Fattoush salad

(serves 4)

Adapted from SBS Food Safari

This middle eastern salad is quick to assemble, refreshing and comes with a punch! It's a great side to grilled meats or wrapped in lettuce leaves or pita bread. The combination of vegetables are crunchy and colourful, with the crispy lebanese bread soaking up the juices, making cleaning up the last bits of salad all the more exciting! Sumac is a great lemony spice that i first came across in Turkey and love when i remember to incorporate it into a dish as it adds a special tang! 

I first tried this dish at the infamous Granville chicken shop El Jannah, and it was absolutely amazing alongside their charcoal chicken. Recently i made this for our church's asylum seeker information night, a great opportunity for churches in the South West to meet and share about this tough but worthwhile ministry. We shared our thoughts over a provoking movie and also a tasty dinner from Fairfield's Ai-Iraqi's grilled meats!

Prep time: 15 min

Cooking time: 10min

Ingredients

The last of our mint plant...with colourful pinks, reds and greens!

2 cucumbers
2 tomatoes
3-4 radishes
1 red capsicum
3 sprigs shallots (spring onions)
handful of mint
handful of parsley
1 pieces lebanese bread

Dressing
3 cloves garlic
Juice and rind of 1 lemon
2-3 T olive oil
2 tsp sumac
2 tsp sweet paprika
salt

Method
1. Bake the lebanese bread at 180˚C for 10min until crisp.
2. Cut the cucumber into chunky quarters and the tomatoes into wedges and then halves. Cut the radish into thin slices.
3. Finely dice the shallots, mint and parsley and combine with the vegetables.

4. Assemble the dressing by crushing the garlic with 1/2 tsp salt.

5. Combine the garlic with the lemon juice, olive oil, sumac and sweet paprika.

6. Dress the vegetables and leave for 10-15min in the fridge.
7. Finally, when ready to serve, crush the crunchy lebanese bread on top and toss to combine!