ground turkey? I haven’t made it yet, but reading some of the posts about other folks altering the ingredients, I wondered about that for a little extra heartiness and because I have some on hand that I need to use up!
I think that would be delicious, Karen!
This soup hit the spot on this windy rainy day. It was so easy to make. I’m trying to eat more vegetables, so I added kale at the end with the parsley and lemon juice.
So good!
Made exactly as written (used immersion blender though and blended more than called for) and it was delicious with sourdough.
Easy, too:)
Thanks for a keeper!
That is a lot of oil. Why would so much be necessary?
It’s a little over 1 tblsp of healthy olive oil per serving. I personally don’t feel that’s “a lot” 😊 🤷🏻♀️ but you do you;)
This was sooOO good! This is my new favorite soup. The lemon was amazing! Thank you for such a healthy and delicious recipe!
If I’m craving a soul satisfying comfort meal, I come for a Suzy recipe. This soup was amazing. Thank you for another healthy delicious recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it, Theresa!
Hi Suzy – made a number of your soups/stews each oe delicious. I like to batch make a freeze. – I look though Q&A’s to filter out those suitable for freezing. Can you free this one?
Thanks 🙂
You can!
We made this soup and we really like it. My wife and I prefer creamy soup so I use blender for entire soup. Perfect for sandwich dipping during lunch break
Really delicious meatless soup – with a spicy kick! I used my immersion blender to partially blend it. It’s also delicious as leftovers!
Great idea! Thanks for sharing, Robyn!