Fattoush Salad – A delicious summer salad with crispy pitta bread, feta cheese and a lemon, mint and sumac dressing.

Alright, before I start I have a confession. I’ve never tried an “authentic” fattoush salad. I came across a description one day and thought it sounded yummy so I’ve made it up based on that alone.

According to Wikipedia a Fattoush Salad is… “a Levantine bread salad made from toasted or fried pieces of pitta bread combined with mixed greens and other vegetables … sumac is usually used to give fattoush its sour taste”.

Admittedly I could have called this “Lettuce, cucumber, tomato and feta salad with a lemon, mint and sumac dressing” but in all honesty I thought that was a bit of a mouthful. As with my korma paste, I decided that it contains enough of the core ingredients that it would be OK. At least after my rather long confession, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

Anyway, authentic or not this salad is delicious. It’s important that you know now that I’m not a big fan of salad, they just don’t fill me up. However, the addition of the toasted pitta makes this feel much more like a meal and the dressing is (sorry if I sound a little over confident) the best salad dressing I’ve ever tasted. I’m currently busy writing a list of other things I can pour it over. Family members who are even less salad lovers than me also enjoyed it.

FREE GRAMS TO CUPS CONVERSION CHARTS

Subscribe to the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen mailing list to get your FREE printable grams to cups and cups to grams conversion charts for twelve popular baking ingredients

Fattoush Salad

Fattoush Salad - A delicious summer salad with crispy pitta bread, feta cheese and a lemon, mint and sumac dressing.

Print Rate Save

Active Time: 5

Cook Time: 5

Total Time: 10

Servings: 1 salad

INGREDIENTS

30 g round lettuce - A few leaves
60 g cherry tomatoes - about 6 tomatoes
60 g cucumber - about 6 slices
1 pitta bread
40 g feta cheese

For the dressing

2 tbsp lemon juice
½ tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
½ clove of garlic
A few mint leaves
1 tsp sumac

INSTRUCTIONS

Cut your pitta bread into large pieces and toast - I cook mine in the oven for 10 minutes at 220ºC/200ºC fan until it is crispy, but you could also toast it under the grill or in a toaster if you prefer.
While the pitta is toasting make your dressing. Finely chop a few mint leaves and crush the garlic (½ clove).
Mix 2 tbsp (½ lemon) lemon juice, ½ tbsp cider vinegar, 1 tsp olive oil, chopped mint and crushed garlic in a small dish. Season with salt.
Prepare the salad by tearing the lettuce leaves (approx. 3 leaves) into large pieces. Chop the cucumber (60g) into slices and cut each slice in half. Slice the cherry tomatoes (60g) in half. Chop the feta (40g) into 1cm cubes.
Once the pitta has toasted add all the ingredients to a bowl and toss so that the salad is coated in the dressing.

NOTES

The weights and measures in the ingredients are a guide. As with most salads a little more of what you like and a little less of anything you're less keen on.

If you're making the salad in advance to eat later (for a packed lunch or picnic), store the dressing separately and add just before eating otherwise the pitta will become soggy.

The recipe given makes one salad and is easily adapted to serve as many as you like.

Each salad contains 2.3 of your 5-a-day fruit and vegetables.

If you're after a lower calorie/fat option then leaving out the feta cheese will lower the calories to 241 kcal (12%), fat to 6.2g (9%) and saturated fat to 1.0g (5%).

WANT TO HEAR ABOUT NEW RECIPES FIRST?SUBSCRIBE to the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen Mailing List

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Author: Charlotte Oates

Free-From…

Vegetarian
Egg-Free
Nut-Free
Soy-Free
Corn-Free

The ingredients for this recipe are commonly available free from all these allergens. However, please ensure you double-check allergen information for all ingredients.

To make this salad gluten-free then simply substitute the pitta bread for a gluten-free version.

To make this salad dairy-free/vegan then omit the feta cheese.

Comments

PAULINE says
January 05, 2018 at 6:18 pm
Hello,
I’ve just come across your super site and am looking forward to having this salad. I assume the sumac is just mixed in with the dressing ingredients? Can’t wait to try this dressing.
- Charlotte Oates says
  January 07, 2018 at 8:54 pm
  Yes, that’s right. I hope you enjoy it.
Helen @ Fuss Free Flavours says
July 17, 2015 at 1:32 pm
Sometimes the traditional and simple recipes, concentrating on the ingredients are the best.
Thanks for linking up to #extraveg
- Charlotte Oates says
  July 18, 2015 at 11:03 am
  I suspect that’s why they stick around for so long!
Howie Fox says
June 16, 2015 at 8:05 pm
Woah! I’m a huge salad fan and claiming that this is the best salad dressing you ever had made me curious! Copy pasted the ingredients and will report back 😀
Thanks!
- Charlotte Oates says
  June 16, 2015 at 11:18 pm
  I’m scared now!! I’m not a huge salad fan (as you can tell from the number of salads v sweet things in my recipe index) so there may be lots of dressings that I’ve never even tried, but this is definitely one of my favourites. I hope you enjoy it.
Mel says
June 11, 2015 at 9:48 pm
I’d never heard of Fattoush salad until… well, just now! That’s the kind of stuff I love, thought. It would be perfect on a warm Saturday lunchtime. Nice, tasty and quick; that’s what I love most!
- Charlotte Oates says
  June 11, 2015 at 10:45 pm
  I hadn’t either until I came across the description a few weeks ago. Since starting this blog I’m finding so many things I’ve not tried before.
Sally Akins says
June 09, 2015 at 8:50 am
This looks great – I love salads, and this looks like the sort of thing I’d love for a summer lunch. Yum!!
- Charlotte Oates says
  June 11, 2015 at 11:01 pm
  Thanks Sally. It does make a lovely summer lunch when the sun’s shining.
Mandy says
June 08, 2015 at 8:45 pm
This looks and sounds really delicious, I’m with you on the “as long as it contains some of the main ingredients” philosophy – that’s how great dishes are made! #recipeoftheweek
- Charlotte Oates says
  June 11, 2015 at 11:03 pm
  Thanks Mandy. I’m glad I’m not the only one who goes with the “as long as it contains some of the main ingredients” approach. I’d imagine that these things evolve so much over time that most people wouldn’t know what an authentic one tasted like anyway. I always think that main thing is that it tastes good.
Clementine Buttercup says
June 07, 2015 at 2:32 pm
I’m loving the new background to your pics. New domain name with a completely new feel!
- Charlotte Oates says
  June 11, 2015 at 11:05 pm
  Thanks Clementine. I’m glad you like the background. I wasn’t sure about changing it as it’s pretty uncommon for images to have any kind of border on blogs, but I thought it helped everything look a bit tidier and like they all belonged together.