Stewed Romano Beans With Tomatoes

Stewed Romano Beans With Tomatoes
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Total Time
About 35 minutes
Rating
4(231)
Notes
Read community notes

Romanos hold up to longer cooking, as you’ll see when you make this dish. Even when they soften, after 20 minutes of braising or stewing, they still have plenty of texture, their color remains good and they become somewhat juicy. If you can’t find romano beans use regular green beans. Just reduce cooking time to 15 minutes.

Featured in: Romanos Aren’t Just Any Green Beans

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Ingredients

Yield:Serves 4 to 6
  • 3tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1large red onion, finely chopped
  • Salt
  • 2large garlic cloves, minced
  • pounds fresh romano beans, trimmed and cut in 2- to 3-inch lengths
  • 1cup grated or chopped peeled tomatoes (about ¾ pound)
  • ¼cup chopped fresh dill
  • Ground black pepper
  • Feta cheese for topping
  • Cooked pasta or grains, such as bulgur, quinoa, polenta or brown rice (optional)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)

178 calories; 7 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 23 grams carbohydrates; 8 grams dietary fiber; 3 grams sugars; 7 grams protein; 476 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat in a wide, lidded skillet or Dutch oven and add onion and a pinch of salt. Cook gently without browning, stirring often, until tender and translucent, about 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, for another minute, until fragrant.

  2. Step 2

    Stir in romano beans, tomatoes and half the dill. Add ½ cup water, bring to a simmer, season with salt and pepper, cover and simmer 20 minutes, until beans are tender. Stir in remaining dill and olive oil and simmer another 2 to 3 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings.

  3. Step 3

    Serve hot, warm or room temperature, with feta sprinkled over the top. If serving as a main dish, serve over cooked grains such as bulgur, quinoa, polenta or brown rice, or toss with pasta.

Tip
  • If you can’t find romano beans, use regular green beans. Reduce the first 20 minutes of simmering to 15 minutes.

Ratings

4 out of 5
231 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

When beans and tomatoes from the garden are threatening to overwhelm us, I make a giant pot of this, but only simmer for 10 minutes. Then I freeze it in meal-sized portions, to savor summer all winter long. (If you're using the feta, add it when serving.) Some in my household don't care for dill, so I substitute Greek oregano or thyme -- either is delicious.

I blanch any green beans, including Romano. Cool them. Heat 2 T olive oil with minced garlic. Chop fresh tomato or in winter use canned. S&P, grate fresh nutmeg, Put beans in this sauce to warm thru or cook until you like the doneness. Chopped basil to top, or in winter, chopped parsley. No cheese.

This is redundant with simmering them with the herbs, all you're doing is making a soup out of the blanching water and discarding whatever flavor ends up in it. This isn't a high heat method that would benefit from blanching. It's important to understand why we do things in the kitchen, especially when you're suggesting taking an extra step to take the recipe more complex.

This is one of my favorite recipes, have made literally 50 times or more. Can't wait for my local romano beans to come into season. Love it with orzo as a main dish, or with anything else as a side dish. Cook hot, warm or cold. Use canned tomatoes if you are out of fresh ones. Superb with the dill, very good without it.

Made this with couscous and seared haloumi cheese. Used parsley and basil from my garden instead of dill. Delicious!

This year our farm market had romano beans for the first time in memory. I used to buy them canned (gasp) and make them with tomatoes, so I was excited to see this recipe for using fresh beans. It turned out great. I'm not going to use pasta with it, just eat as is for a side dish. I did make enough to freeze some, it'll be pretty tasty this winter!

I love romano beans I had them as a child, unfortunately I can't always find them fresh here. So I grew my own romano beans this year. I was so excited to find this recipe, fresh tomatoes and romano beans are a natural together. This recipe is good hot or at room tempature, simple enough to make and wonderful as a side dish.

I wait all year for the few weeks I can find Romano beans at the farmers market. Best and easiest: clean, trim, and snap 2-3 lb into app 2-inch sections. In heavy Dutch oven, melt 8 oz salted butter, add beans and stir to coat w wooden spoon. Do NOT add any water or other liquid. Grate LOTS of black peppercorns over the beans, cover and just simmer on low for 1-2 hours, until beans are really soft (unlike almost all other bean preps), even better if slightly browned in the butter. Salt if needed

My family had never eaten Romano beans. Stewed vegetables don't sound appealing but this recipe was a big hit. The beans become tender and almost meaty. I made it with chicken stock instead of water and served over pasta. The dill and feta really compliment the romano bean flavor but Basil and parmesan would be good too. I'm These beans are really healthy as they are high in fiber and protein

This is a great recipe and one of our favorites even without the dill. Because of it, I have discovered how wonderful Romano beans are especially when they are in season at the local farmers market.

Made this last night, simple recipe made with good ingredients makes for a delicious dish. Didn't use any grains as I wanted a side dish, and this was ideal.

This is a wonderful recipe. I've made it several times with fresh Romano beans from the farmers' market.

I finally found Romano-type bean seeds again and grew these this summer after several years’ hiatus. I’ve always cooked them like this, but the dill is new for me and very good in this dish. Sometimes I add some hot pepper, and a squeeze of lemon. Leftovers taste even better.

I made this tonight, cut out the feta, and had a piece of local salmon over it with lemon zest and lemon juice. Delicious!! I used sweet 100s so there was skin, but still enjoyed it

Surprisingly good, especially considering I forgot the garlic cloves. I added garlic powder in the last 5 min when I realized.

Simply divine!

First time eating these beans, thanks to the CSA. Supplemented with some regular green beans too. Forgot to add feta, but still thought it was super tasty! Husband found the beans “squeaky,” but I didn’t mind that at all.

This is so tasty, terrific and easy. Fresh dill Is the perfect herb to flavor it. I’ve made other versions of this recipe but none call for feta on top— thank you for that delicious suggestion, Martha Rose Shulman.

Really good and easy to make. I used fresh basil instead of dill because I didn’t have any. Didn’t have feta so used a local hard cheese. Next time I think I will use red pepper flakes.

Very good. Haven't had stewed beans before but the flavor was really good. I forgot to add the feta to serve which I'm sure would have made them even tastier. Served without grain, etc.

Cooked and ate Roma beans for the very first time! Made it exactly according to recipe except that I had to simmer it a little longer. This came out great! The dill and Feta make this special. The leftover the next day was good, too! A keeper recipe.

Very hard to find fresh Romano beans. Found frozen ones and they worked very well. Used canned tomatoes as well, and had shallots so used them. Very good.

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