Gigante bean

Phaseolus coccineus · Legume

40 pairings

The gigante bean (Phaseolus coccineus) is a giant white runner-bean seed — the famous Greek "gigantes" or "elephant" bean — among the largest of all cultivated beans, a flat, broad, kidney-shaped ivory seed often 2-3 cm long. Mild, creamy and faintly sweet, it bakes to a soft, buttery interior inside a thin skin and is best known stewed in olive oil and tomato as the Greek meze gigantes plaki.

Picking a good onedrag

This season's cropOld, hard, will not soften

Cupboard stockThe plaki bean. Soak, drain, boil hard 10 minutes and simmer tender before it meets the tomato: a low oven in acid sauce cannot do that job.Everyday best

CoatIvory, a shade creamier and duller

SkinsA few split skins, the rest sound

Heft in the handHard and dry, the rattle a touch duller

Smell in the bagNeutral and papery, nothing off

What to look for, from this season's crop to old, hard, will not soften.

What one gives you

100%

Usable yield

Nothing to discard - refuse is 0 - so the number worth knowing is the swell: 100 g dry cooks up to roughly 297 g. Computed on dry matter from USDA's large lima (raw 10.2% water, cooked 69.8%), a named stand-in - USDA has no runner-bean record.

Preparing