Bean Salad (Piyaz)

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Piyaz comes from the Persian word for onion, but in Turkish cuisine, it has taken on a life of its own. Today, it refers either to a bean salad made with onions, parsley, olive oil and vinegar, spiced with red pepper flakes, and adorned with tomatoes, parsley, sumac, and slices of hard-boiled egg. Regional variations abound: some add green onions, while in Antalya, tahini gives piyaz its signature twist. 

In my hometown of Tekirdağ, one of Turkiye's two meatball capitals, piyaz is inseparable from kofte,  meatballs. One simply cannot be served without the other. But hınestly, piyaz goes with everything: grilled meat, warm bread, rice. One of  my favorite lunches is a bowl of cold rice and piyaz. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups cannellini beans, soaked overnight and cooked until soft OR 1 can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 small red onion, thinly sliced in half moons, kneaded with 1tsp of salt, then rinsed and drained
• 1 tomato, diced (in Turkey tomatoes are always peeled before being added to salads)
• 1 green pepper, thinly sliced (shishito peppers make a great substitute for Turkish green chilies)
• 1/3 cup parsley, finely chopped
• 1-2 tsp sumac
• 1 tsp hot pepper flakes (optional)
• a few black olives, pitted for garnish

optional but traditional

• 1 hard-boiled egg, chopped (I personally don't understand the appeal of rock-hard, bland eggs, especially cold ones. So I skip this part. But if your like them, go for it) 

for the dressing

• 1/4 cup (or a bit more) good olive oil
• 2-3 tbsp apple or white wine vinegar
• salt, to taste

instructions
-Arrange the beans on a flat oval or rectangle serving plate (not too deep.)
-Layer the kneaded and rinsed onions on top.
-Scatter the diced tomatoes and sliced green peppers. if using eggs, add them now.
-Sprinkle with sumac and hot pepper flakes.
-Top with chopped parsley and a few black olives for decoration.
-In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar and salt. Tast it, the dressing should be distincly tangy. Piyaz should be a bit sour. Vinegar should definitely come through!

-Pour the dressing evenly over the salad. 

-Mix well right at the table before eating, and dig in, preferably with a crusty piece of bread!

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Antalya Bean Salad (Antalya Usulü Piyaz)

Piyaz is what we call bean salads in Turkey, but the term is actually Persian and means "onion." Piyaz is usually prepared with cannellini beans and kneaded onion; dressed with olive oil and vinegar; spiced up with pepper flakes; and decorated with tomatoes, parsley, and hard-boiled eggs. Depending on the region, piyaz might have green onions or sumac. However, in Antalya, a beautiful city with magnificent beaches and  rich history on the Mediterranean coast, piyaz is made differently than the rest of Turkey. The difference is tahini and garlic, which had put me off at my first try because it was so different and incredibly rich than the piyazs I was used to. In Tekirdag, my hometown, and in Antalya piyaz is usually served with grilled meatballs. 

I've had different versions of Antalya bean salad in years. Sometimes the difference is how it's served; with or without onions, sometimes it's the beans; sometimes the beans are served warm and sometimes at room temperature; and sometimes it's the sauce; some add smashed or pureed beans to the sauce, some add a little bit of sugar to level the tahini, and some add cumin, which I liked a lot. This is how I make my Antalya bean salad at home to go with grilled meatballs.  

2 cups of cooked cannellini beans (save the cooking water)
1 small onion, cut finely in julienne or half-moons (in Antalya, they serve the onion diced, but I prefer julienne)
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
1 or two hard boiled eggs, sliced or grated (I don't like eating cold eggs, so I skip this one)
1 tomato, peeled if you feel like it and diced

the sauce

1/2 cup tahini
4 tbsp vinegar, red wine or apple
Juice of half a lemon 
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 - 1/3 cup olive oil

1tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cumin, if you want to try it with cumin 



-Soak the beans overnight. Bring them to a boil and then on medium heat cook them until soft but never mushy, they should be holding themselves fine. Save the cooking water. OR, ofcourse, use canned beans.

-In a bowl mix first tahini and vinegar to a smooth consistency. It will get clumpy; it's fine, it will loosen up. Just keep stirring. 

-Add minced garlic, salt, and garlic. If the sauce is thick, this is where we will add the cooking water from beans, a couple of tablespoons at a time, slowly. Use a whisk to get rid of clumps. Add water until you have a smooth tahini sauce, but not very runny. The tahini sauce shouldn't be too runny or thick. Since different tahini brands have different density, I cannot tell you exactly how many tablespoons of water you need. Finally add lemon juice and half of the olive oil and whisk again. 
-First place the beans on a plate (I like the warm bean version so I keep the beans in the pot until I serve them to keep them warm). In Turkey piyaz is usually served on oval, slightly deep serving platters so you have enough sauce to dip your crusty bread in.

-Slice the onion thinly julienne style and knead with 1 tsp salt in a bowl. Rinse and squeeze the excess water and place on the bean. 

-Add diced tomatoes on top.

-This is where that boiled egg will come. You can add the egg chopped or grated on top. 

-Pour the tahini dressing over everything on the plate evenly.

-Sprinkle finely chopped parsley on top of everything.
-Finally, dress with the rest of the olive oil and serve with a lemon slice or half a lemon on the side, because there's no such thing as piyaz being "too sour."  Piyaz is usually tossed at the table and you have to, have to soak that juice with bread! 

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Vegetarian and Minty Cannellini Beans (Zeytinyağlı Naneli Kuru Fasulye)

Cannellini beans, referred to as dry beans or simply as 'the dry,' along with rice is THE traditional Turkish dish. If there's pickled vegetables on the side, especially cabbage, voila, jackpot!  There are variations of this recipe based on what kind of meat you want to use, or although rare, a vegetarian version. You can cook dry cannellinis  with stew beef or lamb, with ground meat-my least favorite, pastrami (pastirma)-yumm, and/or soujuk (sucuk, Middle Eastern/Turkish sausage). 

Although traditionally the dish has meat in it, growing up in my house we loved the 'olive oil! i.e. the vegetarian version the best, especially during summers. Mom's vegetarian summer version has no meat but sweet green chilies, fresh mint leaves, and sun dried tomatoes. Delicious! 

For 4 people
2 cups soaked cannellini beans (1 cup soaked overnight makes ~2 cups) or 2 cans of cannellini beans [Although the taste will be different, you can use northern or navy beans as well]
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely

2-3 sweet green chilies or any peppers you like or can fine, chopped 

1/3 cup fresh mint leaves, finely chopped or 1-1 1/2 tbsp dry mint leaves

1/3 cup or more sun dried tomatoes, chopped

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tomato, grated or canned petite diced tomato

salt 

3-4 tbsp olive oil

-Put olive oil in a cast iron pot and heat [You can use any kind of pot, but beans are cooked best in cast irons or clay pots]

-Add onion and cook ~5 minutes until soft but not brown.

-Add green peppers and cook 2-3 minutes.

-Add garlic and tomato paste. Cook for 2 minutes. 

-Add beans, sun dried tomatoes, fresh or dry mint leaves, and grated tomato. Cook for 2 minutes.

-Add water to go almost an inch over the beans. Salt to your taste.

-Bring to a boil and then simmer covered on low to medium for 30-40 minutes. If you're using canned beans 30 minutes will be enough. If you soaked the beans overnight, check the beans after 40 minutes; they may need a good hour or bit more. 

-Enjoy with rice or any kind of grain on the side or crusty bread to soak that delicious tomato juice. Yogurt and pickled veggies on the side are most beloved sides for dry beans. 

  

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Collard Greens Soup (Karalahana Çorbası)

The apartment that I lived in Ankara was on the first floor of one of those old 4 story buildings with just two apartments on each floor and a back yard that the residents didn't care about. A month after I moved, I remembered that the building had a back yard and I looked over to check it out. Among various things that you can find in the back yards of apartment buildings in Turkey are gazebos with retired people gossiping about neighborhood people, junk, flower beds, people playing "okey," a tile-based game similar to Rumikub, or people drinking tea and eating sunflower seeds. Therefore, I was quite surprised when I saw collard greens in my building's back yard. And I am not talking about two or three plants here; I am talking about endless rows and rows of collard greens. Collard greens is an indispensable component of the Black Sea cuisine in Turkey, and it is difficult to find them outside that province. So I immediately knew there was a homesick Karadenizli (a person from Black Sea) in the building who apparently had a big craving for collard greens. I was right; our concierge Pakize was from Trabzon and capable of consuming a back yard worth of collard greens with her husband in 2-3 months.

The discovery of garden of collard greens intrigued me to cook with them. The next winter I borrowed a bunch of collard greens time to time from Pakize and made collard greens soup based on her instructions. Later, I had this soup a couple of times at different seafood restaurants, but they were not even close to Pakize's recipe. This soup, a specialty of Black Sea, is just perfect for cold winter nights. It has greens, beans, and corn in it; what else can you ask for?        


1 large bunch collard greens
1/2 cup dry white beans (cannellini or northern beans)
1/2 cup cracked corn (you can find cracked corn at Middle Eastern or organic food stores or feeder stores) OR 1/2 cup coarse grits if you cannot find cracked corn
1/4 cup corn flour
7-9 cups of water
3-4 tbsp butter
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp red hot pepper flakes (in traditional recipes you cannot find spice for this soup, but I think hot peppers, hot pepper flakes, or sauces makes this soup even better)

-A night before, put beans in a pot with 3 cups of water. First bring to a boil, then turn it off. Cover and soak overnight.
-The next day cook the beans until soft. (Or use 1 can of beans)
-Wash collard greens well, discard bad leaves and leaf tops. Chop the stems finely. Cut the leaves first into stripes, then into edible-size squarish pieces.
-Boil 7-8 cups of water in a big pot.
-Add collard greens and cracked corn into the boiling water. Cook until soft: ~20-25 minutes.
-Add beans.
-Add corn flour and keep stirring constantly while adding it to prevent lumping.
-Turn the heat to low-medium and cook for almost half an hour to let the soup thicken stirring every 3-45 minutes.
-Heat butter in a small pan. When it's hot but nit burning, add paprika. Let sizzle for a couple of seconds.
-Serve the soup with a spoon or two of butter and paprika on top.

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Cannellini Beans with Eggplant (Patlıcanlı Kuru Fasulye)

A great twist to a very traditional recipe: white beans, which are generally referred to as the national dish of Turkey.

1 medium size eggplant, diced
1 cup of dry cannellini beans, soaked over night or 1 can of cannellini beans
1/4 lb stew beef [for a meatier stew you can use more stew beef and for a vegetarian version skip it completely]
1 big onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tomatoes, diced or 1 can of diced tomatoes
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
2 green chilies (slightly spicy anaheims?), finely chopped
3 tbsp butter
frying oil, ~1/2 cup
salt
red pepper flakes

-Heat frying oil in a pan and fry eggplant until golden brown. Let fried eggplant cubes soak on a paper towel. If you want to keep the oil level low, you can bake the eggplant in stead of frying. Brush an oven tray with oil and place eggplant cubes. Bake ~20-25 minutes at 390F.
-Heat butter in a pot. Add onion and garlic. Stir until soft.
-Add pepper and stew beef. Cook until beef releases and then soaks its juice.
-Add diced tomatoes, 1 cup of hot water, salt, and red pepper flakes--optional, [and if you are using dry beans, add them now, too.] Cook for 30 minutes.
-Add fried eggplant cubes and beans [if you are using canned beans] and cook for another 15-20 minutes on low-medium.
-Serve hot with crusty bread and rice.

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Corn and Bean Soup (Pakla Çorbası)

This Black Sea Region recipe is a recipe from my dad's side of the family. My aunt invites the rest of the family over dinner (in addition to all the special occasions) when she cooks three special dishes. Number one is mantı, number two is dolma, and number three is pakla soup, which by the way draws more attendees than dolmas. This simple soup is so popular among the family members that there had been times when we fought over the second serving. The popularity derives from the limited number of times we get to have this soup in a year, and this scarcity is a direct result of a-hard-to-find ingredient: corn bulgur.

Corn bulgur although widely used especially in the Black Sea Region is rarely found elsewhere in Turkey or here in the States. Corn bulgur is parboiled crushed kernel corn made by a similar process that is used for common wheat bulgur.

When I got the recipe from my aunt years ago I asked her what to do if I cannot find corn bulgur here in the States, she suggested fresh corn kernels--it turned out fıne, but wasn't the same soup. However, back then I didn't know about grits. After moving to South, I was introduced to grits, cheesy grits in particular--I absolutely love it. Through explorations I came across coarse grits, which creates a very similar taste to that of corn bulgur in pakla soup, which literally means bean soup.


1 cup uncooked coarse grits (1/3 or 1/4 of a kernel coarse)
~ 1 cup dry cannellini beans or ~2 cups cooked cannellini beans or 1 can of cannellini beans
1 small onion, grated
2 tbsp tomato paste
3-4 tbsp butter
salt

1 small piece of bone-in lamb shoulder*

-Put  grits and beans if you're not using can beans in a pot filled with water. Bring to a boil, turn it off, cover and soak overnight.

-Next day put grits and beans in a pot with lots of water (~10-12 cups) with bone-in lamb shoulder and salt. Cook on medium for an hour or until both beans and grits are soft.

-In a frying pan, heat butter and saute grated onion until soft.

-Add tomato paste cook for another minute or two.

-Add onions to the soup and cook for another 5 minutes.

*You can skip the bone-in lamb or beef; this soup is also very good without addition of meat.

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White Beans (Kuru Fasulye)

White beans with rice is the traditional Turkish dish. It is to us what pasta is to Italians. If you have pickled vegetables, especially cabbage, with it, you cannot expect more. There are variations of this recipe based on what kind of meat you want to use, or you may completely skip the meat part as I do. You can cook white beans with stew beef or lamb, with ground meat, pastrami (pastirma), and/or soujuk (sucuk, Turkish sausage). My favorite kuru fasülye is with pastrami.

Very traditioanl version of Turkish white beans would definitely have stew meat, beef or lamb, and would probably not have green pepper. Since I wanted to make a vegeterian dish, I replaced meat with peppers.

2 cups of cooked cannellini: white kidney: fazolia
beans
or
even better dermason/whit beans(it's always tastier to use dried beans, but if you'll use canned beans do not forget to rinse them well) or 2 cans of those beans
3 tbsp olive oil or butter
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 onions, chopped
2 banana or red peppers, chopped
2 tomatoes, diced (If you want to use canned tomato, prefer petite diced one)
1-2 cup of water
1 tsp pepper flakes
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp salt
dried chili peppers (only if you like spicy food)


























-Soak beans in water over night and then the next day, boil them until soft OR pressure cook dried beans for 35-40 minutes OR use canned beans.
-Heat oil in a pot and sauté onion and pepper until soft: 7-8 minutes. Add tomato paste and stir for another 2 minutes.
-Pour in first beans, then tomatoes, and then water until the water level is 1/2 inch above the beans. Add salt, black pepper, and pepper flakes. Stir once or twice very gently (do not forget the beans are tender now and we don't want to smash them). If you will use dried chili peppers, place them on top. Cover and simmer on low for 25-30 minutes.
-Serve with rice, especially on top of rice. Turkish style white beans are awesome with pickled vegetables like white cabbage, cornichons, carrots, etc.

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White Beans with Pastrami (Pastırmalı Kuru Fasulye)

What we call pastrami in Turkey is completely different from the lunch meat pastrami that you can find at the stores here. At Sahara Mart, I found this pastrami which was, to my surprise, a product of USA--not imported from Middle East. It looked like Turkish pastrami; however, it was way less spicy and as a result way less flavorsome and stinky.



















2 cups of cannellini: white kidney: fazolia beans or 2 cans of those beans
10 pastrami strips (I used 10, but you can use less or more)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves
2-3 banana peppers, chopped
1 tbsp pepper or tomato paste, or half & half
2 tomatoes, diced or 1 can of petite diced tomato
2 tbsp butter or 1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp crushed pepper
1/2 tsp dried mint flakes
1/2 tsp oregano leaves
1 tsp salt
2 cups of water

-Heat the oil in a big pot and stir in the onions and garlic cloves. Cook until onions are soft
-Stir in peppers and cook for 2 more minutes. Add the paste, cook for another 2 minutes
-Add tomatoes, oregano, crushed pepper, mint flakes, and salt. Stir for 4-5 minutes
-Stir in the beans (I used dry beans. I didn't have time to soak them over night, so I pressure cooked them for 30 minutes. Either soak them over night and then cook them in water until they're soft, or use canned beans) and water. Bring to a boil.
-Tear the pastrami strips in to bite-size pieces. Place them on top of beans with dried hot peppers.
-Seal the pot with aluminum foil and cover. Cook on low for an hour.

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