Fattoush {Middle Eastern Bread Salad}

Fattoush is the quintessential bread salad of the Middle East.

I heard someone say that the word fattoush sounds like, well, what we don’t want to see when looking at our backside in the mirror.  Isn’t that funny?  I never thought of it sounding like that. That’s probably because I know the arabic pronunciation of the word.

Click here if you want to hear the arabic pronunciation.

Fattoush, meaning crumbled is a simple salad full of fresh vegetables, herbs and crumbled in pieces of flat bread or pita, dressed with a zesty vinaigrette.  I added feta to this one ’cause, well, I can’t do without it.

My guess is this salad was created when someone crumbled the bread in to give the salad some substance.  They had no idea how popular it would become.

In “those days” meat wasn’t available like it is today so they used bread as a filler. There are a number of Middle Eastern dishes that include crumbled bread as the base.  So good but so loaded with carbs.  To be eaten only when I can spend the next hour on the elliptical.

This salad is so fresh and healthy I think I actually feel better after eating it.  Because you know what?  See that bowl?  I ate it all.  Not in one sitting, but I kept going back to it throughout the day.  I couldn’t resist.  At least it wasn’t a quart of ice cream.

The za’atar vinaigrette is killer good too.  Za’atar is a warm nutty spice consisting of thyme, sesame seeds, cumin, sumac, oregano.  There are different versions of za’atar but so far the version I like best is this brand.  (they didn’t pay me to say that, I just like this brand).

By the way, the reason you don’t see parsley is because  I forgot to add it in before taking the pictures!

It’s Spring.  Have a heaping helping of this fresh zesty salad today.