Piyaz Recipe - Turkish White Bean Salad

What Is Piyaz?

Piyaz, pronounced as pee-ahz', is a simple Turkish bean salad recipe that you can find at any Turkish restaurant. Traditionally, it is considered to be the best companion of Turkish kofte. In Turkey, there are even kofte piyaz places which serve only Turkish meatballs, aka kofte and piyaz. You can't find anything else on their menu. Oh and yogurt drink ayran to accompany these.

This is a very simple side dish made with beans, tomatoes, onions and parsley. Then it is flavored with a salad dressing made from vinegar, olive oil and lemon juice. Another flavoring ingredient that gives piyaz salad its original taste is sumac. Please read on to learn how to incorporate this tangy spice in this salad.

This cold white bean salad is also known as one of the tasty side dishes for kabobs. Almost all kebab restaurants have it on the menu, along with cacik, roasted onions and ezme salad. So if you love kebab recipes as much as we do, you should give this bean salad a try. It pairs wonderfully with Adana kebab, lamb kebabs and chicken kebabs. 

Piyaz recipe has no strict measurements of ingredients indeed. Everyone can adjust it to their taste. You will always find vinegar and olive oil in bottles on the table at restaurants so that you can add extra on your salad. 

You might see different versions of bean salad in Middle Eastern, Greek and Armenian cuisines, but today we are sharing how we make it in Turkish cuisine.

Why Should You Make This Recipe?

• It is easy to make with a few simple ingredients that are not expensive. 
• It is ready in less than 15 minutes.
• You can make it ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator (for up to one day) until serving time.
• Piyaz is not only a side dish, it makes a wonderful light meal on its own. 

About The Ingredients

This Turkish salad recipe with white beans is made with a few fresh ingredients and a very simple salad dressing. Let's see them in detail.

• White beans: These are the main ingredients of this recipe. You can use cannellini beans, navy beans or butter beans. In Turkey, dermason white beans or ispir sugar beans are known as the best white beans to make piyaz. So if there is a Turkish grocery around you, you can look for these types. You can either cook white dry beans or just use canned beans as we often do.
• Onions: We do love using red onions, but you can use white or brown onions too. They should be thinly sliced.
• Sumac: It is a Middle Eastern spice with a tangy flavor like lemon and a reddish color. Sumac is one of the key ingredients in an authentic piyaz recipe. Just like when making Turkish sumac onion salad, we massage onions with it before combining them with the other ingredients. And you can easily find it at Middle Eastern markets or big markets with world cuisine sections.
• Tomatoes: Use juicy and tasty tomatoes like heirloom, roma, plum or cherry tomatoes.
• Parsley: You can use flat leaf parsley like Italian parsley. We don't recommend any other herbs for this salad.
• Salad dressing: Use a combination of extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar and salt. You can play with the amounts to your taste. In Turkey, grape vinegar is the common type of vinegar and often used in recipes like this white bean salad. Apple cider vinegar or even balsamic vinegar works fine as well in this recipe. 

Alternative Add-Ins

• Hard boiled eggs: It is quite traditional to make piyaz with eggs. The ones served at kofte piyaz restaurants are always topped with slices of hard boiled eggs. However, you can leave them out if you want to keep your salad vegan. 
• Peppers: You can add some chopped Turkish green peppers. Carliston biber or sivri biber are the most common types in Turkey. They can be found at Turkish grocery markets. You can use poblano, jalapeno, shishito or chili peppers too.
• More spices: If you want some heat in your piyaz salad, you can sprinkle some red pepper flakes, also known as pul biber over it as a garnish. You can use Aleppo pepper, black pepper or cumin too.
• Olives: Black olives or green olives are often used to garnish salads in Turkey. So if you are a lover of olives, you can add some in your bean salad. 
• Garlic: You can add a clove of garlic (mashed) in the dressing for more flavor.

How To Make

Prepare the onion: Make thin slices in half moon shape. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon of sumac on them. Massage them altogether with your hands for 10-20 seconds. This will help the onions taste better. Put them in a large bowl.

Prepare the remaining salad ingredients: Rinse the canned beans under cold water and drain them. Chop the tomatoes and parsley. Put all of them in the salad bowl.

Make the salad dressing: In a medium bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar (or grape vinegar) and salt. 

Assemble: Pour the dressing sauce over the salad and give it a good stir. Top with slices of hard boiled eggs if you want. Sprinkle extra sumac and drizzle extra olive oil over them and serve.

Variations

Bean Piyaz with Tahini: This special Turkish bean salad is called Antalya piyazi, which is the second famous version after the classic one. It is one of the local dishes in Antalya province, a famous city located in the South coast of Turkey. So it takes its name from this city. 

To make the tahini piyaz salad dressing, combine juice of 1 lemon, ¼ cup olive oil, 2 tablespoons of vinegar, ¼ cup tahini, salt and about 2 tablespoons of water. If you don't add water to the dressing, you will end up with a thick paste, rather than a salad dressing.

Although they are not as popular as white beans, there are a few other options to make piyaz. For example, you can substitute chickpeas, black eyed peas or even potatoes(boiled and diced) for white navy beans.

Expert Tips

• Don't skip massaging onion slices with sumac. This really makes a difference.
• Drizzle extra olive oil right before serving. 
• If you are planning to make piyaz ahead of time, don't top it with eggs. It is better to eat boiled eggs on the same day. So cook the eggs and place them on the salad when you are ready to serve.

Serving Suggestions

Although it is often served with kofte or kofta kebab, this delicious salad can be served in several other ways. 

• Enjoy it as a light lunch: This is a quite filling salad, so you can have it as a meal on its own. Pair it with breads like pide bread or lavash. Dip a piece of bread right into the bowl to get all the flavors in the juice. So good! Alternatively, serve it together with a bowl of bulgur pilaf and enjoy them together.
• Serve it as an appetizer along with several other mezzes: Some of our favorite meze dishes to serve together are hummus, babaganoush without tahini and mucver.
• Pair it with main dishes with meat: Some of our favorite meat dishes to serve with piyaz are beef stew, izmir kofte and kadinbudu kofte. Oh and Turkish style stuffed eggplant called karniyarik makes a perfect match too!

How To Store

Put the leftovers in an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Bring it to room temperature and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil when serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Bean Recipes 

• Turkish White Bean Stew 
• Black Bean Lentil Soup 
• Fava Bean Dip 
• Shelled Fava Beans  

More Turkish Recipes 

• Homemade Doner Kebab 
• Gozleme
• Lahmacun
• Haydari

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