Fattoush Salad

Fattoush

I love Fattoush. I first had it at a Lebanese Restaurant in Ohio that I can't remember the name of. It was right down the street from the University of Toledo next to a Kinkos. I worked there when I was in high school because it was literally at the end of my block. It was my first experience with Lebanese food and out of all of the wonderful salads, Fattoush is my absolute favorite.

I've been craving Fattoush for a while and since it's officially sticky and hot in NYC Mirs and I have an agreement to not turn on the stove. Instead, we're making Salads-Enjoy!

Fattoush

Ingredients

6-8 small Roma Tomatoes

3 Lebanese Cucumbers (or any variety)

3-4 Small Radishes

2 Green Onions

Handful of Parsley
Mint about 7-12 leaves depending on how large they are

Matzos

1 Lemon

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Cumin

Coriander

Celery Seed

Salt and Pepper

Feta Cheese (optional)

Fattoush is traditionally made with Pita Chips but since we've got the no oven rule we substituted Matzo and it worked out wonderfully. I adapted 3 different recipes I found online to come up with this one.

In one Large Bowl

Wash the Cucumber and slice thinly. They should be disk like and firm-don't slice too thin!

Wipe the Tomatoes, de-seed and chop roughly

Peel the Radishes and Slice into thin strips

Thinly cut the Green Onions

Loosely chop the Parsley and Mint

Put all of the vegetables in a large Bowl and set aside

In a smaller bowl squeeze the juice one whole lemon. To the Lemon whisk in an equal amount of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. ( I just eyeballed it)

To the lemon vinaigrette add 6 twists of a salt grinder and 6 twists of a pepper mill. Add a dash of the three spices and continue to whisk until thoroughly mixed.

This is sort of a taste thing. Don't over do it on the Cumin, Coriander, and Celery seed, though. More liberal on the Salt and Pepper.

Pour the vinaigrette over the vegetables and mix so that all of the vegetables are coated. At this point you can add more lemon juice or Oil to taste. Put in the fridge for 30 minutes to let the ingredients set.

at the 15 minute mark roughly crumble 2 Matzos in the salad and toss again.

Let rest for remaining 15 minutes and serve with a sprinkle of Feta Cheese