Fatteh
A dish from the Levantine family built on stale bread — the name comes from the Arabic fatta, to crumble. The whole point is a contrast that does not last: crisp bread under warm chickpeas and cold yogurt. That is why fatteh is assembled at the table and eaten at once — after ten minutes the bread softens and the dish becomes an ordinary, if still tasty, mush.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Bread 12 min
- Chickpeas 10 min
- Yogurt sauce 8 min
- Assembly 10 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneToast the bread until crisp
Tear the pitas into stamp-sized pieces, spread on a baking tray, sprinkle with oil and salt and bake 10–12 minutes at 200°C (preheated oven), until deep gold and hard. Torn, not cut — ragged edges crisp better and layer more attractively.
Ingredients: 3 pcs pitas · 3 tbsp olive oil · ½ tsp salt
Hard and deep gold — they go under wet layers.Warm the chickpeas with cumin
Warm the chickpeas with the cumin, salt and a little of their cooking water for 8 minutes. They should be warm and tender but whole — that warmth against the cold yogurt is half the pleasure of the dish.
Ingredients: 500 g chickpeas · 1 tsp cumin · 1 tsp salt · 100 ml water
Whisk the yogurt with tahini
Whisk the yogurt with the tahini, crushed garlic, lemon juice and salt into a smooth, pourable sauce. If too thick, loosen with a spoonful of chickpea water — it should flow, not sit in a mound.
Ingredients: 500 g Greek yogurt · 3 tbsp tahini · 2 cloves garlic · 1 pcs lemon · ½ tsp salt
Pourable, not thick — it should flow over the chickpeas.Brown the butter with pine nuts
Melt the butter and toast the pine nuts in it for 3 minutes, until browned and the butter smells nutty. Watch them — pine nuts go from golden to burnt in seconds, and then they turn bitter.
Ingredients: 60 g butter · 50 g pine nuts · 3 tbsp parsley · 1 tsp sweet paprika · 60 g pomegranate seeds
Layer everything in a bowl
Put the crisp bread on the bottom, the warm chickpeas over it, the yogurt sauce on top. Do not mix — those three layers must stay separate, since that is where the whole contrast of temperature and texture lives.
Ingredients: 3 pcs pitas · 3 tbsp olive oil · ½ tsp salt
Pour on the butter and serve at once
Pour over the hot butter and pine nuts, scatter with parsley, paprika and pomegranate seeds. Serve immediately — the bread starts softening on contact with the yogurt and after ten minutes the contrast is gone for good.
Ingredients: 60 g butter · 50 g pine nuts · 3 tbsp parsley · 1 tsp sweet paprika · 60 g pomegranate seeds
Hot butter over the top, then straight to the table.
Before you start
The whole fatteh family
The same construction covers fatteh with aubergine, with minced lamb, with chicken, and in Egypt with rice and garlic vinegar. Bread at the bottom and yogurt on top stay fixed — the middle is open.
Without stale bread
Fresh pita works too but needs a few minutes longer in the oven. Do not use soft wheat bread — it will not dry right through and under yogurt it turns instantly to sponge.
Everything apart in advance
Bread, chickpeas and sauce can all wait: bread two days in an airtight box, chickpeas and sauce three days in the fridge. Assemble only just before serving — that is the one step that cannot be done ahead.
