Name: Proper Fatoush
Yield: A Side Salad for 4
Ingredients: around 20 black olives (choose ones with character); salt and freshly ground black pepper; 2 garlic cloves, minced (optional); 4 spring onions (scallion(s)); 6 tbsp olive oil; juice of 1½ lemons; 1 handful of fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped; 1½ pieces pitta bread, preferably wholemeal as it is better for you (or, to be more authentic, the equivalent in stale bread); 1 little gem lettuce; 2 tsp sumac; 1 handful of fresh mint, chopped; a little non-virgin olive oil, for frying; 1 green (bell) pepper; 4 tasty tomatoes (not the supermarket ones which taste of water); 1 handful of fresh parsley, chopped; 2 baby cucumbers, scraped (or ½ regular one, peeled)

Preparation info

A Side Salad for
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Salmagundi

By Sally Butcher

Published 2014

About

Fatoush is the Levantine version of Salad-e-shirazi, although I do not wish to hazard a guess as to which came first. What makes fatoush interesting is the inclusion of croutons. Croutons instantly add a frisson of naughtiness to a salad, not to mention crunch. This is, in fact, one of a range of dishes known as fatta (literally: crushed bread or crumbs) which evolved to use up stale bread. So it’s a thrifty little number, and you earn