Antalya Usulü Tahinli Piyaz
Antalya Usulü Tahinli Piyaz·(ahn-tahl-yah oo-soo-loo tah-heen-lee pee-yahz)
Meze & Muhabbet (The Evening Table)
Outside of Turkey's Mediterranean coast, piyaz is just a pleasant white bean salad, but in Antalya, it is a masterpiece. The grandmother-approved secret here isn't an obscure ingredient—it's practical physical chemistry. By briefly simmering high-quality canned beans, you resurrect their creamy texture and create the warm, starchy broth necessary to temper the tahini. Mashing a few beans directly into the sauce forces an emulsion that simply won't break, resulting in a rich, garlicky, lemon-spiked meze that tastes exactly like a night on the coast.
Before you start
Boil your eggs ahead of time.
Having the eggs peeled and sliced before you start ensures the beans and sauce are still warm when they hit the table.
Ingredients
- canned Navy beans or Great Northern beans30 oz
- bay leaf1 med
- kosher salt1 tsp
- tahini1/2 cup
- fresh lemon juice1/4 cup
- grape or apple cider vinegar4 tbsp
- garlic3 large cloves
- ground cumin1/2 tsp
- extra virgin olive oil1/4 cup
- red onion1 small
- ripe tomatoes2 med
- hard-boiled eggs2 large
- fresh flat-leaf parsley1/2 bunch
- Aleppo pepper or red pepper flakes1 tsp
Method
- 01
Place the rinsed beans and bay leaf in a saucepan covered with an inch of fresh water and a generous pinch of salt, then simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes.
Canned beans are dense and cold; simmering resurrects their yielding texture and yields the warm, starchy liquid required to properly emulsify the tahini sauce.
- 02
Massage the diced red onion with a pinch of salt and one tablespoon of vinegar in a small bowl.
This traditional technique kills the harsh, raw bite of the onion, rendering it sweet and highly digestible.
- 03
Remove exactly three tablespoons of the warm beans using a slotted spoon and thoroughly mash them into a paste in a mixing bowl.
The complex carbohydrates and starches from the mashed beans act as a powerful secret structural binder that prevents the final emulsion from breaking.
- 04
Whisk the tahini, grated garlic, lemon juice, remaining three tablespoons of vinegar, olive oil, salt, and cumin into the mashed beans.
The mixture will immediately seize up and look unpleasantly stiff or clumpy, which is exactly what it is supposed to do at this stage.
- 05
Slowly drizzle warm bean-cooking water directly from the pot into the bowl while whisking constantly until the sauce relaxes into a velvety, pourable consistency.
It should look and pour like heavy cream or thin pancake batter.
- 06
Spread the remaining drained warm beans across a shallow serving dish and pour half of the tahini sauce evenly over the top.
Discard the bay leaf before plating the beans.
- 07
Scatter the tamed onions and diced tomatoes over the beans, arrange the sliced eggs across the dish, and blanket everything with the remaining sauce.
- 08
Shower the plate generously with chopped parsley, a glug of olive oil, and a dusting of Aleppo pepper before serving immediately.
This is best enjoyed while the beans are still slightly warm.
Notes
Hydration temperature is critical.
Never thin the tahini with cold water from the tap. Cold water will cause the fats in the sesame paste to congeal and irrecoverably break the sauce.
From Cook Turkish in America.