Broad Beans in Olive Oil
Spring's first olive-oil dish: young broad beans cooked in their pods, finished with garlic yoghurt.
- Time
- 50 minutes
- Serves
- 4
- Level
- Easy
- Cuisine
- Turkish
The broad bean is one of the Mediterranean's oldest cultivated plants — as old as wheat, domesticated in the same geography and the same millennia as the olive. In Türkiye its season is spring, and the window in which young pods can be cooked whole is short; after May the pod toughens and you have to use the shelled beans.
The character of this dish lies in its contrast with the garlic yoghurt: the softness of the olive oil, the acid of the lemon and the coolness of the yoghurt meet on the same plate. It is one of the few members of the zeytinyağlı family served with yoghurt.
Directions
- Top and tail the pods and remove the side strings; cut tender pods into 3-4 cm pieces. If the pods are tough, use the shelled beans.
- Heat the olive oil in a pan and soften the onion until translucent.
- Add the beans and stir for 5 minutes.
- Add the sugar, salt and hot water, then cover.
- Cook over low heat for 25-30 minutes, until the beans are tender.
- Take off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and half the dill, and leave to cool.
- Whisk the yoghurt with the garlic. Plate the beans and top with the yoghurt and remaining dill.
Tips & storage
⚠ Favism warning — specific to this recipe. In people with G6PD enzyme deficiency (favism), broad beans can trigger a serious haemolytic reaction. The condition is not rare in populations of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern origin. Do not make this dish for someone with that diagnosis; if you are unsure, simply ask.
Testing for young pods. If the string along the side snaps away easily, the pod can be cooked whole; if it resists, use shelled beans or the pod will stay stringy in the mouth.
Add the lemon off the heat. Acid added during cooking keeps the beans firm and delays softening; added after the pan comes off, it preserves freshness instead.
Yoghurt cold, beans warm. Combine them both straight from the fridge and the oil sets. Let the beans come to room temperature and spoon the yoghurt over at the moment of serving.
Storage. Keeps three days in the fridge without the yoghurt. Never stir the yoghurt through and store it — it will separate.
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