Recipe: Piyaz

I love the salad and meze culture. I even think that it can be a meal with only an appetizer or salad, especially on a full stomach (not very often when hungry). A delicious, healthy and satisfying appetizer recipe from Turkish cuisine... (The issue of whether the Piyaz is a meze or a salad is polemic. But let's called it by an appetizer...)

Piyaz

Our main ingredient is dry beans. Other ingredients are onion, parsley and sumac. In some regions, especially Antalya, they also add crushed sesame seeds (tahini/tahin) and some people prefer to add boiled egg also. It can be tahini; but I have serious doubts about eggs.

I didn't know, but I also learned that chickpea, broad bean and potato are used like beans in Ottoman cuisine. Speaking of chickpea, you can also check it out here: A Turkish Snack for Kids: Leblebi Powder (Kavut)

I want to warn you up front. In Turkey, just like meatballs, piyaz has many different recipes. In this recipe, the recipe that my own family has been following for years:

Boil 250-300 grams of dried beans and strain. Then we let it cool. We chop less than half a bunch of parsley and dill into the vessel we bought. Finely chop a medium-sized onion. Add two teaspoons of sumac, and paprika. Squeeze half of a lemon and mix well. When it comes to serving, we add two teaspoons of salt and two tablespoons of olive oil and mix well. On top of it, we cut a tomato as in the photo and put it.

Enjoy your meal!