Fattoush: the Lebanese salad with crisp pita and sumac
The Levantine sister of Italian panzanella: a salad invented to use up yesterday's bread. The difference is fundamental — in panzanella the bread is meant to soak, here it must stay crisp to the last bite. So the pita is toasted and added only at the table. The second pillar of this salad is sumac: ground red berries with a lemony acidity, without which fattoush is just a vegetable salad.
Your own work in that: 35 min.
- Pita 12 min
- Vegetables 15 min
- Tossing 8 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneToast the pita
Tear the pita by hand into bite-sized pieces, spread on a tray, drizzle with oil and salt it. Bake 10 minutes at 190 °C, turning once, until golden and snapping when broken. Cool it completely: warm pita steams under the vegetables and goes soft.
Ingredients: 3 pcs pita bread · 3 tbsp olive oil · ½ tsp salt
TipYou can also fry the pita in olive oil as in the original. It comes out crisper still, but absorbs far more fat.
It should snap; then let it coolChop the vegetables coarsely
Cut the tomatoes into large pieces, the cucumber into half-moons, the radishes into thin slices, and tear the lettuce by hand. Fattoush is cut coarser than tabbouleh — it should be a salad of mouthfuls in which every ingredient is recognisable.
Ingredients: 400 g tomatoes · 1 pcs cucumber · 8 pcs radishes · 8 pcs romaine lettuce · 4 pcs spring onions · 1 bunch parsley · 20 pcs fresh mint
Coarse pieces, every ingredient recognisableMake the sumac dressing
Rub the sumac with the salt in a small bowl, add the lemon juice and wait 5 minutes for the sumac to swell and release its colour. Only then whisk in the oil, crushed garlic and pepper. The dressing turns deep pink.
Ingredients: 2 tsp sumac · 1½ pcs lemons, juice · 5 tbsp olive oil · 1 clove garlic · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp pepper
TipSumac steeped in lemon gives a completely different depth from sumac dusted on dry at the end. Five minutes genuinely matter here.
Sumac into lemon first, oil afterwardsToss the vegetables with the dressing
On a wide platter combine all the vegetables and herbs, pour over the dressing and toss. Taste and adjust — it should be distinctly tart and salty, because the pita will take some of that away.
Add the pita at the very end
Scatter the crisp pita over just before serving and toss a few times. Dust with another pinch of sumac. Eat fattoush within 10 minutes: after that the pita softens and the salad becomes something else.
Ingredients: 3 pcs pita bread · 3 tbsp olive oil · ½ tsp salt
Pita last, eaten within ten minutes
Before you start
What sumac is
The ground dried berries of the sumac shrub, with an acidity close to lemon but none of its sharpness. Look for it among Middle Eastern spices; if you cannot find it, use lemon zest plus a pinch of salt.
Without pita
Flatbread, lavash or tortilla toasted the same way. Rye bread does not work here — its sourness fights the sumac and lemon.
As part of a mezze
Serve beside hummus, tabbouleh and grilled meat. The crisp pita plays the same role as croutons in a Caesar: it brings the crunch the soft mezze lack.
With cheese
Cubes of feta or halloumi turn this into a full meal. Fry halloumi 2 minutes a side beforehand and add it warm, just before the pita.
