Tovchanka (товчанка, mashed potato and beans with poppy)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •A large pot for beans
• •A separate potato pot
• •A mortar and pestle or sturdy bowl and spoon for the poppy
• •A potato masher or wooden pestle
• •A wide pan for the onions

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the beans

   Cover the dried beans with plenty of cold water and leave them overnight. By morning they should look swollen and smooth, not wrinkled. Drain them, cover with fresh water, add the bay leaf, and simmer gently until they crush easily between finger and thumb.

   Salt the beans lightly only once they have started to soften. Old beans take their own time, and no clock in London has ever bullied one tender.
2. 2

   Cook the potatoes

   Put the potatoes in a separate pot, cover with cold salted water, and simmer until a knife slips through without a fight. Keep back a mug of the potato water before draining. That starchy water is your looseness later, much better than making the mash wet with plain water.

3. 3

   Wake the poppy

   Pour boiling water over the poppy seeds and let them sit while the potatoes cook, then drain very well. Pound them in a mortar, or crush them with the back of a spoon in a small bowl, until they darken, smell nutty, and begin to clump. Whole poppy seeds are decoration. Bruised poppy seeds are flavor.

4. 4

   Soften the onions

   Warm the sunflower oil in a wide pan and add the onions with a pinch of salt. Let them soften slowly until golden at the edges and sweet-smelling, stirring often. You're not chasing a hard brown crust. You want onion sweetness sitting brightly through the pale mash, with green-gold oil carrying it.

5. 5

   Pound the mash

   Tip the hot potatoes into a large bowl or pot and crush them first, then add the tender beans, garlic, pounded poppy, most of the onion oil, salt, and black pepper. Pound and fold until the beans break down into the potatoes and the spoon makes a thick soft thud. Add splashes of bean broth or potato water until it moves heavily but doesn't slump into a puddle.

   This is the step that wants your hands more than your timer. Stop before it turns gluey; a few visible beans and poppy specks are part of its character.
6. 6

   Finish the bowl

   Taste it properly, not politely. Beans swallow salt, so add more until the mash tastes full and warm. Spoon it into a deep bowl, drag the remaining onion oil over the top, scatter dill if you're using it, and let it sit a few minutes so the poppy and garlic settle into the potatoes.

Chef Tips

• •Canned white beans make this a weeknight dish. Use about 700g drained beans, warm them with a splash of water, and pound them in hot so they don't cool the potatoes into paste.
• •Floury potatoes are best because they break down willingly. Waxy potatoes make a tighter, heavier tovchanka, still edible, just less generous under the spoon.
• •Unrefined sunflower oil matters because it goes right through the dish. It is Ukraine in a bottle of oil. If you use butter instead, that's a bit more modern and softer, but the sunflower version tastes more like the pantry this dish came from.
• •Serve it beside roast meat, mushrooms, fried eggs, fermented cucumbers, or a sharp tomato salad. Something sour on the table makes the beans taste brighter.
• •Leftovers firm up in the fridge. Loosen with a splash of water, bean broth, or milk as you reheat, then finish with fresh onion oil.

Advance Preparation

• •Soak the beans overnight, at least 8 hours. If your beans are old, give them a longer soak and more patient simmering.
• •The whole dish can be made a day ahead. Reheat gently with a splash of reserved cooking liquid and finish with fresh sunflower oil.
• •Cooked beans can be frozen in their broth, which turns tovchanka into a quick supper later.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 270g)