Pilaki: Turkey's Olive Oil White Bean Dish (Recipe)

Pilaki is a Turkish dish of white beans slow-stewed in olive oil with onion, garlic, carrot and potato, brightened with lemon and parsley, and eaten cold or at room temperature rather than hot. It belongs to the zeytinyağlı family of olive oil dishes, tastes better on day two, and is a fixture of meze tables.

Key Takeaways

• Pilaki is served cold or at cool room temperature — never hot. That is the clearest difference between it and kuru fasulye.
• Olive oil is the cooking medium, not a finishing drizzle. Roughly 3/4 cup (180 ml) per pound of dried beans, added at the very start.
• The word names a method, not an ingredient. Mussels, cranberry beans and whole fish all get the pilaki treatment.
• A pinch of sugar and a squeeze of lemon finish the pot: sugar rounds off the tomato paste, lemon keeps it from tasting flat cold.
• Chill it at least four hours, ideally overnight. The bean starch thickens the sauce and the whole garlic cloves mellow into it.

On almost every Turkish table in late summer, a shallow dish comes out of the refrigerator holding pale beans in a glossy amber sauce. Carrot coins. Soft cubes of potato. Whole garlic cloves gone sweet and yielding, under a drift of chopped parsley.

Nobody reheats it. That is the point.

Pilaki is the cold bean dish — patient, generously oiled, eaten with bread and a fork. It is meze food, fasting food and picnic food at once, and one of the few things a Turkish cook makes a day early.

This piece covers what pilaki is, where it sits among Turkish olive oil dishes, and how it differs from the hot stew and the bean salad it gets confused with. Then the recipe, troubleshooting, and six common questions.

What Is Pilaki, Exactly?

Pilaki is a preparation rather than a single recipe. The base never changes: plenty of olive oil, onion cooked down slowly, whole garlic cloves, a little tomato paste, and just enough water to make a sauce instead of a soup. Carrot and potato go in with the main ingredient. Lemon and parsley arrive off the heat.

When Turks say pilaki without qualifying it, they mean fasulye pilaki, the white bean version. The name came into Turkish from the Greek plaki, which describes the same style of cooking. What sets it apart is proportion: three onions to a pound of beans, and oil measured in cups.

Why Is Pilaki Served Cold?

Because olive oil behaves differently at different temperatures. Hot, a heavily oiled stew reads as greasy. Cooled, the same oil sets into something closer to a dressing — it coats the beans, carries the garlic and lemon, and stops feeling like fat.

Cooling also finishes the cooking. Beans keep absorbing liquid as they sit, so a pot that looks loose at the stove will be right the next morning. Starch thickens the sauce in the fridge.

Pilaki also has no meat, dairy or eggs, which made it a natural fit for fasting periods, and it holds for days — comfortably at home among the cold summer meze repertoire.

Stock the pot first: pilaki needs two pantry items — dried white beans from our dry goods and pantry range, and Turkish extra virgin oil from the cooking oils and olive oil selection. Buy an oil you would happily eat cold on bread, because that is what happens here.

How Is Pilaki Different From Kuru Fasulye and Piyaz?

All three are white bean dishes, and no Turkish cook would mix them up. The differences are structural.

• Kuru fasulye is the hot one — beans stewed with tomato and pepper paste, usually with butter or beef, served over rice. Our kuru fasulye recipe covers that side of the family.
• Piyaz is the salad. Cooked beans dressed raw with onion, parsley, olive oil and lemon, and in Antalya with tahini and egg. See the piyaz white bean salad.
• Pilaki sits between them. Everything cooks together as in a stew, but the fat is olive oil, there is no meat, and it is eaten at the temperature of a salad.

A quick test: hot with rice, kuru fasulye. Raw crunchy onion, piyaz. Soft beans, glossy sauce, served cold — pilaki.

What Kind of Olive Oil Should You Use for Pilaki?

Something you would put on bread. Much of the oil ends up in the sauce tasting essentially uncooked, and it is fully audible once the dish is cold. Neutral or heavily refined oil gives you a pilaki that tastes of nothing much.

Turkish extra virgin oils, mostly pressed from Ayvalık and Memecik olives on the Aegean coast, lean grassy and peppery, which suits beans. The differences between Turkish, Greek and Italian olive oils are real but not dramatic; freshness matters more than country. For bottles sold stateside, see our guide to Turkish extra virgin olive oil brands.

How Do You Make Pilaki at Home?

Enough for eight on a meze table, or four as a main. Start it the day before.

What You Need

• 1 lb (450 g) dried white beans, such as dermason or navy beans
• 3/4 cup (180 ml) Turkish extra virgin olive oil
• 3 medium yellow onions (about 1 lb / 450 g), finely diced
• 1 whole head of garlic (10 to 12 cloves), peeled and left whole
• 2 medium carrots (about 8 oz / 225 g), cut into 1/2-inch (1 cm) rounds
• 2 medium waxy potatoes (about 12 oz / 340 g), peeled and cut into 3/4-inch (2 cm) cubes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste (domates salçası)
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons fine sea salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cups (1 L) hot water, plus more as needed
• 1 large lemon (about 3 tablespoons / 45 ml juice), plus wedges to serve
• 1 cup (25 g) flat-leaf parsley leaves, coarsely chopped

How to Make It

1. Sort the beans, discarding stones and split ones, then rinse and cover with cold water by 3 inches (8 cm). Soak at least 8 hours or overnight.
2. Drain, put the beans in a saucepan with fresh cold water, and bring to a boil. Skim the foam, lower the heat and simmer 30 to 40 minutes, until almost tender but still whole. Drain, saving 2 cups (500 ml) of the liquid.
3. Warm the olive oil in a wide, heavy pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and 1 teaspoon of the salt. Cook 12 to 15 minutes, stirring often, until soft and translucent but not browned.
4. Add the whole garlic cloves and the carrots. Cook 5 minutes more, until the garlic smells sweet rather than sharp.
5. Stir in the tomato paste and the sugar. Cook 2 minutes, pressing the paste against the bottom of the pot, until it darkens.
6. Add the beans, potatoes, black pepper and remaining 1 teaspoon salt. Pour in the reserved bean liquid and enough hot water to cover by about 1/2 inch (1 cm).
7. Bring to a bare simmer, partially cover, and cook over low heat 35 to 45 minutes. Shake the pot instead of stirring so the beans stay whole. The sauce should end up loose, the potatoes tender.
8. Taste and adjust the salt. Turn off the heat, stir in the lemon juice, and leave the pot uncovered until it reaches room temperature.
9. Transfer to a shallow dish, cover, and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight. Bring back to cool room temperature, scatter the parsley over the top, and serve with lemon wedges.

What Goes Wrong, and How to Fix It

The beans burst. They were boiled hard instead of simmered. Keep the first boil brief, then hold the pot at a bare bubble and shake it rather than stirring.

The beans stayed hard. Old beans are the usual culprit — dried beans well past harvest may never soften. Acid slows them too, which is why the lemon goes in last.

It tastes flat. Cold food needs more seasoning than hot. Salt again after chilling and add another squeeze of lemon.

Variations: barbunya (cranberry beans) give a pinker, softer pot; black-eyed peas take the same treatment and cook far faster.

What Else Gets the Pilaki Treatment?

Midye pilaki — mussels in the same onion, garlic and olive oil base, always served cold — is a classic of Istanbul fish restaurants. Barbunya pilaki uses cranberry beans and may be even more common at home than the white bean version. Whole fish is cooked pilaki usulü too, over softened onion in oil and water.

How Do You Serve and Store Pilaki?

Use a shallow dish so the sauce pools, and serve at cool room temperature. Straight from the fridge the oil is stiff and the flavors muted; twenty minutes on the counter fixes it. Parsley goes on last. Bread is essential.

Covered, it keeps four to five days and is arguably best on day two. Do not freeze it — the potatoes go grainy and the oil separates. It is a legume dish carrying a lot of olive oil, so meze portions are small by design.

Short on time: jarred beans and ready-made olive oil dishes in our canned and jarred food aisle assemble a meze table on a weeknight, and the wider Turkish grocery selection covers the tomato paste, salt and oil. Dried beans are better, but not always Tuesday-night realistic.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is pilaki eaten hot or cold?

Cold, or at cool room temperature — never steaming. The dish is cooked, cooled fully in the pot, then chilled at least four hours before serving. Take it out twenty minutes ahead so the olive oil loosens and the flavors open up, but never reheat it.

Can you make pilaki with canned beans?

Yes, as a weeknight shortcut. Rinse two 15-ounce cans well, add them at step 6 with the potatoes, and cut the final simmer to about 20 minutes. The sauce will be thinner, since you lose the starchy cooking liquid dried beans give you. Simmer uncovered longer to compensate.

Is pilaki vegan?

Yes. Traditional pilaki has no meat, dairy or eggs — olive oil is the only fat in the pot. That is why it turns up so often on fasting-period tables in Turkey and around the eastern Mediterranean. The mussel and fish versions, of course, are not vegan.

How long does pilaki keep in the fridge?

Four to five days, covered, and most cooks think it peaks on day two. The bean starch keeps thickening the sauce and the garlic mellows further. Do not freeze it: the potatoes turn grainy and the oil separates. If it looks dull, refresh it with olive oil and lemon.

What does pilaki mean in Turkish?

It names a cooking method rather than an ingredient — vegetables or seafood stewed in olive oil with plenty of onion and garlic, then served cold. The term came into Turkish from the Greek word plaki. So fasulye pilaki is bean pilaki, midye pilaki is mussel pilaki.

Do you have to soak the beans overnight?

It is strongly recommended. Soaking shortens cooking time, evens out the texture, and helps the beans stay whole instead of bursting. If you forget, use the quick method: cover the beans with water, boil one minute, cover the pot, and rest off the heat for an hour.