Fattoush Salad
This fattoush salad will quickly become your favorite salad. Crispy pita, tangy dressing, and lots of fresh herbs will make this an instant favorite. Fattoush is a Middle Eastern salad — its key characteristic are the pieces of crispy, toasted pita. The pita is often fried, but I bake mine. It gives the same crunch without the fried taste (or the calories).
The salad itself typically consists of fresh romaine, tomatoes, cucumber. Sometimes there is radish, sometimes onion, sometimes red cabbage. I love it the way I make it (obviously), but sometimes I’ll get crazy and add celery. It’s not at all traditional, but I like the crunch, especially if I don’t have radish on hand. The dressing is made with sumac (sumac is a game-changer!), pomegranate molasses, lemon, garlic, olive oil, dried mint and a little vinegar. We like the dressing nice and tangy, but I’ve also seen some creamier varieties with milk or yogurt in them.
Ingredients:
- 4 teaspoons ground sumac
- 4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 large lemon should be good, but you might need 2)
- 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
- 1 small garlic clove, minced
- 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon dried mint
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 3/4 cup good-quality extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 8"-diameter pita bread rounds
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sumac
- 1 small head romaine lettuce, trimmed, cut crosswise into 1/2" strips (8-10 cups chopped lettuce)
- 3 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
- 10-15 radishes, thinly sliced or chopped
- 1 English hothouse cucumber, quartered lengthwise, thinly sliced crosswise
- 2 cups (loosely packed) flat-leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped
- 5 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped