This Middle-Eastern salad is vibrant in colour, minty, sour and very easy to make. I normally serve fattoush to accompany falafels, hummus, or kebabs, but it pairs really well with burgers and even a piece of oven-roasted fish. To me, it’s hydrating and lovely to eat in the summer, probably because of the high water content of its main ingredients – romaine lettuce, cucumber, radishes and tomatoes.
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 head of romaine lettuce, roughly chopped
1 medium-sized cucumber, diced into one-inch pieces
3-4 small salad tomatoes, quartered (you can use 12 cherry tomatoes halved instead)
1 red onion, diced into small pieces
12 small pink radishes, sliced into thin rounds
5-6 sprigs of fresh mint, finely chopped
2-3 Lebanese pickled peppers (optional)
3-4 tbsp of olive oil
1 medium-sized lemon juiced
1 tbsp of sumac (a deep red spice you can buy in Middle-Eastern stores)
Sea salt to season
Method
In a large bowl, combine romaine lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, onion, radishes and picked peppers (if you’re using them). Drizzle olive oil over the ingredients, add lemon juice, sea salt, sprinkle sumac and mix well. Sprinkle chopped mint on top and serve. If you’re preparing this in advance, you can combine all the salad ingredients and store in the fridge tightly wrapped with cling film or in an airtight container. Don’t add the olive oil, lemon, salt, sumac or mint until you’re ready to serve, otherwise you’ll have a very limp and soggy salad to eat!
Enjoy!
littleredspoon 