Fattoush is a chunky Mediterranean salad full of healthy veggies and toasted pita bread ~ a tangy lemon-sumac dressing makes it extra delicious!

fattoush salad ~ what is it?
Fattoush is a Middle Eastern salad, specifically from the Levant region (Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, and Syria.) It’s basically a chopped veggie salad mixed with crisp toasted pita, simply dressed with olive oil, lemon, and sumac.
Fattoush is different from other similar salads in that the ingredients are chopped into larger bite sized pieces, so it has a nice chunky texture. Another identifying feature is the crisp toasted pita bread tossed throughout. If done right, the pita is light and crisp and adds a wonderful crunch to the dish. The pita and the feta cheese make fattoush a good candidate for a light meatless meal.
what you’ll need
Fill your market basket with the reddest tomatoes, the tiniest cukes, the firmest purple onion, a bright bell pepper, and lots of fresh parsley and mint. Grab a pretty bunch of radishes, some feta cheese, and glossy black olives — and don’t forget the pita bread, lemon, and sumac!
sumac is a key ingredient in fattoush
All the ingredients in fattoush are commonplace, except for the sumac. It’s a deep red, tart spice made from crushed sumac berries that I’ve used many times before here in the Great Island kitchen. It looks a little like chili powder, but has a tangy, citrus flavor and it’s popular in Middle Eastern recipes. You can find it in specialty groceries, or of course, always on Amazon. If you like cooking along with me, you will definitely want to stock it in your spice cabinet, I’ve fallen in love how it can wake up a dish. I use it here to flavor a simple dressing of olive oil and fresh lemon juice — simple and unusual.
This salad is a particular favorite of mine, the little crispy bits of pita bread are satisfying but light enough that they don’t weigh the salad down. It’s a wonderful choice for entertaining because it’s out of the ordinary, but doesn’t have any controversial ingredients to bother picky guests. It’s absolutely beautiful, too.
tips for making fattoush salad
- Leafy greens are sometimes included in fattoush recipes, so feel free to extend this salad with your favorite. Purslane, a type of succulent, is traditional. It’s considered a weed here in the US, but is eaten in much of the rest of the world and I’m starting to see it at my farmer’s market. Romaine would be another choice.
- Try to use good tomatoes…I mixed regular, heirloom, and cherry tomatoes for variety. Go with what’s ripe at the moment.
- You can use ready made pita chips in place of the toasted pita if you like.
- I don’t recommend making this salad very far ahead of time. Tomatoes don’t do well in the refrigerator, and the pita bread will lose some of its crunch. If you want to make it up to a few hours in advance, leave out the pita and toss it in at the last minute.
more Middle Eastern salads to try
Fattoush
Ingredients
- 1 pita bread round
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 pinch onion salt
- 2 ripe tomatoes
- 5 cherry tomatoes
- 2 small Persian cucumbers, or 1/2 of a large one
- 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced, or chopped in a small dice
- 4 radishes, sliced or cut into wedges
- 2 ounces feta cheese, cut in small chunks
- 5 black olives, pitted
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley leaves
- 4 mint leaves, rough chopped or torn
dressing
- 4 Tbsp olive oil
- 3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp sumac
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
- Cut the pita bread into 1 inch squares, and then carefully separate the two layers of the bread, so you are left with single layer squares. Toss them with the olive oil and onion salt until evenly coated.
- Toast the pita in a large skillet over medium heat until they are brown and crisp. Stir and flip them almost constantly and try to keep them in a single layer so they will toast evenly. Set aside.
- Chop the tomatoes into bite size chunks. Halve or quarter the cherry tomatoes. Put them all in a large bowl.
- Slice the Persian cucumbers into bite sized chunks. There is no need to peel them. If you use a regular cucumber, peel and de-seed it first.
- Add the onions, radishes, cheese, and olives to the bowl, along with the fresh parsley and mint.
- Whisk together the dressing ingredients and taste to adjust any of them. If you like it less tangy, add more oil. Toss the salad in enough dressing to moisten. Toss the toasted pita and serve immediately.
Nutrition
Hi Sue, I love cooking with sumac, love that you made a dressing out of it. Love all the color and texture in this beautiful salad, looks like it is the perfect way to start out the week for sure.
This salad is gorgeous!! Love all the fresh clean ingredients. You can’t go wrong with a crisp salad full of veggies!
I am a big fan of sumac and a colorful salad like this is very enticing! Absolutely stunning!
Oh, WOWWWWW – gorgeous colors in that fattoush! I love that it’s just good, clean ingredients. Perfect!
It has been a long time since I had Fatoush…this looks so colourful. Love the flavour combinations as well.
For me too Gloria, I’d forgotten about it, but now that great tomatoes are starting to filter back into the grocery stores it’s time to rediscover it.
Pita bread croutons… so genius! This salad looks killer too!
Truth be told I snacked on the toasted pita all day…
With the coming of spring this is a lovely dish, I do enjoy a huge bowl of salad, and find it very satisfying as it does take a while to eat through it.
I am absolutely loving all your pretty, bright dishes lately. Obviously you are enjoying better weather than I am ๐ Our snow is almost gone, though, so I’ll be there shortly!
I was just saying to my husband that maybe I should re-brand myself as a ‘salad’ blog, I get a special pleasure out of them. We’re full on into spring here, so hopefully I can offer you a glimpse of what’s coming ๐
That’s the way I make my panzanella — first a trip to the back yard and the farmers market, and then toss it all together! Love the pita and I must try sumac. I’ve read about it for years, but never bought it. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thanks Dorothy — I need to give panzanella another try, the bread always goes soggy on me. You can probably find sumac at your farmer’s market, if they have a spice stand.
This is heavenly, Sue. I made fattoush for the first time last summer for a baby shower and it was such a huge hit! I love finding international recipes that use ingredients that we are familiar with yet they create whole new flavors. Beautiful photos!
Thanks Robyn — I avoided it for many years because I don’t usually like bread in my salads ๐ but I had this at a restaurant recently and flipped. I’m so glad I gave it a second chance because it’s now my favorite salad ever.