Fasolada - Classic Greek harricot bean soup

Still nowadays this dish is considered as the Greek "national dish" and it has filled the hunger of many generations. Again there are some variations of it, from region to region, but I'll give you the one I grew up with and is a speciality of my mother's

Ingredients (for 4 people):
1 cup white haricot beans (if you can't find them you can use navy beans)
4-5 tbsp of olive oil
3 cups water
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks with their leaves, peeled and chopped
1 cup tinned, crushed or diced tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 vegetable stock cube
¼ cup fresh, flat parsley chopped
Salt
pepper

Procedure:
First you have to soak the beans in plenty of water overnight (for at least eight hours). You can soak them for longer, but you may need to change the water.

In a big pot first simmer the beans on medium-low heat for thirty minutes and then drain them in a colander. You fill the pot with water again, let it come to boiling point and add the haricot beans. Then add the olive oil, the onion, the carrots and the celery, reduce the heat to medium and simmer for one hour. Add the tomatoes, the tomato paste, the vegetable stock cube, the parsley and pepper.

Simmer on low heat for an additional forty five minutes to one hour, or until the beans are tender. Add the salt just before the cooking is finished. You never use an inox or other metal spoon to stir this food while is cooking. Only a wooden spoon because the beans can get hard and not cook properly.

The cooking times I give above are approximations. The main thing is to make sure the beans are soft in texture. Sometimes it depends on how good quality the beans are. If they are too crunchy, the soup is not done, so you continue simmering until the beans get soft enough. As for the texture of the soup you don't want it to be too thin but neither too thick.