Avicas con Prassa: Sephardic White Beans with Leeks

Okay, it’s time for another post-holiday detox for me. And so, in the spirit of healthy eating, I bring you avicas con prassa, a super-creamy Sephardic white bean and leek stew in a tomato sauce.

This simple stew is so much more than the sum of its admittedly humble ingredients. It’s deliciously rich, and pretty easy to prepare—doubly so if you opt for canned beans rather than dried.

Leeks are notoriously gritty, but as long as you have a salad spinner there’s a painless way to clean them for this recipe: trim the ends and dark green parts, chop the leeks into rings, separate them, throw them in the salad spinner, rinse a few times until all the dirt is gone, and spin to dry. Or, if you like, you can scrap the leeks altogether and sub in sliced white onions.

Legume stews have go way back in Jewish food history, dating to biblical times (Esau’s lentil stew, anyone?). Fava beans (avas in Ladino), which are mentioned in the Torah, became a staple of pre-expulsion Sephardic cookery. After the Columbian Exchange brought a wider variety of beans to Europe (specifically haricot beans, from the genus Phaseoulus, which includes such common varieties as black, cannellini, kidney, navy, and pinto, to name a few), small dried white beans (fijones in Greek), came to supplant the fava, becoming commonplace in Sephardic cooking. Gil Marks notes that, in Sephardic cuisine, white beans are generally seasoned sparingly so as not to overpower their delicate flavor.

Though white beans have a number of uses in Sephardic cooking—from mezze salads to stuffed grape leaves (yaprakes con avicas)—the most widespread and popular preparations are white bean and tomato stews and soups, called avicas, a diminutive form of avas (because haricot beans are smaller than favas). Cooking legumes with tomatoes and onions or leeks is a signature of Sephardic cuisine in Turkey and the Balkans. The dish can be prepared with meat (generally made as a more liquidy dish, called  sopa de avicas or simply avicas) or pareve, in which case less water is used and the avicas is served a side dish over rice or with bread to sop up the caldo (sauce).

Avicas was especially popular in the Greek Sephardic stronghold of Salonika, where it was enjoyed as everyday food as well on Shabbat. The vegetarian version is served with rice at dairy meals, including during the nine days preceding the fast of Tisha b’Av and for Thursday night dinner.

Bean stews like avicas con prassa were especially popular for Shabbat, since they could stay on the fire overnight without drying out or losing texture. In some areas, avicas came to replace the Iberian hamin (kind of like Sephardic cholent). Sopa de avicas with meat was a popular Friday night entrée); leftover soup was left to simmer overnight and served for lunch with arroz (rice with tomatoes).

This recipe for avicas con prassa is slightly adapted from Gil Marks’s Olive Trees and Honey.

Sephardic White Beans with Leeks (Avicas con Prassa)

1 pound (about 2 1/3 cups) cannellini, navy, or other dried white beans, picked over, soaked for 8 hours, and drained, or 3 cans of white beans

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 leeks, sliced crosswise into ½ inch rings, washed and drained

2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups tomato sauce or puree or 1 pound fresh plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped (about 2 ½ cups)

1 ½ teaspoons salt

Ground black pepper to taste

Juice of 1 lemon (optional)

If using dried beans, put the soaked beans in a large pot and add water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until tender, about 1 hour. Drain off the cooking liquid. If using canned beans, drain and rinse.

In a large, heavy saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the leeks and sauté until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 more minute. Add the beans, tomato, salt, and pepper. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. Add lemon juice, if using, and remove from heat. Serve warm or at room temperature, with bread or over rice. This recipe makes 5–6 servings.

Sources: Encyclopedia of Jewish Food (Gil Marks, 2010); Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities around the World (Gil Marks, 2004)

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