Elephant beans

Duck59

Duck59

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I first came across these a few years ago when I was visiting a friend and he cooked a meal using these huge beans. They were delicious and I asked him about them. He told me they were Greek but that was about as much as he knew.

They are, more correctly, known as gigante beans. They also seem to be very hard to find, certainly in the UK. I've seen them occasionally in prepared format in tomato sauce, very much in the manner of the humble baked bean.

Has anybody come across these in their travels and even more importantly, does anyone know where to get them?
 
You can buy them on-line dried. They aren't cheap. £3.49 for 500g. In fact you can get them from Scotland's first on-line Greek shop!http://agoragreekdelicacies.co.uk/shop/4570272296/giant-beans-500gr/5662151 If you can pick them up from their premises in Glasgow there is no delivery charge. Otherwise £2.50 to post. I guess it might be worth it if you buy more than one pack. I don't really understand why they are so expensive....

The supermarkets only sell the cooked beans in jars which I've never bought as they are stupidly expensive!
 
morning glory said:
You can buy them on-line dried. They aren't cheap. £3.49 for 500g. In fact you can get them from Scotland's first on-line Greek shop!http://agoragreekdelicacies.co.uk/shop/4570272296/giant-beans-500gr/5662151 If you can pick them up from their premises in Glasgow there is no delivery charge. Otherwise £2.50 to post. I guess it might be worth it if you buy more than one pack. I don't really understand why they are so expensive....

The supermarkets only sell the cooked beans in jars which I've never bought as they are stupidly expensive!
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I wasn't aware of that shop. It's handy that they have an online shop as it's a bit of a trek to Weegieland from here. We've got oodles of Italian shops in Edinburgh, the best of which is Valvona and Crolla. It's so good, it's worth a link:

http://www.valvonacrolla.co.uk/

I used to work just round the corner from the shop and it required a great deal of willpower to avoid going there every day.
 
I have never even heard of Elephant Beans so I goggled it and I seen where you can actually buy them here at the local market.
I am interested now in trying them out. I love all different types of beans so I am willing to give them a try.
 
I have never heard of these. My father is a fan of all things bean related, I enjoy them as well. My guess is that he would love these. There seems like there are so many unique and interesting foods in the world, and I amazed when I hear about something new. I just found out from the Food Network magazine that pumpkins come in a variety of colors besides the traditional orange.
 
Had them last month in Zante with vegetables and a smoked paprika sauce
 
I clicked on the link because this is the first time I've heard of Giant Beans nor Elephant Beans. Anyway, if I am not mistaken, we have that here as the contemporary of the red beans (kidney beans to some) that we use for cooking chili beans, the Mexican style. But those white beans are mostly used for delicacies like the halo-halo which is a concoction of sweetened plantain, beans, yam, coconut palm fruit and mixed with crush ice, milk and sugar. The giant beans are rarely mixed in dishes.
 
I have never heard of this type of bean before. I see there are recipes for it on Pinterest, some of the information there says Lima Beans can be subed for the giant beans in the recipe if you do not have any elephant beans handy.
 
I've had them in veggie curries and chillis, but then again I'll use anything by way of vegetables in those. I quite like using things like these beans or butter beans because they are quite absorbent and soak up the flavours.
 
This is a new one to me, so I will have to research it. I have loved beans since I was a child, and can digest most, other than black beans. For some reason, I have a real issue digesting black beans. I'll have to see if I can find these near me, so I can try them. Can someone familiar with them equate them taste wise with another type of bean, so I/we know what to expect, and how to approach cooking them?
 
cupcakechef said:
I tried to search for "Elephant beans Japan" since I'm living in Japan right now - and the first article that came up was about a Japanese beer made from elephant digested coffee beans. Not quite what I was looking for, but thanks anyway, Google :laugh::laugh::laugh:
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I did the same search only for the UK... Elephant dung coffee was my result! In fact the first 4 entries were all the same!

elephant.jpg
 
Duck59 said:
"Elephant dung" - something of a metaphor for Google, really.
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I love Google. :love: Where would I be without Google? Certainly not posting In the Pink quizzes. In fact, I wouldn't even be on this wonderful forum! Admittedly it has ruined those Pub moments when someone asks a drunken question. In the old days we would have happily argued about the right answer for a good 20 minutes. Now, someone just whips out their phone and googles the answer.
 
I'm afraid I cannot be enthused by mega corporations that indulge in aggressive tax avoidance, sell your personal details wherever they can, pretend that they are somehow philanthropic and generally want to take over the planet. I have this recurring fear that one day, everyone will live in a Google house in a Google town, drive a Google car, have a home full of Google gadgets, eat Google food and work for, um, Google.

End of rant. Feel better. Where were we? Oh, yes, elephant beans.
 
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