Today, I am going to teach you how to cook Loubieh Bi Zeit- Green Beans in oil (لوبية بالزيت) a vegetarian dish (صحن نباتي) to go along with tuna fish, pita bread, homemade hummus and French fries. I am sharing the recipe that I use to cook this tasty dish. We borrowed our recipe from another user friendly website called Cook and Eat Lebanese. It is a great place to get authentic Lebanese recipes. I have also added a YouTube video from the same website. I will add some comments in brackets, just to give you a sense of our personal culinary touches and preferences.

Loubieh bi Zeit is a green bean salad and it is best served and eaten cold with fresh sweet onions. It is really easy to prepare and does not need a lot of ingredients. It is commonly served in many Arab restaurants, more specifically in the Levant and in Lebanon, as one of the main mezze dishes. It does not contain any meat, but some folks prepare and cook this dish by adding meat to this recipe. In such instance, Loubieh bi Zeit becomes Loubieh bi Lahme (لوبية باللحمة). Folks usually select beef for stew as a meat option. If you plan to have Loubieh bi Lahmeh, make sure to serve it hot and with rice.

Ingredients

– 1 kg tender flat green beans (around 2.2 pounds) / bag of frozen green beans (لوبية خضراء)

– 3 onions (بصل)

– 3 garlic cloves (ثوم)

– 400 gr of diced tomatoes (طماطم) fresh (طازجة) or canned(معلبة). (less than 1 pound)

– 1/2 cup of olive oil (زيت الزيتون)

– 1 teaspoon salt

– 1 pinch of pepper, sweet or allspice works just fine (بهار حلو أو سبع بهارات)

Directions

– Wash the beans then cut them in two. Remove the string if any. (Easier with a bag of frozen beans)

– Brown the thinly sliced onions and the peeled and crushed garlic in the olive oil.

– After a few minutes, add the salt and beans.

– Cover the cooking pot and steam on low heat for 5 minutes (we prefer a pressure cooker)

– Add the diced tomatoes.

– Allow to stew for half an hour on low heat, uncovered. (we usually cook the beans in a pressure cooker for around 8 minutes)

– Serve lukewarm or cold (we prefer cold and with sweet onions served on cold ice).

I encourage and invite you all to give it a try and let me know how it goes.

Sahtein!!!

صَحتين