Loubieh bi Zeit

The Method for Loubieh bi Zeit

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1. Soften the onions in the oil over medium-low heat for 12 minutes, until sweet and translucent but not coloured.

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2. Add the garlic and cook 2 minutes.

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3. Stir in the tomato purée and let it darken for 2 minutes.

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4. Add the beans and turn them over in the oil until glossy.

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5. Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper, allspice and water. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook 40 minutes over low heat.

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6. Uncover for the last 8 minutes if the sauce is loose. The beans should be completely soft and the sauce thick enough to hold its shape on a spoon.

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7. Take off the heat, add the finishing oil, and cool to room temperature. Serve with lemon.

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Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.

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Things to Watch For

1. Cook them soft. Crisp beans are the wrong dish.
2. Do not cut the oil — it is the sauce, not a cooking medium.
3. Room temperature, with lemon at the table.

If You're Missing Something

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

Good to Know About Loubieh bi Zeit

This is a dish about overcooking on purpose. A green bean cooked to the crisp-tender point tastes raw and squeaks against the tomato; cooked for forty minutes it goes olive-drab, silky, and sweet, and takes up the oil in a way a firm bean cannot. Resist the urge to shorten it. The oil quantity looks high because it is doing the work of a sauce — this is a bzeit dish, meaning literally "in oil", and it is eaten cool when that oil has thickened.

To Go With It

Rice · Flatbread · Feta or labneh

Leftovers

Refrigerated for 5 days, better on day two. It does not freeze well — the beans go mushy.

Quick Answers

Nutrition per Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. Garnishes, greasing and other items with no amount are not counted. How the figures are worked out.

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