Piyaz is a fresh and flavor-packed Turkish bean salad made from sumac onions, fresh herbs and white beans tossed in a simple lemon vinaigrette. Simple ingredients, bold flavors!
Juicy tomatoes, creamy white beans and punchy onions tossed with flat-leaf parsley in red wine vinegar, fresh lemon juice and extra-virgin olive oil.
There’s a lot going on here in the best possible way!
Piyaz Recipe Highlights
- Vibrant: The fresh ingredients do most of the heavy lifting by packing in heaps of flavor with very little prep.
- Easy: Reach for the canned beans instead of dry beans like in the traditional salad recipe. This cuts down on some extra time and effort without lacking any flavor!
- Healthy: This salad is as good for you as it tastes! It’s packed with fiber and protein thanks to the beans and plenty of vitamins and nutrients from the veggies.
Ingredients
- Onion: This recipe is basically a more fleshed out version of a Turkish Onion Salad (sumac onions). Use a mandoline or very sharp knife to cut one large red onion into thin slices.
- Sumac: Adds a tart, sharp flavor with hint of smokiness.
- Lemon & Red Wine Vinegar: Lemon adds a bright, fresh flavor and red wine vinegar adds a sweeter acid with a punch of color.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Choose an extra virgin oil for a more intense flavor.
- Chopped Tomato: I used roma tomatoes, but you can use whatever tomato variety you like.
- White Beans: This piyaz salad recipe uses butter beans, but any white bean variety will do: cannellini beans, navy beans, and great northern beans are all great options. Simply drain the bean liquid, rinse and you’re ready to go
- Fresh Parsley: Choose Italian parsley (flat-leaf) over curly leaf for a more robust flavor.
Tip! Tomato Prep
I recommend you scoop out the tomatoes seeds and the surrounding watery gel to keep the salad from getting excessively soggy. The flavor is mostly in the flesh, not the seeds anyway.
Recipe Variations
- Use white onion in place of red.
- Try it with chickpeas instead.
- Swap out the parsley for fresh cilantro or mint.
- Use sesame oil instead of olive oil for a nuttier taste.
- Some regions of Turkey add sesame seed paste (tahini) to mellow out the sharp, tangy flavors. I recommend adding 2-3 tablespoons in this recipe if you want to try it out.
- Add aleppo pepper (pul biber) for a bit of spice.
More Simple salads Recipe
- Sweet Shallot Chickpea Salad
- Sun Dried Tomato Cannellini Bean Salad
- Creamy Cannellini And Kale Stir Fry With Toasted Bread & Pine Nuts
- Roasted Herb & Lentil Salad
- Mediterranean Bean & Rice Salad
- Tabbouleh Chickpea Quinoa Salad
- Mediterranean Dense Bean Salad
Enjoy!
Let me know if you try this Turkish white bean salad recipe! Leave a comment and review with your thoughts. I always appreciate the feedback and serving suggestions that you come up with!
Piyaz (Turkish White Bean Salad)
Sumac onions, chopped tomatoes, fresh parsley and white beans tossed in a simple lemony-oil dressing.
Ingredients
- 1 red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 teaspoon sumac
- 1 teaspoon sea salt, divided
- 3 medium tomatoes, diced
- 1 can butter beans, drained (15oz)
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 3 tablespoons olive oil (45 ml)
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (15 ml)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (15ml)
- black pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon alepo chili flakes (pul biber)
Instructions
- In a large bowl add the sliced onions, sumac and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Use your hands to rub the sumac and salt into the onions for 30-60 seconds.
- Add the tomato, beans, parsley and mix to the onions and mix together.
- Add the lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Toss again until everything is well combined.
- Taste and season with more salt and black pepper as needed and serve.
- Optional: Cover the bowl and set aside for about 20-30 minutes to marinate before serving.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 days.
Notes
- In needed, you can replace the red wine vinegar with more lemon juice or swap it out for apple cider vinegar.
- I recommend you scoop out the seeds and gel-like insides of the tomato to reduce the excess water leaching into the salad.
- Instead of butter beans, use cannellini beans, chickepeas or great northern beans.
Kirsten says
This was excellent!! So zesty and fresh, we just devoured it. I made this into a dinner salad by adding plenty of massaged kale to the salad, and topping with oil packed tuna. We eat a lot of dinner salads, and I am definitely adding this to the rotation. Thanks much!
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Kirsten! I’m so thrilled you enjoyed it! I love the idea of adding tuna and kale to fill it out more – that sounds delicious 🙂
Thank you so much for taking the time to come back to let me know what you thought!