Gigantes Beans substitute

Best substitute

Large dried lima beans or butter beans

Use the same amount by dry weight as the gigantes beans you are replacing

Best for gigantes plaki

Close match

Big flat white beans that are botanically different from gigantes but behave almost identically in the pot.

Other gigantes beans substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Corona beans (fagioli corona)
Close match
Use the same amount by dry weight
Large flat white Italian beans that are essentially the same bean under a different name.
What changes
Best for
gigantes plaki, baked bean dishes, bean salads, braises
If you can get them, stop looking. Same size, same thin skin, same creamy interior, and they take the same cooking time. Practically indistinguishable in a tomato-baked dish, and the closest thing to a true one-for-one replacement.
3Canned butter beans or canned large lima beans
Different texture
Use Two 15-ounce cans, drained, for every 1 cup dried gigantes
The shortcut that saves you an overnight soak and an hour of simmering.
What changes
Best for
weeknight gigantes plaki, quick bakes, salads, dips
The trap here is timing, not flavour. Canned beans are already fully cooked, so if you bake them for the usual hour they collapse into a puree. Make the tomato sauce first, fold the drained beans in, and bake only twenty-five to thirty minutes to marry the flavours. Rinse them well, as the canning liquid tastes tinny, and hold back on salt.
4Cannellini beans
Different texture
Use the same amount by dry weight
Medium white kidney-shaped beans that are creamy inside and hold their shape reliably.
What changes
Best for
baked bean dishes, soups, salads, stews
They taste right and stay intact, but they are roughly a third the size of gigantes, so you lose the whole point of the dish, which is a big spoon-sized bean with a soft creamy middle. Their skins are also thicker and slightly chewier. Perfectly good food, just not the same experience.
5Great northern beans
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by dry weight
Small to medium white beans that are widely available and firmer than cannellini.
What changes
Best for
soups, baked beans, stews, salads
The most available option in an ordinary supermarket. They stay firm and separate rather than going creamy, so the dish comes out looking and eating like baked beans in tomato sauce. Fine as dinner, noticeably not gigantes. Cook them a little longer than the packet says to soften them up.
6Chickpeas
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by dry weight
A last resort when white beans are simply not available.
What changes
Best for
stews, tomato-baked dishes, salads
Do not expect a similar dish. Chickpeas stay firm and nutty and never go creamy, so the tomato sauce sits around them instead of being thickened by their starch. If you go this route, add a splash of water and mash a few of them against the side of the pan to give the sauce some body.

What is Gigantes Beans?

Gigantes Beans is Gigantes, also spelled gigandes and sold as Greek giant beans, elephant beans or fasolia gigantes, are very large flat white runner beans with thin skins that cook to a creamy, almost custardy interior while holding their shape.

Cooking tips

Gigantes are doing two things in a dish like gigantes plaki: they are the substance you eat, and their starch thickens the tomato sauce into something that clings. A firmer substitute gives you a thinner sauce, which you can fix by mashing a few beans into it.
Cook the beans fully tender in plain unsalted water before they go anywhere near tomato, wine or vinegar. Acid stops beans softening, so beans that are still firm when the tomato sauce goes on will stay firm for hours no matter how long you bake them.
Bring dried beans to a hard rolling boil for at least ten minutes at the start of cooking, uncovered, rather than only ever simmering them or cooking them from raw in a slow cooker. This is standard practice for large dried beans, including limas and runner beans.
Salt near the end of the initial cooking, not at the beginning. Salted water slows the skins softening on big thin-skinned beans and you get burst beans with hard centres.
Soak overnight in plenty of cold water, and if your beans are old and stubborn, add an eighth of a teaspoon of baking soda to the soaking water. Skip the hard boil later at your peril, and change the water before cooking.
Keep the pot at a bare, lazy simmer once the initial boil is done. A vigorous boil bursts the skins off gigantes and limas and you end up with a pan of loose jackets.

Frequently asked questions

Are gigantes beans the same as butter beans or lima beans?

Not botanically. Gigantes are runner beans, Phaseolus coccineus, while lima and butter beans are Phaseolus lunatus. In the kitchen they are close enough that large dried limas are the standard substitute, though gigantes are usually a bit bigger, thinner-skinned and creamier.

Can I use canned beans for gigantes plaki?

Yes, and it works well if you cut the baking time. Use two drained 15-ounce cans of butter beans per cup of dried gigantes, fold them into a sauce you have already cooked, and bake only twenty-five to thirty minutes. Bake them the full hour and they will fall apart.

Why are my beans still hard after two hours?

Either they are old, or you added acid or salt too early. Tomato, vinegar and wine all halt the softening process. Cook the beans to fully tender in plain water first, then build the sauce around them. Very old dried beans sometimes never soften properly at all.

Can I leave gigantes out of a Greek bean dish?

Not really, since in gigantes plaki the beans are the dish itself. What you can do is substitute freely among large white beans, because the tomato, olive oil, onion, garlic and dill are what make it taste Greek. Any big creamy white bean will get you most of the way there.

How much do dried gigantes yield when cooked?

Roughly two and a half to three times their dry volume, so one cup of dried beans gives you about two and a half to three cups cooked, which is enough for a family-sized tray of gigantes plaki serving four to six as a main.

Related substitutes

More legumes substitutes

Gigantes Beans substitute

Other gigantes beans substitutes

2Corona beans (fagioli corona)

3Canned butter beans or canned large lima beans

4Cannellini beans

5Great northern beans

6Chickpeas