This delicious Middle Eastern fattoush salad has vegetables, fresh herbs, crispy pita bread, and a sumac dressing. Great as an appetizer or served with protein for a meal.

Salads! I’ve missed you! You may have read this in my first pregnancy update but I was not craving salads or fresh veggies during my first trimester. All I wanted was bread and pasta… basically, ALL THE CARBS to curb my nausea. But thankfully I’m over that and back to wanting fresh veggies including lots of salads again. Just in time for all the summer recipes!

What is Fattoush Salad?

Fattoush salad is a traditional Middle Eastern salad that originated in Syria. It’s typically made with fried pieces of flatbread, herbs, and vegetables (typically radishes cucumbers and tomatoes) all chopped and mixed together. The vegetables are usually chopped a bit larger than they are for tabbouleh, another popular Mediterranean salad.

Fattoush salad is typically tossed with a lemon and olive oil dressing that includes sumac, an essential Middle Eastern spice that has a tart flavor similar to lemon juice or vinegar. Ground sumac is made from reddish purple berries that are ground into a powder. It’s widely available at Middle Eastern markets, but you can also find it in the spice aisle of most larger grocery stores and on Amazon.  I was able to find it at my local Whole Foods. Learn more about sumac here.

Fattoush is an awesome appetizer or side salad on its own, but it would be delicious with some grilled chicken, shrimp, tofu or tempeh to make it a full on meal-sized salad.

As I was developing recipes for my unofficial Mediterranean week on the blog a few weeks ago, I realized we needed a salad to serve as an appetizer.  I already have a delicious quinoa tabbouleh recipe so I started brainstorming and realized that fattoush was perfect because I was already making homemade pita chips, which work great in this salad.

How to Prep the Pita for Fattoush Salad

Like I mentioned above, we’re keeping it simple for this recipe and using homemade pita chips, but some fattoush salads call for pan-fried pita. You can honestly cook it either way, the important part is just making sure your pita is crispy and not soft. You want to have a little crunch with each bite of salad.

If you want to pan-fry your pita instead of baking it, simply heat a little oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Place pita pieces into the skillet (making sure not to crowd the pita) and fry in batches until golden brown and crisp. Place on paper towels to drain excess oil.

I personally like the baking method because the pita seems less oily and I add some garlic and salt so it has more flavor as well.

Pro tip: If you have a salad chopper bowl (aka one of my favorite kitchen items) you can throw all of the ingredients for fattoush salad in the bowl and chop them up or you can pre-chop your ingredients and then simply mix together!

Ingredients in Fattoush Salad

• Persian cucumbers
• Cherry tomatoes
• Radishes
• Romaine lettuce
• Parsley
• Mint
• Pita chips 
• Lemon dressing

I hope you enjoy this fattoush salad as much as we do!

If you make this fattoush salad, please be sure to leave a comment and star rating below. Your feedback is super helpful for the EBF team and other EBF readers. 

Fattoush Salad

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• Author: Brittany Mullins
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 6

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Description

This delicious Middle Eastern fattoush salad has vegetables, fresh herbs, crispy pita bread and a bright sumac dressing. Great as an appetizer or served with protein for a meal.

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Ingredients

• 2 cups mini (or Persian) cucumbers, chopped
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1/2 cup radishes, thinly sliced
• 1 small head of romaine lettuce, chopped
• 1 cup parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup mint, chopped
• 16 baked pita chips*

Lemon Dressing

• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 Tablespoon white balsamic or white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground sumac
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

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Instructions

1. Prep and bake pita chips according to the linked recipe. Let cool.
2. In a bowl whisk together garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, sumac, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl toss together cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, romaine, parsley and mint with the lemon dressing. Break pita chips into pieces and add half into the bowl with the salad. Toss.
4. Plate salad and top each portion with extra broken pita pieces. Serve immediately.

Notes

• Make the full batch of pita chips and you’ll have about 8 extra pita chips to snack on later.
• Feta is totally optional, but it makes a delicious topping for this salad as well!
• This is one salad that I wouldn’t recommend meal prepping. The veggies and crisp pita are best served fresh.

• Category: Salad
• Method: Toss
• Cuisine: Mediterranean

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1/6 of recipe
• Calories: 202
• Sugar: 4g
• Fat: 12g
• Saturated Fat: 1g
• Carbohydrates: 21g
• Fiber: 4g
• Protein: 3g

Keywords: fattoush salad

Want to try more Mediterranean recipes? Check these out!

• Creamy Homemade Hummus
• Easy Tzatziki Sauce
• Baked Pita Chips
• Israeli Salad
• Easy Baked Falafel
• Falafel Bowls
• Cauliflower Tabbouleh
• Cauliflower Rice Mujadara