Fattoush

Ingredients

• Pita bread — stale2
• Tomatoes4
• Cucumbers3
• Radishes8
• Romaine lettuce200 g
• Spring onions4
• Parsley40 g
• Fresh mint20 g
• Sumac2 tbsp
• Pomegranate molasses2 tbsp
• Lemon2
• Olive oil80 ml
• Garlic2 clove
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Tear the bread by hand into two-finger pieces and fry them in olive oil until browned.

   10 min

2. 2

   Drain the bread on paper and dust it with half the sumac while it is still hot.

   3 min

3. 3

   Cut the tomatoes, cucumbers and radishes into large uneven pieces; the salad should be rough rather than neat.

   12 min

4. 4

   Tear the lettuce by hand and chop the herbs and spring onion.

   6 min

5. 5

   Whisk a dressing from the lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, crushed garlic, the remaining sumac, oil and salt.

   5 min

6. 6

   Toss the vegetables in the dressing, add the bread and serve at once.

   3 min

About the dish

The bread goes in at the last minute. It has to crunch in the bowl rather than soften: dressed in advance, a fattoush turns to mush within ten minutes.

Sumac — ground sour berries — supplies the main acidity and the lemon only supports it. Without sumac the salad loses both its colour and its particular astringency.

Fattoush was invented so that stale flatbread would not be thrown out. It belongs to the frugal end of the table, and in Syria it appears at almost every Ramadan evening.

Worth knowing

• — The bread can be baked instead of fried — drier and lighter, but the flavour is thinner: fried bread absorbs oil and becomes part of the salad.
• — Do not salt the cucumbers ahead. Salt draws water out of them and dilutes the dressing.
• — Pomegranate molasses can be replaced with a spoon of honey and vinegar, but the acidity comes out blunter.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

280 kcal

Protein

6 g

Fat

18 g

Carbs

26 g

More from Syria

• Kibbeh bil sanieh — Two layers of bulgur and meat with a filling of mince and pine nuts between them, baked in a tray.
• Muhammara — A paste of roasted red pepper, walnuts and pomegranate molasses, from Aleppo.
• Shish barak — Small lamb dumplings baked and then cooked in a garlic and mint yoghurt sauce.