FOODS OF TURKEY
This cold bean salad is typically served with Turkish meatballs but can also be a great side dish to most meat dishes or also served as a mezze or appetizer. If you use the pre-cooked beans in a can, it can be prepared in less than 15 minutes. But if you decide to use dry beans, soak them in water overnight and boil them in the morning of the day you want to make the dish. After boiling, the beans should be cooked, but not too soft or mushy.
The dish is served cold or at room temperature so, if you cook the beans in the morning, make sure they are cooled before you go ahead with the rest of the recipe. If you use the beans in a can, after draining and washing the beans, you will be ready to go.
Slice the onions thinly, rub them with salt. In the meantime, slice the tomato and only slightly saute the slices in a separate pan. You can also use diced tomatoes. The tomatoes are not intended to be cooked at all, but cooking will ensure they are slightly softer.
Once you have the onions, tomatoes and beans ready, all you will need to do is to combine all the ingredients including some of the cut leaves of flat parsley but not the egg, and give them a nice stir being careful not to crush the beans.
Although the dish is just as delicious with just lemon juice, olive oil and vinegar, you may come across it served with some tahini mixed into the sauce especially in southern Turkey. Tahini makes the dish quite a bit more original and interesting, but also heavier. For variations, you can also determine how much olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar or tahini to use through trial and error, and based on your taste preferences. No strict rules here as tastes differ! Tahini, when mixed with water will first get thicker and then get a sauce-like consistency. I recommend mixing lemon juice, tahini, olive oil and vinegar, along with salt and pepper, on the side, until they are blended well before you mix them with the rest of the ingredients.
To serve your dish, spread out the refrigerated bean mixture into a hallow serving dish, decorate with a cooked egg sliced into four even triangles and the remainder of the parsley. My family likes dunking their bread in the delicious sauce of this salad, especially if it has tahini. Enjoy,
Gulenden
2009 Copyright. Foods of Turkey
Recipe: White Beans in Vinegar (Piyaz)
Nov 27, 2009
What is “tahini”? Tahini is a fine paste of sesame seeds used in cooking or served alone, commonly in the middle east. My favorite way of eating it? Mix it in equal portions with some “pekmez”, sweet grape molasses or condensed grape juice, and dunk your fresh bread and chow for some sugar overload. Mm, mm, mmmm.
Ingredients:
White beans (Cannellini)
(2 cups when using dry beans or one can of beans)
Onions (thinly sliced, 1/4 cup)
Tomato (sliced, 1/4 cup)
Lemon juice (2 tbsp)
Garlic (minced, one clove)
White vinegar (1/4 cup)
Olive oil (4 tbsp)
Parsley (1/4 cups, chopped)
One hard-boiled egg
Tahini (1-2 tbsp) (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
