Fatttush / Mixed Herbs and Toasted Bread Salad Recipe

Serves 6

Fattush is also on its way to becoming a global salad and, as with tabbuleh, the version you are likely to be sold in shops, or served in restaurants or western homes will be quite different from the Lebanese / Syrian Fattuch. Some families make their fattush without lettuce and use the herb leaves whole. Other families add lemon juice and garlic and let the bread soak in the dressing before mixing the salad. In Syria, they fry the bread before mixing it with the salad. This has the advantage of keeping it crisp, but the disadvantage of making the salad rather heavy. I prefer to toast the bread, and I mix it with sumac and olive oil before adding it to the salad to keep the bread crisp. The oil coats the bread and protects it longer from the salad juices.

Ingredients

1 medium pita bread, opened up at the seam to have two disks, toasted until golden brown and broken into bite-sized pieces
3 tbsp Adonis sumac
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
400 g gem lettuce, outer damaged leaves discarded, cut across in 1 cm strips
100 g springs onions, trimmed and thinly sliced
300 g mini cucumbers, sliced in medium-thin half circles
300 g firm red tomatoes, chopped into bite-sized pieces
200 g flat-leaf parsley (1 bunch), most of the stalks discarded, coarsely chopped
100 g mint (1/2 bunch), leaves only, coarsely chopped
100 g purslane (1/2 bunch), leaves only
Sea salt


Cooking instructions

Put the broken up toasted bread in a medium bowl. Sprinkle the Adonis sumac all over. Add the oil and mix well. This should stop the bread from quickly becoming soggy once it is mixed with the salad.

Put the salad ingredients in a large salad bowl. Add salt to taste. Add the seasoned bread. Mix well. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve immediately.