Fattoush is a Lebanese dish – effectively a ‘bread salad,’ a product of farmers throwing leftover pitta scraps into a frying pan with olive oil before combining with seasonal vegetables and herbs. It's perfect for summer - light but still with plenty of carb. Here’s my take on it!
Ingredients: (serves 4)
4 slices of bread of choice – typically pitta, but crusty bread or even sliced will work
1 head romaine lettuce, torn or roughly chopped
Half a large cucumber, halved and sliced
4 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 red onion, sliced thinly
3 handfuls fresh mint, finely chopped
2 handfuls fresh parsley, finely chopped
Juice of half a lime
1 tsp sumac
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
1. Shake the lime juice, sumac, olive oil and vinegar in a sealed container/jar to make the dressing.
2. Combine the rest of the salad ingredients including the salt and pepper, but save the bread. Add the dressing, mix well and leave to sit (preferably in the fridge).
3. Tear up the bread and fry in a little olive oil until golden and crispy on the outside and still soft in the middle. Alternatively, place in a baking tray with 2-3tbsp oil, and a little salt and pepper. Massage the oil into the bread and bake at 180*C for 10 minutes. Add to the salad, mix well, season to taste with salt and pepper if needed, and serve.
In this version I added pan fried tofu (and used rocket instead of romaine - a good sub but def not quite as good as romaine) :
