White Bean Salad with Tahini
Cooked white beans with a lemon-tahini dressing, tomato and parsley, topped with hard-boiled eggs. An Antalya-style home adaptation.
The Turkish pantry
Tomato
Choose juicy tomatoes for salads, fleshier types for cooking, and the right preserved form for the job.
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A guide to tomatoes, pictured as ripe red fresh tomatoes. Paste and canned tomatoes are processed forms with different uses.
Types & forms
Fresh slicing tomato
Juicy flesh; useful raw in salads or diced into piyaz.
Plum or paste type
An alternative shape to look for when shopping for cooking tomatoes.
Canned tomato / tomato paste
Canned pieces bring moisture; paste is concentrated. They are not equal-volume replacements.
What to look for when buying
- Choose firm fruit with a little give and no bruised or sunken areas.
- For packaged tomatoes, read the form and sodium information. Buy paste only when the recipe needs that concentrated ingredient.
Prepare & cook
- Rinse before cutting and remove the stem area. Dice for piyaz so tomato is distributed through the beans.
- For a cooked sauce, check its thickness before adding more water; tomatoes differ in juiciness.
Store it well
- Keep ripe whole tomatoes out of direct sun and use promptly. Refrigeration can slow softening but affect flavor.
- Cover and refrigerate cut tomato; Oregon State recommends using it within two days.
Substitutions depend on the dish
In a cooked tomato sauce
Canned tomatoes can stand in for fresh; adjust the liquid and cook to the required thickness. This does not reproduce the texture of fresh tomato in a salad.
When a recipe specifies paste
Use tomato paste of the specified concentration. Fresh tomato is not a spoon-for-spoon substitute.
Related skills
Preparation & Knife Skills
Fine chopping by hand
Keep small vegetable pieces distinct instead of turning them into a watery paste.
Nutrition
Raw ripe red tomato [1]
| Nutrient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Energy | 18 kcal |
| Protein | 0.88 g |
| Total fat | 0.2 g |
| Saturated fat | 0.03 g |
| Carbohydrate | 3.89 g |
| Dietary fiber | 1.2 g |
| Total sugars | 2.63 g |
| Sodium | 5 mg |
| Cholesterol | 0 mg |
| Calcium | 10 mg |
| Iron | 0.27 mg |
| Potassium | 237 mg |
| Vitamin D | 0 µg |
A generic raw-food reference, not a separate analysis of every variety, prepared form or cooked dish. Values are rounded for readability; “not reported” does not mean zero. A “<” value is below the source’s measurement limit.
Nutrition values come from the reference source named above. They are published reference values, not our own measurements. Actual products and cooking methods may change the values.
At the Turkish table
In our Antalya-style piyaz, diced tomato provides a juicy contrast to beans and tahini dressing. This is one serving example, not a claim that tomatoes or tomato salads belong exclusively to Antalya.
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