Saturday, March 18, 2006

Fattoush

Fattoush is a salad of Lebanese/Syrian origins and it's name means "moistened bread". Some versions of this dish use deep fried pita bread but I prefer the cleaner taste of toasted bread and using a sandwich press (once again I can recommend the Sunbeam Cafe Grill) is an excellent way to get that super crispy finish without the risk of burning. It dries out the bread perfectly. This salad is an excellent accompaniment to roasted/grilled meats or served by itself as an entree/appetiser. Once you've done all the prep work it's just a matter of combining the ingredients and making a simple dressing of olive oil and lemon juice.

fattoush© by haalo


Fattoush

1 slice pita bread, toasted and then broken roughly into bite sized pieces
1 red capsicum, seeded and diced finely
1 Lebanese cucumber, peeled and diced finely
2 spring onions, sliced finely
2 radish, sliced finely
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
2 teaspoons Sumac
handful of continental parsley, finely sliced
1 tablespoon finely sliced fresh mint
olive oil
lemon juice
freshly ground salt and pepper


In a bowl place the prepared capsicum, cucumber, spring onions, radish, cherry tomatoes and herbs. Stir, then sprinkle over with sumac and a grind of pepper and salt before mixing again.

You can set it aside at this stage until ready to serve.

Now add the bread and mix once more.

Make a dressing of 2 parts olive oil to one part lemon juice and drizzle over the salad, tossing well.

6 comments

  1. I don't know what a punnet is - maybe like a pint? But the picture looks very nice! Will try it soon!

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  2. Punnet refers to the container, I'm sure you must have seen punnets of strawberries - it's about 250g in weight. The small cherry tomatoes are usually sold in punnets.

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  3. I love fattoush salad. There's a little Lebanese restaurant at The Grange in Brisbane called Al Samar (the url is fairly obvious) that make the best Fattoush I've ever had. I've managed to replicate it at home, but frying the pita bread is sometimes more effort than I want from a salad.

    My version uses spanish onions marinated in sumac and a little water instead of capsicum.

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  4. Hi David

    Thanks for the comment!
    Fattoush seems to be one of those recipes that is very adaptable, as all good recipes are.

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  5. Hooray fattoush! We've made it on several occasions (my wife is half Armenian); the last time we made it with shrimp! It was delicious. Love the pictures on your blog!

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  6. Thanks Chris - your shrimp fattoush looks soooo good.

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