White Bean Stew with Pastrami
Pastırmalı Kuru Fasulye·(pahs-tuhr-mah-luh koo-roo fah-sool-yeh)
Tencere Yemekleri & Sulu Yemek (The Weeknight Pot)
Growing up, this was the undisputed king of the Turkish home kitchen—the smell of a snowy Tuesday night in Erzurum, transported straight to an Ohio suburb. Kuru Fasulye is a humble, majestic stew of white beans enriched with the pungent, cured depth of pastırma. While purists might romanticize a clay pot in a wood-fired oven, modern Turkish matriarchs are nothing if not pragmatic, relying heavily on the pressure cooker to get this on the table for their families. The real secret to that luxurious, velvety sauce—a texture locals call helmelenmiş—is a tiny spoonful of flour toasted with the aromatics, and the sacred, non-negotiable thirty minutes of resting time before serving.
Before you start
Soak the beans overnight.
Place the dried beans in a large bowl and cover them with at least 3 inches of cold water. Let them sit at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours without salt or baking soda, then drain and rinse well before cooking.
Ingredients
- Navy beans or Small White beans2 cup
- unsalted butter3 tbsp
- olive oil1 tbsp
- yellow onion1 large
- Anaheim or Cubanelle pepper1 med
- all-purpose flour1 1/2 tbsp
- tomato paste1 1/2 tbsp
- mild Turkish red pepper paste1 tbsp
- hot water or low-sodium beef broth4 1/2 cup
- salt1 tsp
- black pepper1/2 tsp
- ground cumin1/2 tsp
- Aleppo pepper or crushed red pepper flakes1/2 tsp
- pastırma or basturma4 oz
Method
- 01
Build the savory base.
Heat the butter and olive oil in a pressure cooker or Instant Pot on the sauté setting. Add the diced onions and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 to 7 minutes, then stir in the green pepper and cook for 2 minutes more.
- 02
Toast the flour and pastes.
Sprinkle the flour over the aromatics and stir continuously for 1 minute to cook off the raw smell; this creates the subtle roux that gives the stew its glossy body. Push the vegetables to the side, drop the tomato and pepper pastes into the center, and fry for 2 minutes until they darken slightly and smell intensely savory.
- 03
Pressure cook the beans.
Add the drained, soaked beans to the pot and stir to coat them in the red base. Pour in the hot water or broth, then stir in the black pepper, cumin, and Aleppo pepper, leaving the salt out for now. Secure the lid, set to seal, and cook on high pressure for 25 minutes. Allow a natural pressure release for 10 minutes before manually releasing any remaining pressure.
- 04
Simmer with the pastırma.
Once the beans are tender, finally stir in the salt. Add the sliced pastırma directly into the bubbling stew and let it simmer gently, uncovered, on the residual heat for exactly 10 minutes so the spices infuse the broth without turning the delicate meat rubbery.
- 05
Respect the resting period.
Remove the pot from the heat, put the lid back on, and walk away. Let the stew rest for at least 30 minutes before serving, allowing the starches to retrograde and bind the liquid into a perfect, thick gravy.
Notes
Sourcing the meat.
Authentic pastırma, or Armenian basturma, is an air-cured beef heavily coated in a pungent fenugreek paste called çemen. Find it at a local Middle Eastern market. Do not substitute American deli pastrami, which is smoked and steamed.
The chemistry of salt.
Never salt the soaking water or the raw beans in the pot. Early sodium hardens the pectin in the bean skins, ensuring they remain tough no matter how long you cook them. Always wait until the beans are completely tender before seasoning.
From Turkish Heritage Kitchen.