I really like Turkish food, and this is a delicious, easy dish to make. I posted a photo on Facebook earlier this week and a few people asked for the recipe, so here is the version I follow…
Please note, we judge things by eye, we don’t really measure things, you’ll need to adjust the recipe based on your taste. This recipe is more than enough for 2-3 people, we had leftovers.
Ingredients:
1.5 cups of dried white beans. (Dried cannellini beans is the name I believe, you can buy them in supermarkets in the UK – I checked).
1 or 1.5 onions, chopped
1 heaped tablespoon of tomato paste
olive oil
salt
red pepper flakes
water
First, you need to soak the beans in water for around 12 hours, or overnight the day before you plan to cook them.
When you’re ready to start cooking, drain and rinse the beans then put them into a large saucepan/cooking pot with 4-5 cups of fresh water, bring this to the boil and then turn down to a low heat. Leave this to boil gently for around 45-60 minutes, but keep checking back and topping up the water as required. You need to cook the beans until they are soft, but not quite fully cooked.
Once they reach this stage, you can begin to prepare the other ingredients, but don’t turn off the heat on the beans.
Add a little olive oil to a frying pan and saute the onion with the olive oil for around 3-5 minutes or until soft, don’t let them burn. (If you wanted to add meat, you could at this point, diced red meat works well. You could also add peeled, chopped tomatoes and/or peppers if you wish – we didn’t).
Then add your tomato paste, stirring it into the onions. Once it is all stirred together and soft, add this mixture to the beans and water and stir gently. You can add salt and red pepper flakes, we like this dish both salty and slightly spicy, so we added quite a lot of both.
Leave this on a low heat to simmer for around 20-30 minutes, or until the beans are soft enough for your liking, there’s no set time and cooking times vary according to the appliance, just keep an eye on the beans and keep testing them until you’re happy with the taste and texture.
The result is a delicious, hearty bean stew. We serve it with a plate of rice and fresh, crusty bread, which is perfect for dipping in and mopping up the ‘juice’ – yum! Berkay eats his with a quarter of raw onion covered in salt, I never understand that, it must be a Turkish thing!
It’s such a cheap and easy dish to make, it’s filling and really warms you up too so it’s a very popular winter dish here. We don’t make it too often as it uses up a lot of our gas bottle due to the length of the cooking time, but you can easily make it in bulk and freeze the leftovers. It’s also possible to skip the first 2 steps and use canned white beans instead, which greatly reduces the cooking time.
I’m always a little nervous posting recipes, I’m not a very good cook and all these Turkish dishes I learnt from Berkay so I’m hoping he knows his stuff and is teaching me well – it’s difficult to learn when he’s not very specific on exact measurements! Let me know if you try this recipe, or perhaps suggest a different version? Have you tried the dish before?
I’ll be posting a Turkish rice recipe soon.. (:
livingtheturkishdream.com 
That’s how we make it too! I like to throw one chopped and peeled potato in there to thicken it up a little. Sujuk is also a good addition but I find myself skimming the fat off the top. Ha! Keep at it. You are doing good!
It sounds good with potato! Might try that! Thanks Kim 🙂 x
we love this dish, we have a pressure cooker to make it in so it only takes around 20 mins to cook after soaking the beans overnight.
Ah a pressure cooker is a great idea, thats what we need! 🙂 x
Please,not another blog with Turkish recipes!!! Enough already. Keep doing what you have always done much more interesting.
Fair enough! 🙂 I don’t know many dishes anyway so recipes won’t take over x
Don’t be nervous it looks great, thank you x
🙂 A reader tried it out and it turned out well so that’s good hehe! x
Hi, I moved to Turkey this year and now trying out all the new recipes 🙂 This is exactly how we make it at home too, but I use canned beans, add chopped beef and some beef stock for a richer taste! Thanks for sharing your recipe)
It would be delicious with beef, might make it that way soon! 🙂
Reblogged this on Bennett Pilgrimages and commented:
Next time I am in Istanbul – http://www.kurufasulyeci.com/
In the meantime I have to learn to make this myself
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I have just moved to turkey (kalkan) a few months ago and I love your blog! Absolutely love cooking so just about to give this recipe a go x
Thanks, love Kalkan! Hope you’re settling in well. xx
I’ve made this twice now and my husband was impressed! I also live in turkey and this was my first go at cooking something like this
yay glad it impressed him! x
I have not dried ur dish, but I made a different item from the same beans. Cook your beans as usual. Heat a pan and put two spoons of oil of ur choice (I prefer virgin coconut oil). Once the beans are fully cooked, keep them aside. Chop two small onions and saut it in the oil for 10 minutes. Chop a large ripe tomato and add to the sauted onion and saut for 10 to 15 minutes until you get a creamy gravy. Add salt and now add the cooked beans, add water if necessary, cover the pan and simmer in low flame for five to 10 minutes. Once you are happy with the taste, add chopped coriander and serve hot or cold. I use it often as my breakfast as I am on a low carb diet. Try this.
I made the dish tonight and it came out perfect. Even my 4 kids enjoyed it. Thank you 🙂
Yay I’m glad! 🙂 x
Aww I’m glad 🙂 x
Lately I have been bingeing on Turkish Drama on netflix every night. Love the language the culture the cuisine-never eaten Turkish food but have tried to go online and copy 😊. I have even learned a few words. Would love to visit Turkey some day.
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You are so true, it must be a Turkish Things, my husbands eats his wit onion and salt. It is a favorite at my house as well.
Prepared dinner last nite, used your receipee, served with rice a spoon of natural yogurt, my husband couldn’t get enough of it ( he is Turkish ).. I’m not, but my cooking might as well be…👨❤️👨🍽🍷
Ha ha I’m glad he enjoyed it! X
I made this recipe yesterday for my hubby, he said it was great just like home makes, and it was delicious thanks for sharing
Oooh I’m glad! 🙂