Fasolada

Fasolada is white beans simmered slowly with tomato, carrot, celery and olive oil until the broth turns thick and the beans hold their shape. Greeks half-jokingly call it their national dish — a plain, everyday soup with no meat and no expensive ingredients, built entirely on beans, vegetables and a generous, unapologetic pour of olive oil.

What it really is

Dried white beans soak overnight, then simmer for a long stretch with chopped tomato, carrot, celery and onion until the vegetables break down into the broth and the beans turn tender but still whole, never mushy. Olive oil goes in generously, both during cooking and again as a finishing pour, and it's this quantity — more than a token drizzle — that gives fasolada its rounded, almost silky mouthfeel despite having no meat or dairy in it at all.

The olive oil is doing the work that meat or cream would do in a richer soup. Skimping on it leaves the soup tasting thin and unfinished — the generous pour is what turns a simple pot of beans and vegetables into something that reads as a complete, satisfying meal.

How it's served

• Hot, in a bowl, with a final pour of olive oil added at the table.
• With crusty bread, olives and a wedge of feta alongside, as a full meal.
• As an everyday main course, especially common in colder months.

How to write it on the menu

• It's naturally vegan and vegetarian.
• No major allergens are inherent to the base recipe.
• Say if bread, olives or feta are served alongside as standard, since these round the soup out into a full meal.