Borlotti Bean Pilaki

From Turkey: Recipes and tales from the road, Leanne Kitchen, Murdoch Books, 2011.

This was to be one more of the items for my Middle Eastern night to go with the roast pumpkin, the cucumber sauce and the spinach filos. 

I had forgotten to soak the borlotti beans overnight before making this so, instead, I measured out 100g, placed them in a bowl and poured boiling water over them. I left them to soak for an hour. The beans were now drained and then placed in a saucepan with water to cover them. They were brought to the boil and then simmered for half an hour. They were then drained.

While the beans were cooking I had finely chopped an onion, a carrot, ½ red capsicum and a garlic clove. I heated some oil in a saucepan and fried these vegetables for ¼ hour. A teaspoon of paprika was added as well as some chilli flakes and salt. The chilli and salt were in place of Turkish pepper paste that I did not have. These were stirred in for a minute or two before the drained beans were added with 2 teaspoons sugar. Sufficient water to cover the ingredients was added and the mixture brought to the boil. It was then simmered for 1½ hours with the lid off.  By this time the mixture had thickened and the beans were cooked. Salt and black pepper were added to taste. The mixture was taken from the heat and left to serve at room temperature when some chopped parsley was sprinkled on.

I always find borlotti beans are tasty ones and the savoury sauce they were cooked in made this a great accompanying vegetable dish. It went very well with the yoghurt and cucumber sauce.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔