Fattoush salad is a Lebanese staple, and I first tried and learned how to make it in cooking classes a few years ago. It stuck with me since it’s one of the most satisfying salads flavor-wise I’ve ever had.
What makes this a salad is the bread. The authentic version of this salad uses fried Mediterranean bread, such as pita, that’s either stale or pan toasted, and then torn and tossed with seasonal vegetables.
We’re not frying the pita here, but the flavors are very on point! And the mint dressing is a new fave for me. I loved making these for lunch – I know they look light, but they’re really satisfying. Plus, you can always add an easy protein such as chicken, which seems to work the best.
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What’s in Fattoush
Here we’re using some common salad ingredients like greens (I used mixed greens), tomatoes, cucumber, radishes, and red onion. These are typical ingredients for fattoush. If you have any other crunchy veggie favorites like bell peppers and carrots, go for it! We’re also using sumac, a spice made from berries with a tangy, lemony flavor. You can find it in the spice section of your store, usually. If not, we’ll add lemon juice instead.
The dressing is made with mint, mustard, olive oil, garlic, and honey. But if you’re not a mint fan or can’t find it, we have options!
And you can use any pita or flatbread that you can find for this salad. Note that I added feta to my salad for some of the recipe tests, for some added flavor. It’s not always something you find in fattoush, though.
How to customize this salad
- Keep all the ingredients separate if you’re worried about sogginess and assemble salads as needed. I like to pre-assemble them in containers just to make life easier. Whatever you do, don’t mix it all up and add the dressing if you intend to eat it the next day. Wait and add the dressing before you eat it.
- Feel free to add protein to this salad! Simple grilled chicken or chickpeas would be my first choice, but really anything could work. Canned tuna would be great. So would falafel; check out an easy homemade falafel recipe here.
- I used mixed greens in this, but you could also stick to baby kale, spinach, or arugula.
- Red onion is delicious in this salad but can be overpowering if you use too much of it. I love the color, so adding red cabbage instead might be a good idea if you can’t eat onions or are more sensitive to the strong taste.
- You can eat pita on the side with this; however, adding a bed of grains (think quinoa, farro, or couscous) would be an easy option to make this even more filling. We like farro in particular.
- Another way to make this more filling is by using the entire salad as a filling for a wrap with hummus!
How to substitute mint dressing
If you don’t want to use the dressing in the recipe, try out one of these:
- Classic Tahini–you can drizzle a little bit of this over the salad. Just make sure it’s thinned out enough (tahini can be really thick); you might need to add a little hot water.
- Tahini Mustard Lemon Sauce -if you want to make the salad a little zestier, combine equal parts of these three ingredients and adjust to taste
- Tzatziki (plain yogurt, shredded cucumber, salt, lemon, garlic, etc.)
- A classic dressing for fattoush is a simple red wine vinaigrette: 1 part vinegar to three parts olive oil. Add a bit of salt, pepper, and dried oregano or parsley, and you’re good to go.
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How to Store Fattoush
This salad lasts in the fridge for up to 4 days. It’s not freezer friendly. You don’t have to reheat it! It tastes great cold or at room temp. As mentioned above, keep all the ingredients separate if you’re worried about sogginess, and assemble salads as needed! Happy prepping!
Fattoush Salads With Mint Dressing
Ingredients
For the salad
- 16 oz mixed greens romaine, baby kale, baby spinach, etc
- 2 roma tomato sliced
- 1 cucumber sliced
- 1/2 red onion sliced thin
- 4 radishes sliced
- 1 cup parsley chopped
- 3 scallions white and green ends chopped
- 1-1/2 tsp sumac kept on the side
- 3 pita bread kept whole until you toast it, then chop it up!
For the dressing
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 lemon for 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup mint leaves roughly chopped
- 1 clove garlic roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp agave, maple syrup or honey
- 2 tsp dijon mustard
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- It's ideal to keep the greens, tomato, cucumber, onion and radishes separate to avoid sogginess. You can place each chopped ingredient in separate jars or containers or use a divided container to store ingredients without them mixing. You can keep the parsley and scallions in the same container.
- Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a food processor or blender. Blend/process well, taste and add more salt if desired. Store the dressing in its own container.
- Before serving, toast the pita bread and then tear or slice it up. Add greens, cucumber, radish, red onion, tomato, scallions, parsley, the toasted pita and about 1/2 tsp sumac to your salad and mix together. Top with the dressing (you may need to give it a shake) and any cooked proteins if using. Enjoy!
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