lebanesedinner
Loubieh bi Zeit
Lebanese green beans braised in olive oil and tomatoes — a simple, beloved vegan dish.
Prep
15 min
Cook
40 min
Servings
4
Difficulty
Easy
4.7
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Lebanese green beans braised in olive oil and tomatoes — a simple, beloved vegan dish.
Loubieh bi Zeit — green beans in oil — belongs to the cherished Lebanese category of bi-zeit dishes: vegetables braised slowly in generous olive oil until silky, then eaten warm or at room temperature. It is the opposite of crisp-tender Western green beans; here the beans are cooked long past squeaky, until they collapse into the tomato-onion sauce and drink up the oil. This is everyday food, Lenten food, and summer food all at once, served with rice, pita, and raw onion wedges. What makes this version work is restraint and time: a slow sauté of the onions for sweetness, a full half-hour covered braise, and good olive oil used without apology — it is the dressing, the sauce, and the point.
Serves 4
Warm the olive oil in a wide, heavy pot over medium heat. Add the sliced onion with a pinch of salt and cook 8–10 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft, translucent, and just starting to turn gold at the edges. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more, until fragrant but not browned.
Browning the garlic makes it bitter — add it only when the onions are nearly done.
Tip in the green beans and stir for 2–3 minutes so they glisten with oil and begin to soften slightly. Add the diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, and allspice, then pour in the water. Stir well, scraping up anything on the bottom of the pot.
Cover and reduce the heat to low. Cook 30–35 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so, until the beans are completely tender — they should bend without resistance and have lost all squeak — and the tomatoes have melted into a thick, oily sauce. If the pot looks dry before the beans are done, add a splash more water.
Resist the urge to stop at crisp-tender; the dish only becomes itself when the beans are fully soft.
Taste and adjust the salt, then let the pot rest off the heat for 10 minutes — bi-zeit dishes taste best warm rather than hot. Serve with pita, vermicelli rice, or simply more olive oil drizzled over, and raw onion wedges on the side.
Flat romano beans are the traditional choice in Lebanon and turn especially silky — use them if you find them.
Don't rush the braise; the slow collapse of beans and tomato into the oil is the whole character of the dish.
A squeeze of lemon just before serving lifts the richness, especially when eating it at room temperature.
Make it a day ahead when you can — like most olive oil braises, the flavor is noticeably better after a night in the fridge.
Use an olive oil you would happily eat raw; with so few ingredients its flavor carries the dish.
Loubieh bi lahme: brown cubes of lamb or beef with the onions and extend the braise for the meat version served hot over rice.
Stir in a drained can of chickpeas for the last 10 minutes for a heartier vegan main.
Winter version: substitute a 400g can of good tomatoes plus a teaspoon of tomato paste for the fresh tomatoes.
Add a pinch of dried chili flakes with the allspice for a gently spicy southern-Lebanese take.
Refrigerate in a covered container for up to 4 days — the flavor genuinely improves by day two. It also freezes well for up to 2 months; thaw overnight and rewarm gently, or eat at room temperature as the Lebanese do.
Olive oil vegetable braises like loubieh bi zeit grew out of the Levant's agricultural rhythm — abundant summer beans, backyard tomatoes, and the region's defining olive harvest. The bi-zeit family is also tied to religious fasting traditions, since these meat-free dishes anchor Lent for Lebanon's Christian communities. Eaten at room temperature with bread, it remains one of the purest expressions of Lebanese home cooking.
Yes — frozen whole or cut green beans work surprisingly well in a braise like this because the texture target is soft anyway. Add them straight from frozen, skip the water, and reduce the covered cooking time by about 10 minutes. Fresh beans still give a slightly better flavor and a silkier final texture.
Traditionally warm or at room temperature, not piping hot — this is true of most Lebanese olive oil dishes. Room temperature lets the olive oil flavor express itself fully and makes it ideal mezze and picnic food. Many Lebanese eat leftovers straight from the fridge with pita for lunch.
The oil is not a cooking medium here — it is an ingredient. It emulsifies with the tomato juices into the sauce that coats the beans and the bread you scoop them with. Cutting it drastically leaves the dish watery and thin. If you reduce it, drizzle good raw oil over the finished dish to compensate.
As a vegan main, pair it with vermicelli rice and a chopped salad. As mezze, set it alongside hummus, labneh, and olives with plenty of pita. Lebanese tables often add raw onion wedges and pickled turnips, whose sharpness cuts the richness of the oil beautifully.
Per serving (250g / 8.8 oz) · 4 servings total
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