Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large pot for cooking beans
• •Wide shallow serving bowl
• •Small whisk or fork for the Marinade

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the beans overnight

   Place the dried Käferbohnen in a large bowl and cover with plenty of cold water, at least three times their volume. They will swell to nearly double their size. Leave them on the counter overnight, or for at least eight hours. Don't skip the soak. Käferbohnen are dense, thick-skinned beans and they need time to hydrate evenly. If you try to rush them, you'll end up with beans that are chalky in the center and splitting at the edges.

   If you can find fresh Käferbohnen in season (late summer into autumn), use them. They cook in about half the time and the flavour is sweeter and more delicate. Skip the soak entirely with fresh beans.
2. 2

   Cook the beans gently

   Drain and rinse the soaked beans. Place them in a large pot, cover with fresh cold water by about five centimeters, and add the bay leaf. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, then reduce the heat to low. The surface should barely move. Cook for sixty to ninety minutes, checking after an hour. The beans are done when they're completely tender and creamy inside but still holding their shape. Bite one in half. If there's any graininess at the center, keep going. Do not salt the water. Salt toughens the skins of cooking beans and you'll wait forever for them to soften.

   Every batch of dried beans cooks differently depending on age. Beans from last year's harvest cook faster. If yours have been sitting in a cupboard for two years, be patient. They'll get there.
3. 3

   Dress the beans while warm

   Drain the beans and discard the bay leaf. While they are still warm, transfer them to a wide bowl. This is the most important moment in the recipe. Warm beans absorb a Marinade. Cold beans sit in it. In a small bowl, whisk together the Apfelessig, mustard, sugar, a good pinch of salt, several grinds of black pepper, and the neutral oil. Pour this Marinade over the warm beans and fold gently with a spoon, taking care not to crush them. Käferbohnen are tender once cooked and they break easily.

   The neutral oil is there for body. The Kürbiskernöl comes later and is never whisked into the dressing. Heating or emulsifying Kürbiskernöl kills its flavour and turns it bitter. It goes on at the end, raw and dark.
4. 4

   Add the onion and marinate

   Scatter the thinly sliced onion over the dressed beans and fold it through. The slices should be thin enough to soften in the residual warmth and the acid of the vinegar. Let the salad sit at room temperature for at least thirty minutes, giving it a gentle stir halfway through. The beans will drink up the Marinade and the onion will lose its raw edge. Taste and adjust the salt and vinegar. Austrian salad Marinades are vinegar-forward. If it doesn't taste a little sharp on its own, it will taste flat once the beans absorb it.

5. 5

   Finish with Kürbiskernöl

   Just before serving, scatter the chopped parsley over the salad. Pour the Steirisches Kürbiskernöl over the top in a slow, generous drizzle. Do not stir it in. The oil should pool and swirl across the surface, dark green verging on black, catching the light. Scatter a few roasted Kürbiskerne on top if you have them. Serve at room temperature. This is a salad that does not want to be cold. The flavour opens up when the beans are somewhere between warm and cool, and the Kürbiskernöl tastes richest at room temperature. Mahlzeit!

Chef Tips

• •Buy real Steirisches Kürbiskernöl g.g.A. It's not cheap, but nothing else tastes like it. The oil should be so dark it looks black in the bottle and deep emerald green when you hold it up to the light. If the label doesn't say 'g.g.A.' or 'geschützte geographische Angabe,' it's not the real thing and it will taste like disappointment.
• •Gretel always said the Marinade should be dressed on the beans, not the other way around. You pour it over while they're warm and let them take it in. If you dress cold beans, the salad will taste like vinegar sitting on top of something bland.
• •This salad improves overnight. Make it in the evening, leave it covered at room temperature for an hour, then refrigerate. The next day, bring it back to room temperature thirty minutes before serving and add the Kürbiskernöl fresh. The beans will have absorbed everything and the flavour will be deeper.
• •If you can't find Käferbohnen, large butter beans (gigantes) are the closest substitute. The texture is similar, creamy and dense, though the flavour is milder. What you lose in earthiness, the Kürbiskernöl will partly make up for.

Advance Preparation

• •Beans can be cooked up to two days ahead and refrigerated in their cooking liquid. Drain and bring to room temperature before dressing.
• •The dressed salad (without the Kürbiskernöl) can be made the night before and refrigerated. Add the oil just before serving. The oil goes on last, always fresh, always at room temperature.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 215g)