Every week I cook a Middle Eastern recipe, this week I made Fattoush; a tangy and refreshing garden salad from Lebanon

What is Fattoush + Intro to lebanese cuisine

Lebanese cuisine is probably the most well-known cuisine from the Middle East. Lebanese restaurants exist in countries all over the globe, this is partly due to the large number of Lebanese people living abroad (4 million in Lebanon vs 8-14 in the diaspora), but also the similarities Lebanese cuisine shares with some European cuisines (Mezze or Mezza being similar to Tapas, and the flavour profiles not being too foreign). The most common style of eating Lebanese food is usually as a spread of Mezze or small plates. These are usually divided up into hot and cold Mezze, for hot it's common to see Grilled Halloumi, Chicken Liver with Pomegranate, Stuffed Vine Leaves, Batata Harra as well as many others. For cold Mezze you commonly see Houmous, Labneh and Moutabal but also two crucial cornerstones of Lebanese cuisine; Fattoush and Tabouleh.

Fattoush and Tabouleh are both cold salads that you can find in every Lebanese restaurant and I don't think a visit is complete without ordering at least one of them. Tabouleh is an extremely fine chopped salad made with bulgur, parsley, cucumber, tomatoes and onions. Today we are tackling Fattoush which is the polar opposite of Tabouleh, it is a chunky salad that although contains mostly the same ingredients, it tastes very different. One component that Fattoush has over Tabouleh is crispy fried bread that is added in to give a final crunch.

Here's how mine turned out. If you prefer video recipes, the link is in my post history.

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Fattoush is a very refreshing salad, the salad contains a number of cooling vegetables such as Cucumber and Lettuce along with Mint and Parsley to give it a herbal kick. The dressing is sweet and tart owing to the Pomegranate Molasses, Lemon and White vinegar in it. The texture of Fattoush is really crisp, owing to the fresh cucumber and lettuce that is added in. The fried bread adds a great textural crunch that is very satisfying. Overall the dish is the perfect kind of salad for a hot summer day.

History:

I couldn't find much about the history of Fattoush, but what I can tell you about is Fatta (plural Fattat) which the name is thought to come from. Fatta dishes are a classification of dishes in the Middle East that are made using crisped old bread. It is thought that the dishes came about as a way to prevent the wasting of day old bread. Fattat are mainly a Levantine food and there are quite a few different dishes such as Fattet Humus, Fattet Betengan or Makdous (Aubergine), Fattet Farakh (chicken Fatta) and also Egyptian Fatta (Rice with bread and meat stock). Fattoush is considered to be part of the Fatta family although the only similarity it has is the crispy bread.

Notes and tips:

• Fattoush is all about being a chunky salad, precise measurements aren't necessary but err on the side of things being a bit chunky. At the same time you want to be able to get all the components onto your fork at the same time so don't make it too chunky
  
• The dressing makes enough for the salad, but you might not need it all, taste and adjust the amount as necessary
  
• The correct bread to use here is Lebanese flatbread which is paper thin. If you cannot get this you can use Pitta but the texture will be quite different. The bread is traditionally fried, but if you are making it with Pitta I recommend baking the bread as it Pitta can absorb a lot of oil in comparison to Lebanese Bread. Use either bread, not both
  
• The bread should be crispy in the salad, so add it to the salad right before serving. If you make the baked pitta it is thicker and so you can add it a short while before serving if you would like it to soften up a bit. You don't want the bread to be rock hard either
  
• Just getting ahead of people saying Fattoush is also from other countries. Yes it is also consumed in other places, that's what you get when empires break down into smaller countries. It is however widely regarded as a Lebanese dish
  

Ingredients:

Makes 1 Family sized (6-8 servings) Fattoush

Salad Ingredients:

1-2 Pitta or 1-2 Lebanese bread
6 cups chopped lettuce or 1 Whole Romaine Lettuce
3 cups chopped cucumber or 3 small middle eastern cucumbers or 1 large English cucumber (Highly recommend getting these small cucumbers as they are less watery and more flavourful than the large ones)
1.5 cups chopped tomatoes or 8 small plum tomatoes or 3-4 large plum tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped radishes or 6-8 radishes (french or garden work great)
1/2 cup chopped spring onion or 3-4 Spring onions
2 tbsp chopped mint or Small handful
2 tbsp chopped parsley or Small handful

Dressing:

50ml (3 tbsp) Olive Oil
45g (3 tbsp) Pomegranate Molasses. Check if yours has added sugar, if not increase by another tbsp and consider adding a tbsp or two of sugar to the final dressing
3 tsp sumac
1 clove garlic
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1/4 lemon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried mint
1/8 tsp pepper
1 tsp white vinegar

To decorate:

1-2 Tbsp Pomegranate Molasses
3-6 Tbsp Pomegranate seeds
Hanful of mint leaves

Directions:

To bake the Pitta:

Microwave your pitta for 10-20 seconds till it softens and is bendable
With your hand ontop of the pitta, slide your knife between the two layers and work it around the outside to separate them
Cut into pieces about 1.5cm or 1/2" width and length
Place on an oven tray and top with 1 Tbsp olive oil per pitta
Season with salt and pepper then mix to combine
Bake in an oven preheated to 180c or 350f for 8-12 minutes until golden

To fry Lebanese bread:

Cut into pieces about 1.5cm or 1/2" width and length
Heat some oil in a frying pan, test it by adding a single piece of bread and if it floats and fries add a handful of bread
Fry for 20-30 seconds until it just starts to brown (only cook it till it just browns ever so slightly as it will continue to darken and fry when you remove it from the oil)
Remove the bread from the pan and let it drain on a kitchen towel lined plate
Season with salt and pepper while still hot

To prepare the salad:

Take off the root of your lettuce and separate the individual leaves, wash them thoroughly
Stack a few similar sized leaves on a chopping board, and trim the leaves to a rectangular shape
Chop the lettuce into strips about 1cm or 1/4" wide, cut any trimmed edges to size too (you don't need to worry about the length of the strips for the lettuce)
Chop the ends off of your cucumbers and then split in half
Cut the cucumber halves into pieces 3mm or 1/8" thick
For the radishes, remove the tops and tails then slice about half the width of the cucumbers
For the spring onions trim off the roots and cut into rounds the same thickness as the cucumber
For the tomatoes cut them in half and then divide each half into quarters (If you aren't using baby plum tomatoes then cut them till each piece is almost 5mm or 1/4 inch wide and long)
Wash your parsley thoroughly then chop the parsley into thin ribbons (Include the green parts of the stem but not the woodier bottom parts)
Remove the stalks from your mint and chop the leaves into thin ribbons

To prepare the dressing:

Place your sumac in a small bowl and top with 3 tsp of hot but not boiling water
Leave it to sit and rehydrate for 15-30 minutes
Add your olive oil to a blender or a small jug
Zest a 1/4 of a lemon and add to your jug
Mince or grate 1 clove of garlic into a fine paste and add to your olive oil
Juice the lemon and add 2 tbsp of its juice to the dressing
Add the sumac from earlier along with any of its liquid
Add 1 tsp of white vinegar
Season the dressing with the mint, salt and pepper
Blend the dressing together to emulsify
Taste for seasoning ensure it is tangy but still a little sweet

To assemble the salad:

Mix all the vegetable ingredients and herbs together (lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, radishes, spring onion, mint, parsley)
Pour on half of your dressing and mix
Taste and add more dressing if it isn't well coated
Just before serving top with your toasted or fried bread (if the toasted bread is really dry you can mix it with some dressing to soften it further, it should still be crispy though not soggy)
Add on a few tablespoons of pomegranate seeds, some mint leaves and drizzle over some pomegranate Molasses

To decorate:

Toss some whole mint leaves over the salad, you can give them a whack to bring out the mint flavour even more
Add a few tablespoons of Pomegranate seeds to the salad, I really like this as it adds another texture to the dish
Drizzle some pomegranate molasses over the top of the salad

bon appetit