A wintry bean stew from Zaytinya

Zaytinya's Piyaz is the perfect dish for a cool late winter night

Friends—I’m getting excited for next month, when we finally release the Zaytinya cookbook. I got an advance copy of it last week and I have to say…it’s beautiful. I know, I know—José, you’ll say…You wrote it! Of course you have to think it’s beautiful. Well, I’ll tell you, it’s really beautiful. You can take it from me. And if you want to see it for yourself, in your mailbox after it’s released on March 19, you can pre-order it today!

But while you wait for it to come out, I’m happy to share this recipe with you for a delicious wintry bean dish, inspired by Turkey’s famous white bean and onion salad called Piyaz. We like to serve our beans warm and stewy, cooked with kale, sun-dried tomatoes, and a lemon-olive oil sauce. At Zaytinya we use Greek gigantes beans, which do a good job to hold their shape and have an incredible meaty-creamy texture. They’re available online, or maybe you stocked up on beans from Rancho Gordo after we talked about them last month, so you might have some of these beautiful Royal Coronas in your pantry, which would work perfectly in this recipe. You can also easily just use large lima beans, which you can probably find in your local grocery store.

No matter what beans you use, there’s something magical to the bright green dill, the onion and garlic, the sweetness of the sun-dried tomatoes, the creamy brightness of the dressing. You could serve it as a salad on the side of a protein, but to me it could also easily be its own meal…just don’t forget some pita or crusty bread to clean up all of that extra dressing!

Photo by Thomas Schauer

Piyaz—White Bean Stew

Serves 4

2 cups dried Greek gigantes beans, or large dried lima beans