Kuru Fasulye: Authentic Turkish Bean Soup

What food do you associate with Turkish cuisine? Kebab? Stuffed grape leaves? Börek? Maybe something with eggplant? Manti? All true, of course. But THE Turkish dish that is considered the Turkish national dish is kuru fasulye aka bean soup.

 

Turkish street food: Kuru Fasulye

The Turkish dish we are presenting to you today is called Kuru Fasulye (dry bean). We have already talked about the soup culture in Turkey in another post. You'll find soup eateries everywhere, serving everything from lentil soup to tripe soup. There is always a stew in between: bean stew (In English you would call it a bean soup though…in Turkey this is seen as a stew)

 

The Turkish bean soup you get in these eateries sometimes contains beef or rarely lamb. Other times the soup is completely vegetarian, but the lots of butter in it are highlighted on the menu. So they will write "Tereyagli Kuru Fasulye", which means beans with butter. Our Kuru Fasulye recipe is completely vegetarian but you can add meat to it.

 

Additionally there are also "food trucks" in Turkey. They just aren't really trucks. Instead, normal cars are parked in the middle of the highway and serve bean soup from a pot in the trunk. Alternatively, these private "rest stops" serve rice with chicken and chickpeas.

 

 

The Turkish bean soup is traditionally served in a bed of Turkish rice. Funnily enough, we were not aware of this – although there is even a hashtag for it!  We therefore served one part on rice and the other in a bowl to spoon up. 

 

How is our Turkish bean soup prepared?

A filling dinner, hearty comfort food that will warm your heart, so simple and so good - that's our Turkish bean soup. 

 

Preparing our bean soup recipe is child's play. Sauté the onions, add a few spices, tomato and paprika salca*, white beans* and water – and you're done. The bean stew is particularly delicious with butter. This is how it is served in many restaurants. 

 

Everything beans in our Kuru Fasulye

To be honest. We are not fans of canned vegetables. In our opinion, they have a strange taste of their own and a consistency that is too soft. For this reason, we recommend soaking beans or chickpeas yourself. You hardly need any preparation, it tastes better and it's cheaper too. Before you go to bed or in the morning, quickly pop a few beans into a bowl and pour in hot tap water. It's that simple.

 

And what beans do you actually use for our Kuru Fasulye recipe? Usually very small white Turkish beans* are used. Personally we also favor the small ones. Still, as you see, the beans we used for the Kuru Fasulye this time, were big – delicious, but still no recommendation.

 

Tip: freeze beans

You can easily freeze chickpeas and beans. The advantage is that you don't have to soak them again. Instead, you can cook our Turkish bean soup recipe or other dishes with them straight away.

 

To do this, soak the beans in warm water as usual. After a few hours, drain the beans. Now you can portion them into freezer bags or tins. Seal them airtight and place them in the freezer. If you want to use the beans, use them frozen straight from the freezer for cooking. 

 

Kuru Fasulye in the pressure cooker*

We definitely don't want to miss our pressure cooker for this Turkish bean soup recipe. However, you can also prepare the beans in a pot by soaking and cooking them for a long time. To do this, always check that the beans are already soft. It only takes around 20 minutes in a pressure cooker though. In general, the Turkish pressure cooker* is a MUST in Turkish households and is used nearly everyday. 

 

What do you eat with our bean stew recipe?

Rice, yogurt, pickled vegetables, pepperoni, bread - all delicious. A quartered onion is also needed for a somewhat strong but very good combination. Eat it layer by layer with our Turkish bean soup.

 

Kuru Fasulye recipe: Turkish bean soup (vegetarian)

 

Preparation

- If you are using dried beans*, soak them for a good 12 hours!

Step 1: Chop the onion and fry it in the oil until translucent.

Step 2: Add the butter and beans. Stir everything through.

Step 3: Add the tomato and pepper paste and the spices. Stir everything for a minute. If you season the bean stew before adding water, the flavors will develop better.

Step 4: Add around 1.5 liters of water. Cook the bean stew over a low heat until the beans are done. In a normal pot, this takes about 40 minutes. In a pressure cooker*, 20 minutes is sufficient.