Gigantes/Yiyantes (Greek Giant Baked Beans)


Having trouble watching the video? Try the Quicktime version.

This is a nutritious and wonderfully satisfying vegetarian dish. The name ‘yiyantes’ comes from the Greek word for giant (‘giant beans’). Yiyantes can be cooked a couple of different ways, and in this recipe Eva shows us how to prepare these giant beans in tomato juice baked in the oven (plaki-style).

3 cups of large lima beans (yiyantes)
½ cup of olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
4 pieces of garlic, finely diced
1 cup of chopped carrots
1/4 cup of finely chopped parsley
2 cups of crushed tomatoes, or tomato juice
Salt and pepper

Place 3 cups of washed lima beans in a large bowl and cover with water. Allow the beans to soak in the water overnight. Drain the water and pour the beans into a large pot of boiling water and blanche them for about 5 minutes.

In a large pan, add the olive oil and sauté the onions. Add the garlic, carrots, salt and pepper.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

After about 5 minutes of boiling the beans, remove them from the heat and drain the water. Place the beans in a large pan. Add the tomato sauce to the beans. Add 4 cups of water and mix well to ensure the tomato sauce is evenly spread.

Allow the beans to cook in the oven for about an hour at 350 degrees.

Serve as a side dish or as the main meal. Enjoy!

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13 Responses to “Gigantes/Yiyantes (Greek Giant Baked Beans)”


  1. 1 Joie de vivre

    What a fabulous idea for a blog, to not only preserve your recipes for following generations, but to preserve the way you make them and talk about them, beautiful.

  2. 2 Judith Kingsbury

    Hi,

    Great recipe, I haven’t seen beans prepared like this before. And the video presentation was so effective. We want to do the same on our new cooking blog (we’re working on it!), and this was very inspiring.

    Judith Kingsbury, Savvy Vegetarian

  3. 3 Daily Spud

    I love beans baked this way – delicious!

  4. 4 giz

    Thanks for friending me on FoodBuzz. I love Eva – she’s so much like my mother. I’m so making the Tyropita. I’ll blog about it within the next few days – hope that’s okay.

  5. 5 mercina

    Oh definitely that’s okay giz (thanks :)) – and thanks everyone for the kind words

  6. 6 lisaiscooking

    Fantastic recipe! I love gigantes.

  7. 7 Anu Sriram

    Wow… thats a wonderful recipe! The best part of it is being a vegetarian recipe for foodies like me..

  8. 8 Mercina

    Great, I’m glad everyone likes it!

  9. 9 Peter

    I love this Dish! i carry excellent Gigantes imported from Greece for this if anyone is interested.

  10. 10 Tom Pierce

    What have you got please, I have just paid $3.45 canadian for 750g of Large Krinos and $9.99 for 2 lbs of noname. Krinos not that easily available.

    Tom Pierce Vancouver Canada

  11. 11 Chazwyn

    i was really excited when i found this recipe- the only one i could find where the beans didn’t need a lot of boiling first thus making it simpler…. however, i followed the recipe but the beans were still rock hard after an hour! we ended up leaving them over 2 hours in the oven and even then lots were still not edible. the sauce was delicious though and the ones that were cooked were amazing! i am trying it again today but i have boiled my beans for about 40 minutes. Hopefully this will work better!

  12. 12 Mercina

    Hey Chazwyn,

    I find that letting the beans soak overnight in a bowl of water really helps

  13. 13 nc mls listing service

    Grandmas best organic Honey Lemonade Recipe: 1/2 gallon warm water, 1/2 cup honey, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice. Just mix it all with your hands (their warmth will disolve the honey and sugar) and pour mixture into a gallon container filled 3/4 with ice. Different styles of honey can be showcased in this great lemonade.

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