For day 6 of the marathon, it is Fattoush, a Lebanese bread salad. Pita bread is deep fried or oven baked, as I did, and added to the vegetables to make the salad. The magic ingredient for this salad seems to be Sumac, a spice from the Mediterranean. It supposedly has a lemony flavor and on searching for a substitute for this spice, I found lemon zest to be the closest in taste.
Most of the recipes online used lettuce and I found a recipe that did not use it. I had already bought lettuce for this preparation and hence decide to use it. The next time I prepare Fattoush, I might use very little lettuce or skip it altogether. I followed Kalyn’s recipe and made ¼th of the recipe.
Source: Kalyn’s Kitchen
Total Time: 15 - 20 minutes
Preparation: 10 minutes
Baking Time: 8-10 minutes
Serves: 1-2 (depending on how you serve it)
Ingredients:
- 2 Pita Bread
- 1 big Garlic Clove
- ¼ tsp. Salt (adjust to taste)
- ½ Lime or 2 tbsp. Lime Juice
- ¼ tsp. Sumac + more sprinkle on the salad (I used lemon zest)
- 2 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- ½ Lettuce head or approx. 2 ½ cups bite size chopped Lettuce
- 1 tbsp. Green Onion chopped
- 6 Cherry Tomatoes diced
- 1 mini Cucumber diced or ¼ - ⅓ cup diced Cucumber
- 1 Carrot or ¼ cup sliced Carrot
- 2 tbsp. chopped Mint
- 2 tbsp. chopped Cilantro (recipe called for parsley)
Preparation:
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Cut pita bread to ¾” – 1” strips and arrange them on a baking tray and bake for 8-10 minutes until crisp. I baked for 7 minutes and while tearing or crumbling the bread into smaller pieces I noticed some of the pieces were not crispy enough. Since oven was still hot, I put the crumbles bread back into the hot oven for 2-4 minutes. My oven was off but still hot toast the crumbles.
- Crush garlic clove with some salt in mortar pestle or crush the garlic with a knife. Take it in a small bowl, add lemon juice, sumac or lemon zest, oil and whisk it. Keep it aside.
- Wash the lettuce and cut it into bite size pieces. Dry it in a salad spinner or dry it in paper towels as I did.
- Cut tomatoes and leave it in a colander or a strain to drain the juices.
- Cut rest of the vegetables and herbs and put them in a bowl.
- Add tomatoes, lettuce, ½ of the vinaigrette and toss it. Add crumbled pita bread and remaining vinaigrette and toss it again.
- Let the salad sit for few minutes for the flavors to blend into the pita bread.
- Sprinkle some lemon zest or Sumac on the salad and serve it.
Note
- Other vegetables that can be added to the salad are chopped bell peppers and radish.
- I cut cherry tomatoes into two but I felt cutting it into pieces might have been better.
- This salad was a little lemon and adjust lemon/lime juice according to your taste. I like lemon and it was perfect for me.
Recipes posted this day in 2009 - Lisa's Black & Yellow Chickpeas Sweet & Spicy Sauce and in 2010 - Egg Roll
Recipes I posted this month in 2009, in 2010 and in 2011.
Blogging Marathon: To know more about the various themes and participating bloggers for this marathon, checkout the blogging marathon page on Srivalli's
Kalyn says
So glad you enjoyed it!
preeti says
Look Awesome.....perfectly made....too yumm!!!!
harini says
awesome and colorful bowl of salad!
Jayanthi says
Simple yet very nutritious Usha. Looks absolutely fantastic and colorful.
Pradnya says
I go for fattoush on most official lunches for 2 reasons, it is guilt free and second...it is amazingly tasty..i do pour excess olive oil on it though
PJ says
Looks so colorful I wouldn't mind having this everyday...
Srivalli says
That's new Usha, looks very colourful!
Priya says
Very light and super filling fattoush,love it..
Divya Prakash says
Delicious and Healthy!!
Mireille says
Italian also have a version of this..Lebanese version sounds tastier!!
Suma Gandlur says
Looks very colorful besides being healthy.