End of summer special, here, from your southernmost Galley Pirate. A little Levantine leavening for your Friday. Fatteh is one of my favorite dishes at my favorite Lebanese restaurant, and just didn’t seem that daunting — the word actually means “crushed” or “crumbs” … imminently achievable standard in a galley — so I went looking for a recipe. My favorite regional cookbook, however, offered up fatoush in that part of the index and it sounded pretty good too. So, with much in common in terms of base ingredients, I decided to try to create an efficient two-fer.
Fatteh and Fatoush
Jump to Recipe
For Tahini Sauce
1/2 cup tahini
2 cups Greek-style or plain whole milk yogurt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2-3 cloves garlic
For Vinaigrette
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
S&P
2T sherry vinegar
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 tea sugar
1 tea Dijon
1/3 cup olive oil
For Fatteh
2 cups toasted pita chips
1 can warmed chickpeas
1-2 cups cooked, shredded chicken, warmed
2-4 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
2-4 tablespoons pomegranate seeds
For Fattoush
2 cups toasted pita chips
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 English or 2-3 Persian cucumbers
1 green bell pepper
4 radishes
1/4 cup finely minced red onion
1/4 chopped fresh parsley
2 T chopped fresh mint
2 T chopped fresh dill
1 small bunch arugula or 1/2 head romaine
2 teaspoons sumac
To make the tahini sauce, put all of the ingredients in your hand-cranked food processor and grind away until smooth and creamy.
Make the vinaigrette by combining all the ingredients in a mason jar and giving them a good shake, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.
Unless you’ve ingeniously let a package of pita bread get perfectly staled already, put your pita in a 300 degree oven until toasted.
For the fatoush, chop all the vegetables and stir together with onion and herbs. Add the shredded lettuce.
Crush the pita to about same size as the vegetables, or bite-sized. Toss the salad with the vinaigrette and half the crushed pita.
Put a good smear of the tahini sauce on a serving platter or individual plates and top with fatoush. Sprinkle with sumac.
For fatteh, toss the remaining pita chips, warmed chickpeas and shredded chicken with remaining tahini sauce; top with toasted pine nuts and pomegranate seeds, and maybe a little more lemon zest, if you have it leftover.
Enjoy in the fading light of summer! We’ll start with warming stews and braises next week.
Fatteh and Fatoush
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup tahini
- 2 cups Greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp sherry vinegar
- zest of half a lemon
- 1/4 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 4 cups toasted or stale crushed pita chips
- 1 can chick peas
- 1-2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
- 2-4 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
- 2-4 tbsp pomegranate seeds
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 1 English cucumber
- 1 green bell pepper
- 4 radishes
- 1/4 cup red onion, chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
- 1/2 head romaine lettuce, or small bunch arugula
Instructions
- To make tahini sauce, food process tahini, yogurt, garlic and 1 tablespoon lemon juice until smooth and creamy.
- To make vinaigrette, combine remaining lemon juice, vinegar, zest, sugar, Dijon and olive oil in a mason jar and shake well to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
- Chop all the vegetables and combine with herbs and onion. Add shredded lettuce. Toss with vinaigrette and half the pita chips.
- Smear 1/3 of the tahini sauce on a serving platter or individual plates and top with salad; sprinkle with sumac.
- Toss remaining tahini sauce and pita chips with chick peas and chicken; sprinkle with pine nuts and pomegranate seeds and serve next to fatoush.
