The Bean Dish I Learned from a Turkish Grandma over WhatsApp

Antalya Piyazı — A Bean Salad Better Than Cowboy Caviar (gf, vg)

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Hello friends,

Somehow, I’ve blinked and it’s already the middle of summer.

Temperatures are climbing into the 90s, and even though I have air conditioning, it only has one mode: full blast. right. over. my desk. So, I keep it off during the day, which means, I don’t have air conditioning.

The heat, coupled with the fact that I want to be out and about on the weekends, means one thing: I need some quick and easy (and mostly no-cook) meals in my back pocket.

The words "easy" and "quick" are usually thought of as hack-y, and I wouldn't say that's my MO. If left to my own devices, I will spend an extra 45 minutes trying to make a meal 10% better instead of just eating dinner at a reasonable hour. I’ve driven a few people crazy over this, namely my parents and my husband. It's a bit of a problem, and I'm working on it. This recipe just happens to be part of that process.

Although it takes minutes to prepare, this dish is not some hack or shortcut. The flavors make me feel like I’ve been transported to the Southern coast of Turkey, enjoying a lovely light meal after a day of playing in the blue Mediterranean waters, slightly sunburnt and tired, but also relaxed and unbothered.

Sadly, a trip to the Mediterranean is not in the cards for me this summer, so this dish will have to do. And to be honest, it might be my favorite part of the picture I just painted.

Several years ago, my husband captured an accurate (and flattering, obviously), photo of me being relaxed and unbothered after a day at the beach in Turkey.

Antalya Piyazı hails from Antalya, Turkey, a coastal city where my brother-in-law is from. This dish is made of white beans, coated in a creamy tahini sauce sharpened with lemon and vinegar, piled with ripe tomatoes, and boiled eggs for heft. A scattering of thin-sliced onion for a sharp bite and a fistful of parsley cut through the richness of the saucy beans.

I received this recipe in the best way: an unprompted WhatsApp video from my 10-year-old niece, filming her grandma (who lives in Antalya) as she whizzed around the kitchen throwing together a large plate of Antalya piyazı. I'd asked my brother-in-law for his mom's recipe a month earlier and then completely forgot I'd asked. So when it showed up, it was a delicious surprise.

The video was funny and darling, but I’m afraid that if I shared it, you might be confused about how to actually make the dish. Let’s just say, what it lacked in instruction, it made up for in charm. A hallmark of the video was my niece repeating “şöyle”, which just means “like this.”

So, I’ve asked some questions, done some research, and written it up in a way that I hope is easy to understand.

I hate to call this just a “bean salad.” But fine, to keep things simple, I will call it a bean salad. Even the quick stuff, I'm not willing to skimp on. Cowboy caviar is solid, but it's definitely been dethroned for me.

Easy, quick, and not the least bit hack-y — that’s this dish. I hope you try Antalya piyazı soon, and let me know if it scratches the itch for a trip to the Mediterranean.

Black olives are not very traditional, but I’ve seen Turkish cookbook author Özlem Warren add them, and they work well!

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Antalya Piyazı

Servings: 6 as a meze, 3 as a light meal

Ingredients

• ~3 cups cooked Great Northern beans or Cannellini beans

  • or 2 x 14 oz cans, drained and rinsed

• 2 medium Roma tomatoes, 1 diced and 1 sliced in wedges

• 2 eggs, boiled, peeled and quartered

• 1/2 medium yellow or red onion, thinly sliced

• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley

• Olive oil, for drizzling at the end

• Optional: 1/2 teaspoon sumac

For the tahini sauce

• 1/3 cup (80 ml/~80 g) tahini

• 1 medium clove garlic, grated

• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) lemon juice (from ~1/2 lemon)

• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (15 ml)

• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, or more to taste

• 1 tablespoon of water, plus more as needed

• Optional: 1/2 teaspoon cumin

Method

1. Prep: Boil your eggs if not already boiled. I boiled mine for 8.5 minutes so the yolks were just set. Then submerge in cold water and peel. Slice each egg into quarters. Drain and rinse your beans and place them in a mixing bowl. Dice one tomato and add it to the bowl with the beans. Slice the other tomato into wedges. Chop your parsley. Slice your onion.

2. Make the sauce: In a bowl, whisk together the tahini, garlic, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, salt, 1 tablespoon of water, and cumin, if using. It should be pourable, but still thick and viscous. If too thick, add a little more water. If you’d like to add more garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, or salt, go for it!

3. Assemble: Pour the tahini sauce over the beans and diced tomato and mix to combine. Pour the beans into a serving bowl or plate. Sprinkle the parsley and onions over the beans. Arrange egg and tomato wedges, alternating, on top. Drizzle with olive oil and sumac, if using. Enjoy!

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Notes

(1) Variations: There’s no one right way to chop the ingredients. You can dice both tomatoes, and even the onions, and mix everything together. The egg can be chopped into smaller pieces, too.

(2) Prep ahead: Up to one day before you serve, mix together the beans and sauce and store in an airtight container in the fridge. Keep chopped parsley, tomato, onions, and egg in separate containers (also in the fridge) and assemble right before serving.