Bean salad with onions, tomatoes, olives and boiled eggs – Fasulye piyazi

I love this tasty, nourishing Turkish bean salad, Fasulye Piyazi. At home, traditionally we serve fasulye piyazi with grilled meatballs, koftes. There are traditional restaurants, lokantas, at home that solely serve Turkish style meatballs, fasulye piyaz and pickled cucumber and peppers. This salad is also a great alternative for lunch, as I like to have, served with some nice crusty bread or in can be a part of a meze spread or accompany grills as a side.

I like to use both black and green olives, the Greek or Spanish olives work well if you can’t find Turkish olives.

Turkish cuisine is based on seasonal produce and very healthy; we have a wide variety of  salads (including this bean salad), hot and cold mezzes, vegetables cooked in olive oil  and they are all featured at my cookery book, Ozlem’s Turkish Table, Recipes from My Homeland; signed copies are now 25 % OFF at this link, if you’d like to grab yours. I am also delighted to share with you that we also designed this lovely Ozlem’s Turkish Table apron. It is special to my heart, as it is made in Turkey, with my hometown Antakya’s celebrated daphne leaves in the hand embroidered design – you can get yours at this link. Delivered worldwide including the US.

Afiyet Olsun,

Ozlem

Serves 4-6
Preparation time: 10 – 15 minutes

2×400 gr/2 (14 oz) cans of precooked cannellini beans
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
3 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
45-60 ml/3-4 tablespoon olives, halved and stones removed
2 hardboiled eggs, quartered
A handful of flat leaf (Italian) parsley, chopped
5 ml/1 teaspoon salt
30 ml/ 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
5 ml/1 teaspoon ground sumac – optional-
1/2 teaspoon paprika flakes – optional –
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place the cooked beans in a bowl, after draining its juice and rinsing over warm water. Work salt and sumac into the onion slices with your hands really well. This will soften the onions and make them more palatable. Add the onion, chopped tomatoes, half of the olives, parsley and paprika flakes into the bowl. Wisk together the extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice and pour over this mixture.

Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and combine well. Arrange on a serving plate and garnish with the eggs and remaining olives.

Serve immediately or refrigerate until required.

Afiyet Olsun!

Note: If you prefer to use the dried beans, you need to soak them in water overnight. Then drain the beans and put in a pan with plenty of fresh water. Cook about 60 minutes or until tender, adding salt toward the end of cooking time. Drain and set aside in a bowl, to be used in this salad.