Turkish White Bean Salad Recipe called Piyaz is a super tasty side dish that is packed with Mediterranean flavors. Combine white beans, tomatoes, onions and parsley, and then flavor them with a tangy salad dressing. Simple yet deliciously satisfying!
Piyaz salad is one of the easiest Turkish recipes that you can make in less than 15 minutes. Just like the world-famous Turkish shepherd salad, this white bean salad is a staple side dish in Turkey and pairs well with any dish you want.
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.
- 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.
