Fattoush

"Fattoush is all about the salad dressing: the pomegranate molasses, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, lemon and of course the sumac. However, the shower of freshly fried Lebanese bread on top is always the best part."

Credit: Adam Liaw

• serves

  6

• prep

  1 hour

• cook

  5 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 2 large, short cucumbers
• 3 tomatoes
• ½ yellow capsicum, seeded
• ½ red capsicum, seeded
• 5 spring onions
• 1 bunch baby radishes
• 1 baby cos lettuce
• 1 bunch rocket
• ¼ small white cabbage
• ¼ small purple cabbage
• 1 bunch parsley, leaves picked
• 1 bunch oregano, leaves picked
• 1 bunch purslane, leaves picked
• ½ bunch mint, leaves picked, torn if large
• neutral oil, for frying
• 1-2 large rounds Lebanese bread
• 1 pomegranate, halved and seeds removed

Dressing

• 60 ml (¼ cup) pomegranate molasses (or to taste)
• 125 ml (½ cup) lemon juice
• 125 ml (½ cup) extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp salt (or to taste)
• 1 tbsp sumac
• 1-2 garlic cloves, crushed

Instructions

1. Wash all the vegetables and herbs and allow to dry well.
2. Finely dice the cucumber, tomatoes, capsicum and spring onions. It's important to keep a consistency of dice in this salad, I tend to dice them about 1.5 cm big. Slice the radishes into thick circles and then into matchsticks. Coarsely shred the cos lettuce and rocket and finely shred the cabbage.
3. Fill a deep frying pan quarter full of oil and place over high heat. Once the oil is hot, reduce the heat to medium. While the oil is heating, open up the pieces of Lebanese bread into single rounds and roughly tear into medium sized pieces. Place 3 - 4 thick paper towels into a sieve over a bowl to soak up any excess oil that is left on the bread.
4. Once the oil is ready, add one piece of bread to the oil, rough side down, to test the timing and colour, keeping in mind, when you remove the bread from the oil, it continues to cook and brown so you need to know when to take it out. The colour of the bread should be golden when it leaves the oil and then usually darkens to a light brown once it's cooled down. Be mindful not to overcrowd the pan. Allow the bread to cool down and any excess oil to drip off.
5. For the dressing, place all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir to combine well.
6. To assemble the fattoush, place all the chopped salad ingredients and herbs in a large bowl. Add dressing and half the pomegranate, then coarsely crush half the fried bread into the bowl. Gently toss with your hands until everything is well coated in the dressing. Scatter with the remaining pomegranate seeds and coarsely crush the remaining fried bread over the top. Serve immediately.

 

Photography by Adam Liaw.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.