Fasulia

Fasulia is a stew of green beans simmered in a tomato and onion base, and a common everyday dish in South Sudan. The dish is also made in Egypt, so it is shared between the two countries rather than belonging to one.

Fasulia is a plain, home-style dish. It relies on green beans, vegetable oil, onion, garlic and tomato, and it is cooked slowly until the beans are soft and the sauce is well blended.

What it really is

The base is onion softened in vegetable oil, with garlic and tomato added and cooked down into a sauce. Green beans go into the sauce and simmer until they are tender and have taken on its colour and flavour. The result is a moist stew rather than a dry vegetable side, so the sauce is part of the dish.

The beans cook in the sauce rather than beside it, so each one picks up the flavour of the tomato and onion. Cooks vary the amount of oil and tomato from pot to pot, so the dish is best understood by its base rather than by one exact recipe.

How it's served

• Hot, in a bowl, with plenty of sauce.
• As a main dish in an everyday meal, with bread or another plain starch to take up the sauce.
• With no separate sauce, since the sauce is already part of the stew.

How to write it on the menu

• Name it as green bean stew and give the base: tomato, onion, garlic and vegetable oil. Show "Fasulia" first if your guests know the name.
• Name any protein you add. If meat, fish or stock goes into the pot, say so, since guests ask.
• The stew itself has none of the 28 declarable allergens in its base, but bread or rice served alongside may contain wheat, so flag the accompaniment separately.
• State the fat used. If the kitchen cooks with ghee or animal fat rather than vegetable oil, say so.
• Describe the method as simmered, and serve it hot.