Slow Cooker Gigantes

These slow cooker gigantes are so easy to make and produce saucy tender flavorful gigantes. We love how hands off this recipe is thanks to the magic of the slow cooker. Gigantes Plaki is a Greek dish of large white beans baked in an aromatic tomato sauce. Gigantes plaki can be served straight from the slow cooker as a main or side dish or meze. Perfect with crusty bread or easily spooned over rice, quinoa, mashed potatoes…you name it. We love to make them for meal prep. They are one of our breakfast staples on rotation. Perfect with toast and eggs making for a warm, filling, hearty and easy breakfast that provides a great mix of protein and fiber.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

• Convenience: Set it and forget it. Easy dump everything into the crock-potand let it do its thing.
• Consistent Results: The gentle heat cooks beans evenly, reducing the chances of burning or splitting.
• Energy Efficient: Slow cookers use less energy than stovetop or oven methods for long cooks.
• Enhanced Flavor: Beans simmer in their own seasoned broth, soaking up savory flavors over hours.
• Great For Meal Prep: Beans always freeze well so they are perfect for meal prep.
  
  

Slow Cooker Gigantes Recipe Ingredients

• GIGANTES: This recipe calls for using dried gigantes. We strongly recommend soaking the gigantes overnight in cold water before cooking them. Because gigantes / Greek giant beans are not always easy to find, you can use corona beans, large butter beans, lima beans, or the largest white beans / cannellini beans , great northern beans you can find.
• ONION: You will need I large onion either red or yellow onion.
• CELERY & CARROTS: We like the flavor the celery and carrot add to the beans so we always add 2 diced carrots and 2 ribs of celery.
• GARLIC: We add 5-6 cloves of garlic for flavor but adjust amounts to taste.
• TOMATOES: We use one large 28 oz tin of finely diced tomatoes. We also add water to the beans and the water and tomatoes make up the braising liquid. I sully use Pomi or Mutti.
• OLIVE OIL: We use extra virgin olive oil and you will need ½ cup for this recipe
• SPICES & HERBS: Along with salt and pepper we add dried oregano, dried thyme and chili pepper flakes. After the beans are cooked with like to stir in some fresh parsley and fresh dill.
  
  

How To Make Slow Cooker Gigantes

1. Soak Beans Overnight: This is an unavoidable step in our opinion when making gigantes from dry beans. Doing so re-hydrates their dense structure, reduce cooking time, and ensure they cook evenly without splitting their skin. Drain and rinse with cold water.
2. Chop Veggies: Chop up the onions, carrot, celery
3. Place Ingredients Into Slow Cooker: Dump everything into the slow cooker, give everything a good stir.
4. Cook: Set the slow cooker to high setting for 8-12 hours depends on the beans. I usually set mine for 8 hours and check and see if they need more time. After the 8 hour mark I will usually check on them every hour or so. It is VERY hard to over cook gigantes beans in the slow cooker.
5. Finish: Taste and adjust salt and pepper to taste, stir in fresh herbs.
6. Serve: Serve as a side or serve with crusty bread, feta cheese and olives.
   
   

Tips for Success

• Use fresh dried beans whenever possible. Most bags of packages of dried beans have a best before date or shelf date - look for it and go by that. The older the beans, the longer they take to cook—and some never soften unfortunately - I have def experienced that in my many years of cooking beans.
• Dried beans can vary significantly between packages (even within the same brand) even when labeled as the same type of bean depending on age, storage, moisture and region they were grown. So you may find this recipe yields a different texture/thickness of bean and sauce every time you make it. Sometimes most or all the beans will hold their shape perfectly other times some will split, sometimes you will get a thicker richer sauce because of that, but it will always yield a delicious batch of beans with a creamy texture.
• Cool beans completely before refrigerating or freezing. Label containers with date and bean type for easier meal prep later.
• Always taste for salt at the end—the slow cooker concentrates flavors, so some beans will require more or less than others.
• Gigantes almost always take way longer to cook than other beans so we strongly recommend soaking the beans in cold water overnight to help with the cooking time and ensure soft tender beans every time. We usually soak all our dried beans no matter the type. Unsoaked gigante beans will take way longer to cook. Also a note - it’s normal for the skin to shrivel/split when you soak them!
  
  

Slow Cooker Gigantes Storage & Freezing

• STORAGE: Store cooled slow cooker saucy gigantes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4 to 5 days.
• FREEZING: Divide the cooled beans into freezer-safe containers or heavy-duty zip-top bags. Freeze for 1-3 months. Move the frozen container to the refrigerator and let it thaw overnight before you plan to eat.
• REHEATING: Warm the beans gently on the stovetop over medium-low heat or in the microwave at medium power, stirring occasionally until piping hot.
  
  

More Recipes You Will Love:

• Greek Lamb Chops
• Greek Moussaka
• Greek Meatloaf
• Pastitsio (Greek Lasagna)
• Spanakorizo
• Greek Green Beans
• Classic Greek
• Keftedes (Easy Greek Meatballs Recipe)
• Lamb Giouvetsi
• Greek feta cheese dip (Tirokafteri)
• Gigantes Plaki - Greek-style baked white beans (Oven Braised or Quick Stovetop method)