Revithada (Sifnos Chickpea Stew)
The traditional chickpea stew of Sifnos, in the Cyclades — soaked chickpeas baked for hours in a lidded pot with little more than onion, bay and olive oil.
Revithada is the signature dish of Sifnos, a Cycladic island known for its clay pots and wood-fired ovens — traditionally, a sealed pot of chickpeas goes into the village oven on Saturday night and is collected after church on Sunday. The home version needs no wood oven: soaked chickpeas, sliced onion, bay and a generous amount of olive oil bake at 140C for four to five hours, or overnight at 120C. Nothing else goes in. They should come out creamy rather than soupy, finished with lemon juice and more oil.
Ingredients
- 500g dried chickpeas
- 2 onions, sliced
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 lemon
- 150ml olive oil
- Salt
Method
- 1
Soak the chickpeas overnight with a little salt.
- 2
Put everything in a lidded pot with water to cover by two fingers.
- 3
Bake at 140C for 4–5 hours (or overnight at 120C).
- 4
Check once for water; the beans should end up creamy, not soupy.
- 5
Finish with lemon juice and more olive oil.
Cents per portion, and the oven does all of it while you sleep.
The Greek pulse dishes
- Fasolada — Beans instead of chickpeas, same cheap pantry.
- Gigantes Plaki — The oven-baked bean version.
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Taverna Notes
The free Greek recipes are six of the thirteen in the guide. The rest of the book is the taverna itself: what may and may not appear on your bill, how fish by weight is priced, and how to order without being upsold.
Thirteen Greek recipes, and the language, law and labels of the Greek table.
- Thirteen Greek recipes with metric and US measures
- Regional food context and taverna guidance
- Menu and ordering language
- Restaurant pricing and consumer rules — including the prohibition on κουβέρ cover charges and the consent rules for bread and water
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