Piyaz is a Turkish meze made from beans and boiled eggs, often served as part of a spread of mezes. It can be made with various beans and toppings, and is considered a healthy salad in Turkish and Middle Eastern cuisine.
Piyaz is a Turkish salad, or meze, which is made from a base of beans and boiled eggs. Preparing the cold bean dish is pretty straightforward, and the result is a layered salad that doubles as a very healthy snack or small meal. In countries outside the Middle East, piyaz is also called Turkish bean salad.
Turkish cuisine often includes a spread of different mezes. Meze roughly translates to “relish” or “snack”. They are usually served as small dishes designed to provide just a few bites. When eaten as a large meal, spreads of a dozen mezes are prepared. Piyaz is a major type of meze, usually served as part of a large meal or in smaller quantities when the meze is used as an appetizer.
Piyaz can be made with any type of dried or canned beans. Commonly used varieties include white beans, black-eyed peas, and white kidney beans. If the beans are dried, they are soaked overnight and sometimes boiled to ensure they are soft enough to use in a fresh salad. The beans form the bottom layer of a traditional piyaz and are topped with a layer of chopped boiled eggs.
There are variations for toppings for the bean and egg base. Most versions include ingredients like tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers, lemon juice, olive oil, and vinegar. The salad can be eaten immediately after preparation, but is sometimes stored overnight in the refrigerator to allow the flavors of many ingredients to come together. It is common for a large quantity to be made so that some is left over for later meals.
There are regional varieties of the dish in Türkiye. Parsley and sumac are always popular additions when the dish is served in turkey. In Antalya, in the southern part of the country, sesame oil is often added to piyaz and is mostly served as a main dish. Further east, in the province of Adana, the dish known as piyaz is a sumac-onion salad without beans or hard-boiled eggs.
In restaurants in Europe and North America, piyaz is considered a healthy salad that can be served on the side of a main course in a Turkish or Middle Eastern restaurant. White beans are more likely to be used. Depending on the structure, several simple but distinctly Mediterranean flavors are present.
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