Piyaz: Antalya's White Bean Salad with Tahini (Recipe)
Piyaz: Antalya's White Bean Salad with Tahini (Recipe)
Piyaz is Antalya's white bean salad: tender white beans folded into a garlicky tahini-lemon dressing, then topped with sumac onions, tomatoes, parsley, and quartered boiled eggs. Unlike the plain onion-and-bean piyaz served elsewhere in Turkey, the Antalya version gets its body from tahini, and it's traditionally eaten alongside grilled köfte.
Walk into a köfte grill in Antalya's Kaleiçi old town and you won't need to order piyaz. It arrives next to the meatballs the way fries arrive next to a burger. The tahini is what surprises people who know piyaz from Istanbul or Ankara — this version is creamier, tangier, and closer to a full meal than a side salad. If Turkish cooking is new ground for you, bookmark our Turkish recipes guide and come back. The beans can wait.
Key Takeaways
- Antalya piyaz is defined by its tahini dressing — most other Turkish regions dress the beans with just olive oil, vinegar, and raw onion.
- Dried white beans (kuru fasulye) give the best texture, and their starchy cooking liquid is what turns the tahini silky.
- Canned beans work on a weeknight — rinse them well and warm them through so they actually absorb the dressing.
- Sumac onions and quartered boiled eggs are part of the dish, not optional garnish.
- Serve piyaz slightly warm or at room temperature, classically next to grilled köfte.
What Makes Antalya Piyaz Different from Other Turkish Piyaz?
The word piyaz comes from Persian, where it simply means onion. That tells you what the dish looked like originally: a pile of dressed onions, with beans almost as an afterthought. In most of Turkey today the proportions have flipped, but the formula stays lean — boiled white beans, raw onion, flat-leaf parsley, a sharp dressing of olive oil and vinegar. Bright, dry, done.
Antalya broke that pattern. Somewhere along the Mediterranean coast, cooks started whisking tahini into the dressing — sesame paste, crushed garlic, grape vinegar, lemon — then loosening it with warm bean broth and pouring it over beans that were still warm from the pot. The sesame turns the whole bowl creamy. Some lokantas (casual restaurants) in Antalya serve it almost soupy, with enough extra dressing at the bottom to drag bread through.
Locals will also argue about the bean itself. The traditional choice is a small, thin-skinned bean grown around Çandır, just outside the city, prized because it cooks up so tender it nearly melts into the sauce. You won't find çandır beans at an American supermarket, but great northern or cannellini beans get you close.
For your kitchen, the lesson is simple: make more dressing than feels reasonable. Antalya piyaz should be sauced, not misted.
Should You Use Dried Beans or Canned?
Dried beans win, and not just on texture. When you simmer dried white beans from scratch, you end up with a pot of starchy, savory cooking liquid — and that liquid is the secret ingredient. A few spoonfuls whisked into tahini transform it from a stiff paste into a dressing with the pour of heavy cream. Canned beans give you salted packing water, which is not the same thing.
The dried-bean route takes planning, not skill. Soak the beans overnight in plenty of cold water, drain, cover with fresh water, and simmer 60 to 90 minutes until a bean squashes easily between two fingers. Hold the salt until the last 15 minutes so the skins stay intact while the insides go creamy.
No time for that? Canned beans make honest weeknight piyaz. Two things matter. First, rinse them thoroughly — the packing liquid tastes flat and dulls the tahini. Second, warm them for five minutes in a pot of barely simmering water before dressing. Warm beans drink the dressing in. Cold beans just wear it.
Either way, taste a bean before you commit. If it's chalky at the center, keep cooking. Piyaz forgives soft beans and punishes firm ones.
How Do You Make the Tahini Dressing for Piyaz?
Start with good tahini — pure ground sesame, nothing else on the label. Stir the jar well before measuring, because the oil separates and the paste at the bottom is thick as mortar. Turkish tahini tends to be roasted a shade darker than the pale supermarket kind, which suits this dish; you can find it alongside other Turkish spreads and nut butters.
The method has one moment that scares first-timers. Mash two garlic cloves to a paste with salt, then whisk them into the tahini with lemon juice and vinegar. The mixture will seize — it tightens into a stiff, grainy clump that looks ruined. It isn't. That's just how sesame paste behaves when acid hits it. Keep whisking and add warm bean liquid one spoonful at a time, and it relaxes into a smooth, pourable sauce. Stop when it coats a spoon like heavy cream.
On the vinegar: grape vinegar (üzüm sirkesi) is the traditional Turkish choice, gentler and rounder than distilled white. White wine vinegar is a fair stand-in. Browse our condiments and sauces if you want the real thing in your pantry.
Taste the finished dressing on a bean, not from the spoon. It should read garlicky and tart on its own — the beans will mellow it.
Cooking Turkish this week? Most of what this recipe calls for — tahini, dried beans, sumac, grape vinegar — comes from our own shelves, packed and shipped from our US warehouse. One order, one box, no store-hopping.
How Do You Make Antalya-Style Piyaz at Home? (Step-by-Step)
Serves 4 as a side, 2 as a light main. About 25 minutes of hands-on work, 90 minutes of simmering if you start from dried beans, plus an overnight soak.
What Ingredients Do You Need?
- 1½ cups (300 g) dried white beans — or two 15-oz cans cannellini or great northern beans
- ⅓ cup (80 g) tahini, well stirred
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons grape vinegar or white wine vinegar
- 2 garlic cloves, mashed to a paste with ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup warm bean cooking liquid (or warm water, for canned beans)
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon sumac, plus more to finish
- ½ teaspoon salt, for the onions
- 2 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges
- 2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and quartered
- ½ cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped
- Pul biber (Aleppo-style pepper flakes), optional, to finish
What Are the Steps?
- Soak the beans. Cover dried beans with cold water by three inches and soak 8 to 12 hours. Drain. (Skip for canned.)
- Cook the beans. Cover with fresh water by two inches and simmer, partly covered, 60 to 90 minutes until fully tender. Salt during the last 15 minutes. Reserve ½ cup cooking liquid, then drain. For canned beans: rinse well and warm 5 minutes in barely simmering water.
- Make the sumac onions. Toss the onion slices with ½ teaspoon salt and massage for a minute until they soften and turn glossy. Add the sumac and toss again. Set aside.
- Make the dressing. Whisk the tahini, garlic paste, lemon juice, and vinegar in a bowl — it will seize into a thick paste. Whisk in warm bean liquid a spoonful at a time until the sauce pours like heavy cream. Taste; it should be sharp and garlicky.
- Dress the beans warm. Fold the warm beans with about three-quarters of the dressing and let them sit 10 minutes so the sauce settles in.
- Assemble. Spread the beans on a platter and spoon the remaining dressing over the top. Scatter the sumac onions and parsley, tuck in the tomato wedges and egg quarters, then finish with olive oil, a pinch of sumac, and pul biber if you like heat.
- Serve. Bring it to the table slightly warm or at room temperature — never fridge-cold, which stiffens the tahini and mutes the garlic.
What Should You Serve with Piyaz?
Köfte, first and always. In Antalya the two are sold as a single order — grilled meatballs, piyaz, a wedge of lemon, bread. The smoky char of the meat against the cool, garlicky beans is the whole point of the pairing. If you're not grilling, piyaz pulls the same weight next to roast chicken or pan-fried fish.
It also earns a place on a meze spread. Something sharp on the side helps cut the tahini's richness — pickled green peppers or a bowl of cracked green olives do it best, and our pickles and olives collection covers both. Add warm bread for the dressing left on the platter. Nobody leaves that behind.
One more thing worth knowing: piyaz travels. It holds at room temperature for hours, which is why it shows up at picnics and beach days along the Turkish coast. For a lot of our customers it tastes like a specific kind of summer — plastic table, sea air, köfte smoke. One bowl brings that back.
We've been packing that taste of home into boxes since 2003 — first as Tulumba, now as TG Gourmet. Everything in this recipe ships from our Turkish grocery online store, straight to your door anywhere in the US.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make piyaz with canned beans?
Yes. Rinse two 15-oz cans of cannellini or great northern beans well, then warm them for 5 minutes in barely simmering water before dressing. Use warm water instead of bean broth to loosen the tahini. The texture is slightly firmer than home-cooked, but the flavor holds up.
What does "piyaz" actually mean?
It comes from the Persian word for onion. The earliest versions of the dish were mostly dressed onions; over time white beans took over as the main ingredient across Turkey, and the name stayed. Onions remain essential — that's why the sumac onions aren't optional.
Is piyaz served warm or cold?
Slightly warm or at room temperature. Dressing the beans while they're warm helps them absorb the tahini sauce, and serving fridge-cold stiffens the sesame and dulls the garlic. If you've refrigerated leftovers, let them sit out 30 minutes before eating.
What's the difference between piyaz and fasulye pilaki?
Both start with white beans, but pilaki is a cooked dish — beans braised in olive oil with tomato, carrot, and onion, served cool as a meze. Piyaz is a dressed salad: the beans are boiled plain, then tossed with dressing and raw onion. Antalya piyaz adds tahini; pilaki never does.
Which tahini works best for piyaz?
Pure sesame tahini with no added oils or sweeteners, stirred well before measuring. Turkish tahini is typically roasted a bit darker than pale supermarket versions, giving the dressing a deeper, nuttier flavor that stands up to the garlic and vinegar.
How long does piyaz keep?
The dressed beans keep 2 days covered in the fridge. Store the tomatoes, eggs, and sumac onions separately and add them fresh, since they weep water and soften the salad. Bring the beans back to room temperature and loosen with a spoonful of warm water before serving.