Hi there, When the in-laws came back from a trip, they gifted me a bag of dried white beans they’d picked up on the road. It was winter, so I had a fair idea what they’d say. I asked anyway. I’ll never forget the look of puzzlement I got in return. — Kuru fasulye, of course. The dish so ubiquitous they just named it after its main ingredient: dried white beans. It’s a simple but flavourful bean stew, and also a masterclass in how Turkish cuisine uses tomato paste. If you’re not already deeply familiar with food from the region, it’s probably different from how you’re used to using it. While it’s common in Turkey to preserve the last of summer’s tomatoes in jars, Turkish winter cuisine isn’t built around using them. Instead, it uses tomato paste as a star ingredient in its own right, usually paired with its twin red pepper paste. The result? An intense umami flavour that is, in my view, a much better fit for most winter stews than tinned tomatoes are. One word of advice: the dish is named after dried beans, not tinned ones. Sure, you can use the latter, but you’ll be rewarded in flavour if you soak and cook your own beans. | 
