This Lennox Hastie salad is simply sensational

A punchy dressing made from olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, and sumac brings it all to life and makes this simple salad something brilliant.

Fattoush salad by Lennox Hastie. Photo: Nikki To

Lennox Hastie

less than 2 min read

12:10PMApril 25, 2024.

Updated 9:55PMApril 25, 2024

The Weekend Australian Magazine

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Fattoush is a celebration of colour and flavour made with a combination of fresh vegetables, herbs and toasted or fried pieces of pita bread. With its origins in ancient Levantine cuisine, it was likely created as a method to use up stale bread, a bit like an Italian panzanella. The word “fattoush” is derived from the Arabic word “fatteh” which means “crushed” or “crumbs” referring to the crushed pieces of crisp pita bread that provide a pleasing crunch to the salad. A punchy dressing made from olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, and sumac brings it all to life and makes this simple salad something sensational. Serve with my lamb koftas.

Lamb koftas are perfect with fattoush salad.

Fattoush salad is crispy and flavour packed. Photos: Nikki To

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Fattoush

Ingredients

• 100g pita bread
• 25ml olive oil
• 1 teaspoon za’atar
• 1 baby cos lettuce
• 1 cucumber, halved and cut into even sized pieces
• 12-16 sugar plum tomatoes, halved (or 4-5 vine ripened tomatoes, diced into even sized pieces)
• 1 small red onion, finely sliced
• 30ml red wine vinegar
• Seeds from ½ pomegranate
• 4 radish, stems removed, sliced
• Handful parsley and mint leaves, roughly torn
• Handful dill sprigs
• 200g cooked chickpeas, drained
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds, optional

For the dressing

• 2 teaspoons ground sumac soaked in 2 teaspoons warm water for 15 minutes
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 10g pomegranate molasses
• 1 clove garlic, germ removed, finely minced
• 1 teaspoon tahini
• 80ml olive oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Cut the pita bread into bite-sized pieces and place on a baking tray. Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with za’atar. Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until crisp and golden. Remove from the oven, season with sea salt and set aside to cool.
3. Put the sliced red onion in a sieve, pour boiling water over it, allow to drain, and then place in a small bowl with the red wine vinegar. The onions will pickle and turn pink.
4. In a large bowl, start with a base of crisp lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces. Add the cucumbers, tomatoes and radish, pickled red onion slices (drained), cooked chickpeas, parsley, mint and dill.
5. For the dressing, whisk together the soaked sumac, lemon zest, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, minced garlic, tahini, ½ teaspoon of salt and olive oil. Drizzle it over the salad and mix well to combine, seasoning to taste. Add the toasted pita bread pieces and sesame seeds to the salad and toss gently to coat, if using.
6. Garnish with the pomegranate seeds and serve immediately.

Serves 3-4