Cooked Styrian 'beetle beans' (large purple-flecked runner beans) tossed with onion, pumpkin-seed oil, vinegar, salt. The everyday lunch salad of Graz.
Käferbohne (Phaseolus coccineus) grown in Styria has its own PDO — distinctive purple speckled coat earns the name. Salad has been farmhouse lunch since the 1800s.
Creamy soft beans coated in deep-green pumpkin-seed oil; sharp onion bites cut through the richness.
Long soaking + long boiling fully tenderizes the large beans; pumpkin-seed oil + vinegar dressing has the right viscosity to coat without pooling.
Variations
With smoked bacon diced in (Speckbohnensalat) makes a heartier version. With pickled gherkin adds tangy crunch.
On the Palate
Where Käferbohnensalat sits in the Austrian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
4 steps · 20 min active + 12 hours waiting
- 1720 min
Soak 300 g Styrian Käferbohnen overnight; drain.
- 290 min
Boil in fresh water 1.5 hr until tender; drain and cool.
Watch outBoil the soaked beans a full hour and a half until they're creamy-soft all the way through — any firm center stays starchy and won't take the dressing.
- 33 min
Slice 1 large red onion paper-thin; rinse to mellow.
Watch outSlice the onion paper-thin and rinse it — a quick rinse washes off the raw bite so it doesn't overpower the nutty pumpkin-seed oil.
- 430 min
Toss beans + onion with 80 ml pumpkin-seed oil + 30 ml apple cider vinegar + 1 tsp salt + pepper; rest 30 min.
Watch outLet the dressed salad rest half an hour before serving — the beans drink in the oil and vinegar and the flavor turns round instead of sharp.
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