Lebanese Fattoush salad

I love salads. I can have them all the time. My favorite dressing being this simple Olive oil+ lemon juice/white wine vinegar + honey +salt+ black pepper, I add it to pretty much every salad I eat. I have used this dressing in Apple and Pear salad, Cornflakes salad and Beetroot Carpaccio with goat's cheese salad. Another salad which I relish a lot in summer is this robust Panzanella salad. It's made with fresh seasonal tomatoes and lots of basil. Balsamic dressing packs such a punch in soaked croutons in this salad.

I have disliked lettuce for as long as I can remember untill I ate this salad for dinner last night! I was originally going to make Ceaser salad for my husband but with the newly bought middle eastern spice Sumac, I was rather tempted to make this refreshing Fattoush salad with a tangy sumac dressing.

Sumac is a tangy ,lemony spice which is used in Middle Eastern cooking to make food sour. It is mostly used as a salad dressing and sprinkled over dips.

Fattoush is a Lebanese salad which is made with toasted pita and fresh crunchy veggies combined with sumac dressing. Toasted pita absorbs all the punch from lemony dressing and really explodes in mouth. If you enjoy tang in your food, then this one is for you! And that combination of chopped mint and garlic together is just too divine.

Crunchy and crisp salad with a lemony sumac dressing.

Serving- Serves 2 as salad
Serves 1 as main course for dinner/lunch
Type - Appetizer/Snack/Salad
Diet - Vegetarian

Ingredients

1 cup roughly torn lettuce (I used Iceberg lettuce)
1 Cucumber -diced
1 Tomato - diced
1 Onion - thinly sliced
1/2 Red bell pepper- diced
1/2 Yellow bell pepper - diced
1/4th cup mint leaves- finely chopped
1 cup crushed pita chips/lavash chips

Dressing

2 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp Sumac
1/2 Tsp black pepper powder
1/2 Tsp honey
2 clove garlic - grated
Juice of 1 Lemon
salt to taste

Method

In a deep bowl, roughly tear lettuce and wash with water.

Add chopped tomato, cucumber, onion, bell peppers and fresh mint. Crush/break and Add in pita chips.

Toss everything together.

To make dressing, whisk together olive oil, sumac, salt, garlic, lemon juice, honey and some back pepper together in a small jar.

Pour dressing over the salad and give a good mix.

This salad tastes best when vegetables have been freshly bought and cut. Crisp pita, lemony sumac dressing and crunchy vegetables makes this salad an absolute stunner for summers.

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Additional Tips

If you can't find pita or pita chips, crush in some khakhara (Indian flatbread) or dry roast chapati/tortilla in oven and crush.

For crunch, add other veggies like capsicum and carrots.

For gluten free version, leave out pita.