Fattoush is a fresh Middle Eastern salad made with crispy toasted or fried pieces of pita bread jumbled with lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, and capsicum (bell peppers), tossed with a zesty lemon dressing. Serve with Lemon Garlic Chicken for a Lebanese feast at home!
When friends asked me what Fattoush is, I told them it’s the Lebanese version of Panzanella. Then they asked me what Panzanella was. So I stopped using that explanation and now I describe it as a fresh perky Lebanese salad with tasty crunchy bits of crispy pita bread instead of croutons!😂
This is a good salad to have in your repertoire when you’re after a side salad for a Lebanese or Middle Eastern meal. I’m sharing it as the suggested accompaniment for a Lebanese Lemon Garlic Chicken dish that I also shared today.
What you need for Fattoush
Here’s what you need:
For the salad
Being a traditional Lebanese dish, there’s actually no strict rules for what goes in fattoush, though the combination shown below is popular and provides a great contrast of colours and textures.
Lettuce – Cos/romaine lettuce is typical though I make this with iceberg lettuce too.
Radish
Tomatoes – cherry/grape tomatoes or chop large tomatoes
Cucumber
Red onion
Mint and parsley – The mint in particular brings great fresh flavour into this salad, but I’d still make fattoush without either of these.
For the dressing
The dressing is quite tangy, which is the way it’s supposed to be. The special ingredient that makes this unique Lebanese rather than just another regular lemon dressing is Pomegranate Molasses.
Pomegranate molasses – A tart, sweet syrup made from (wait for it…) pomegranate! Adds flavour, sweetness, tang and slightly thickens the dressing. Still worth making even without, just increase lemon juice slightly and add a touch of honey.
Lemon juice
Sumac – A lemony red spice powder used in Lebanese cooking. Still worth making without.
Extra virgin olive oil – Use the good stuff!
Garlic
Salt
PITA BREAD OR LEBANESE BREAD – CRUNCHY CROUTONS!
Use Lebanese bread or pita bread (the thin type, not thicker bready type). Cut into pieces then toast or fry until crunchy!
No video for today’s recipe because I’m posting it as a quick ‘n easy side to accompany today’s Lebanese Lemon Garlic Chicken.
Hope you enjoy! – Nagi x
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Lebanese Fattoush
Ingredients
Crispy pita bread “croutons”
- 2 pita bread or 1 lebanese bread
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt
Salad:
- 5 cups cos/romaine lettuce , cut into large bite size pieces
- 2 Lebanese cucumbers , thinly sliced into 3mm rounds
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes , halved (~200g), or 1 1/2 regular tomatoes cut into large chunks
- 1/2 small red onion , thinly sliced
- 5 red radish , finely sliced
- 1/2 cup mint leaves , lightly packed (large ones torn in half)
- 1 tbsp roughly chopped parsley
Dressing:
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp pomegranate molasses
- 1 medium garlic clove , finely grated or crushed using garlic crusher
- 1 tsp sumac (still worth making without)
- 1/2 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt
Instructions
Crispy pita bread “croutons”
- Preheat oven to 220°C/425°F (200°C fan-forced).
- Separate the pita bread into 2 thin sheets. Cut into 3cm / 1.2" squares.
- Pile on a tray, drizzle with olive oil, toss, then sprinkle with the salt and toss again.
- Spread on the tray. Bake for 5 minutes or until crispy, then cool on the tray before use.
Salad:
- Dressing – Shake the dressing ingredients in a jar until well combined.
- Salad – Place the Salad ingredients in a large bowl. Drizzle over half the dressing, toss. Add most of the crispy pita chips, drizzle with remaining dressing and toss again.
- Serve – Transfer into a serving bowl, top with remaining crispy pita and serve immediately.
Received many compliments at today’s BBQ. Made as per recipe with pomegranate molasses & sumac. I added some fresh pomegranate to add colour & texture. The mint was refreshing & blended all the flavours well together.
My mother in law is Lebanese and we make a salad and dressing very similar. We don’t use Pomegranate molasses. We call it our Sumac dressing – 1/3 cup olive oil, 3 tbsp lemon juice, 3 cloves of garlic minced, shake of sumac, squirt of honey (to offset lemon). I put in a mason jar with a lid and shake it up. We put it on all kinds of salads.
Thanks Kilee. I added the honey which really added a nice little kick of sweetness to the dressing! Thank you Nagi for another wonderful recipe. Made it to serve with your Al Aseel Lemon Garlic Chicken – so good! Love to you and Dozer xoxoxo