Fattoush Salad

Fattoush Salad, a zesty, citrusy Mediterranean green salad with cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, with a sweet, tangy and refreshing Fattoush dressing. If you like crunchy salads with savory notes, this salad will become regular in your menu. Served with baked or fried pita chips for crunch, it a delicious salad to try this at-least once.

Also sharing some easy substitutes when you can't find all classic fattoush ingredients in pantry/store but still craving this  scrumptious salad.

If you like Fattoush, you will also enjoy my Moroccan Carrot Salad, and Tzatziki Chicken Salad recipes.

Fattoush Dressing:

Fattoush salad is all about dressing and some classic must-have ingredients. Like mint, sumac (a citrusy spice blend mostly seen in Middle Eastern markets or specialty food stores such as Whole Foods), and pomegranate. In simple words, Fattoush salad is not fattoush without these ingredients. I often have sumac in my pantry. So that is once spice I recommend to buy. You can find small 3-4 use pouch in spice isle. 

My take on fattoush dressing is simple, using mostly easy-to-find ingredients. Other than sumac, I don't spend extra on buying ingredient such as pomegranate molasses and dried mint, instead make my own easy substitutes.

Pomegranate molasses (you guessed it) is a thick sweet tangy molasses made with pomegranates. If you can find some, feel free to replace pomegranate juice and agave syrup from recipe with Pomegranate molasses. I don't have it often in my pantry, so I make my own substitute. I boil pomegranate juice until it reduces to half (about 6-8 minutes on high medium heat). This concentrates the tangy pomegranate flavor, enhances the sweetness. I use a touch of this, about a tsp mixed with agave syrup and lemon juice and it makes perfect base for my fattoush salad dressing.  

Worth a shout out, Agave Syrup is low glycemic index sweetener. Also a little goes a long way. I highly recommend reaching for agave instead of any refined sugar products for daily use.

When in season, fresh organic mint has lots of flavor. if you have some great otherwise no need to buy dried. Fresh mint works just fine.

Once you have the dressing, the fattoush recipe comes together in a breeze. You can use any combination of fresh ingredients for this salad. Classic cucumber, radish, red onion, and pomegranate seeds. Plus the crunchy green base of romaine hearts and lots of fresh herbs - mint, parsley. 

Toss these two and you are ready to devour a delicious salad with easy to find ingredients, without a trip of your favorite Mediterranean restaurant. 

Note: I have also added all ingredients in my Amazon Shop if you prefer to buy online. Linked at the end of Recipe Card.

Baked Pita Chips:

Pita chips are croutons which balance the citrus notes of fattoush salad quite well. When left too long in salad, it soak in some of the dressing. So, if you like crunchy croutons in salad, I recommend adding these just before serving. Feel free to replace my baked version with store-bought pita chips. Or spend 10 minutes and bake your own chips with my easy recipe (check direction for details).

I hope you will get chance to try fattoush at home. All that extra romaine hearts in refrigerator, red onion, cherry tomatoes. Grab'em and make fattoush dressing to serve a new green and delicious Fattoushy Salad tonight!

Enjoy! -Savita x