We love to eat seasonally and March in Fethiye is the beginning of the broad beans season. Which means it’s also broad beans recipe season!
On a visit to Çiftlik Perşembe Pazarı (Ciftlik Thursday Market) we noticed that the first young bakla (broad beans or fava beans) of the season were for sale.
Not lots of them as yet…but enough to get us thinking about broad beans recipes.
In particular, a Turkish broad beans recipe.
Of course, there’s a very famous Turkish fava beans recipe which is served as a meze.
But, as it’s only March, we’re not quite at the stage of leisurely outdoor eating, just yet.
So, we wanted something a little bit more wholesome and warming…
In our Guide to Çiftlik market post, we mentioned we decided to use the broad beans to make sucuk and bakla for dinner that night.
It prompted a comment from Turkish food blogger, Zerrin (of Give Recipe), that she had also bought bakla from her local pazar that day, too.
She explained what she was making with her broad beans. And then she said she had never thought to use broad beans and sucuk together.
A quick search around online and it appears that the list of Turkish broad beans recipes doesn’t include our sucuk idea.
The good folks of Turkey aren’t much into mixing their sucuk and bakla at all.
Interesting!
Because, as soon as we saw the bakla on Çiftlik market, we both said sucuk straight away.
And we know why…
A (Nearly) Turkish Broad Beans Recipe – Sucuklu Bakla
Sucuk is a meaty, spicy sausage.
Turkey’s answer to Spanish chorizo or Italian pepperoni.
Except, where the latter two are made from pork, sucuk is made up from beef.
The tastes and textures are very similar; cured, garlicky, sometimes spicy and definitely oily!
And, as we learned from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall TV programmes in years gone by, recipes for broad beans and chorizo work really well!
If that’s the case, why not sucuk, too?
This Turkish broad beans recipe combines that idea with Turkish zeytinyağlı (olive oil) dishes which use beans such as zeytinyağlı yeşil fasulye and barbunya pilaki.
Because the bakla is really young at this time of year, it’s completely fine to cook the smaller beans in their pods.
Favourite Recipes?
This is one of our favourite broad beans recipes.
Well, as much as we’ve grown to love the huge variety of Turkish vegetarian and vegan recipes over the years, we do still love our meat.
So the addition of the sucuk to this dish really suits us.
Recipes for broad beans with bacon or chorizo are really common, so sucuk makes the perfect accompaniment for this Turkish take on those types of dishes.
The same cured, salty flavours and the light crispness on the outside of the sucuk where it has been sauteed.
Combine with the tomatoes and the fresh, young broad beans.
Mmmm, already, we want to make broad beans with sucuk again!
How much water you add to your broad beans recipe depends on how much juice you want in this meal.
As you can see in the photo above we added around half a mugful of water because we wanted quite a bit of juice.
And why did we want those garlicky, tomato and sucuk-flavoured juices?
Because we serve our sucuklu bakla (Turkish sucuk and broad beans recipe) with warm, crusty bread from the bakery so you can soak up the juices.
And as we said, we failed to find a Turkish broad beans recipe that mixed these two main ingredients.
So the name sucuklu bakla (sucuk with broad beans) is our own.
Imaginative, isn’t it?
Let’s Cook Broad Beans With Sucuk
Broad Beans With Sucuk Recipe (Turkish – Sucuklu Bakla)
Ingredients
- ½ kilogram fresh young broad beans washed & tips removed
- 100 grams sucuk
- 2 large tomatoes or 1×400 gram tin of chopped tomatoes
- 1 onion peeled, halved & sliced into half moons
- 1 clove garlic peeled & crushed
- ½ mug hot water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- salt & pepper to season
Instructions
- First of all, pick through your broad beans. Remove the beans from the larger pods and with the smaller ones, cut them into roughly one inch pieces.
- Gently heat your olive oil in a frying pan and add your onion.
- Meanwhile, take your sucuk, cut into quarters lengthways and remove the outer skin.
- Now cut each strip of sucuk into rough bite-sized chunks and, once your onion is sweating, add your sucuk to the pan.
- Stir around for a couple of minutes until your sucuk starts to colour and release its juices.
- Now add your tomatoes, garlic and salt & pepper.
- Stir around and then allow your tomatoes to cook down for around 5 minutes before adding the hot water.
- Stir this and then add your broad beans to the pan, also.
- Now add your sugar & vinegar, stir around and taste the sauce.
- Add more of whatever you think is necessary.
- Leave your sucuk and broad beans to simmer, uncovered, for around 15 minutes.
- Remove from the heat, allow to cool a little and then serve.
Notes
- For this Turkish broad beans recipe, it is up to you how much water you add to your tomato sauce – it depends how dry or juicy you want your sucuk and broad beans to be.
- Sucuk is a very oily Turkish sausage so don’t be tempted to add too much oil at the start of your cooking.
- As with all of our recipes, the calories per serving is meant as a rough guide. This can vary, depending on the brand of sucuk you prefer to use.
Nutrition
If you’re looking for a lighter recipe using broad beans, try our Turkish broad bean salad recipe.
Browse similar Turkish recipes from our archives.
Turkey's For Life
Sunday 24th of March 2013
@ Milorni: Well, we think it really goes well, the bakla and sucuk. Let us know what you think if you try it. :)
@ BacktoBodrum: Yes, we can imagine the horrified look on the face of the Turkish folks. We expected that. ;)
Backto Bodrum
Saturday 23rd of March 2013
I like the idea, but I'll never sell it to the Turk in my house. Bakla and sucuk on the same plate !!! Horror.
Milorni
Saturday 23rd of March 2013
That sounds delicious. Another one for the "to try" list.
Milorni
Saturday 23rd of March 2013
That sounds delicious. Another one for the "to try" list.
Turkey's For Life
Saturday 23rd of March 2013
@ Ozlem's Turkish Table: Ha ha, glad you'e happy with the combo. Our problem is, we just love sucuk so why not experiment with it more. :) YES, we remember your veg soup with sucuk. Might have to make reference to that in our defence. :)
@ Joy: Glad you've made use of the versatility of sucuk, too! :) You'll be able to use the real thing for your Polish sausage dishes, soon. :)