Healthy Diet: Fattoush Salad

Posted on May 10, 2016

Healthy Diet: Fattoush Salad

Adapted slightly from Global Table Adventures

Last month for book club we read Life From Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family and Forgiveness, which chronicles food writer and blogger Sasha Martin’s attempt to make a meal from every country in the world. She starts with Afghanistan and ends with Zimbabwe. In our book club the host always picks the book. We usually read fiction but we occasionally throw in a memoir for good measure. Our host picked this book because she loves food, both cooking and eating it. She made a variety of recipes featured in the book for us to enjoy. One was Fattoush Salad. I could not stop eating it. It is bursting with flavor and has lots of lively acidity to brighten your palate. It contains no meat but you could easily add grilled chicken or a can of drained chickpeas to give it more heft. Also, don’t let the name throw you. It is a simple salad with ingredients you can easily find in your grocery store.

Ingredients

For the dressing:

2 lemons juiced but not strained
1/2 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste

For the salad:

1 head romaine lettuce torn or sliced
1 cucumber, sliced in quarter moons
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup mint, chopped
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1 green or red bell pepper (or both), chopped
6 green onions, sliced
2 pieces pita bread, toasted and broken into small pieces (shortcut: use store-bought pita chips instead)
feta, crumbled to taste
optional: 1 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
optional: sliced radishes
optional: artichoke hearts

Photo credit: Girl on the Range

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