Fatoosh salad is just as popular in the Middle East as tabouleh but even easier to prepare. Like any salad, each one develops the recipe with the ingredients that are most attractive to them, although pita bread is never missing as a base ingredient.
If there is tabouleh in a mezze, fatoosh is not usually made and vice versa. Choose the one you like the most.
INGREDIENTS (4 diners) :
- 4 pita breads
- 1 lettuce
- 2 ripe tomatoes
- a bit of chives
- 1 medium cucumber
- 1 dozen radishes
- 1 sprig of parsley
- 1 clove garlic
- A teaspoon of fresh mint
- 1 lemon
- Salt
- ground black pepper
- extra virgin olive oil
We assume that you can find pita bread in your usual supermarket. Generally, two or three not very large pieces are sold within a vacuum packed. We will use four of them. With a knife we mark a lattice on the bread without actually cutting it. The resulting rectangle should fit into your mouth easily. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees (428 F) and bake the bread until crisp but not brown.
We take a large bowl and divide the bread following the guidelines that we have practiced with the knife. Add the juice of half a lemon, two or three tablespoons of extra virgin oil, the chopped chives, the minced garlic clove and the finely chopped parsley and fresh mint, as well as a pinch of salt. We also add a little ground black pepper. Mix well and let stand for at least half an hour.
We will wash the lettuce and extract the excess water - this is important - even drying with a cloth. Add to the bowl with three tomatoes cut into wedges and the sliced radishes. We mix again and it is ready to be consumed.