A Cold dish of Pinto Beans in Olive oil (Barbunya Pilaki)

This is a dish made of pinto beans and it's delicious when served cold. Generally it's difficult to get the right texture for this dish, some make it too mushy, and some don't cook it enough, you could break a tooth with the pinto bean. This dish is called "barbunya pilaki" in Turkey. "Barbunya" is the name of the bean, and "pilaki" is the name of the dish. Here's the recipe:



Ingredients

• 2 cups of fresh pinto beans, shelled from their pods


• 1 middle size onion, chopped


• 1 middle size carrot, scraped and chopped to 1 cm pieces


• 1 middle size tomato, peeled and chopped


• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped


• 1 small cup of olive oil


• 1 tablespoon of red pepper paste


• 3 slices of lemon


• 3 stems of parsley


• salt


• 2 cups of hot water

Directions

1. Boil the shelled beans until they are soft and then strain. Be careful not to boil too much.


2. In a pot, put the olive oil, chopped onions, chopped carrots and tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes.


3. Add 2 cups of hot water and garlic and cook for 10 minutes.


4. Add the pinto beans and sliced lemons and cook for 10 more minutes.


5. When it's close to being cooked add the salt.


6. Decorate with parsley and serve.

I hear you ask

• If you wish to make pilaki from dry pinto beans put the beans in a bowl of water a day before you intend to cook it.


• The cooked pinto beans look a lot like haricot beans, but that's because pinto beans lose color when cooked.