Na’ama’s Fattoush Salad

By Margi Lenga Kahn

(Recipe dapted from “Jerusalem,” by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi.)  

Ingredients: 

  • 1 cup Greek yogurt
  • 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. whole milk
  • 2 large whole-wheat pita breads, toasted until crisp
  • 3 large tomatoes, stems discarded, and diced into in 2/3-inch pieces
  • 6 breakfast or round radishes, rinsed, stemmed and thinly sliced
  • 3 Persian cucumbers, rinsed, ends discarded, halved and thinly sliced
  • 2 green onions, root ends discarded, and the entire onions thinly sliced
  • 1/2 c. packed fresh mint leaves, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 c. packed flat-leaf parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and either finely minced or crushed
  • 3 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/4 c. extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
  • 2 tbsp. cider or white wine vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
  • 1 tsp. fine sea salt or table salt, plus more to taste 
  • 1 tbsp. or more of sumac, for garnishing (optional) Freshly ground black pepper, for garnishing (optional)  

Directions: 

Thirty minutes in advance, whisk yogurt and milk together in a bowl. Set aside at room temperature to ferment. (Alternatively, mixture can be covered lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 3 days.)  

Tear the bread into bite-size pieces and place in a large mixing bowl. Add 2/3 of the fermented yogurt mixture, followed by the tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers, green onions, mint leaves, parsley and garlic; mix well and let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. Taste, and add more of the fermented yogurt as needed to liberally cover all of the bread and vegetables.  

Add 2 tbsp. olive oil, vinegar, black pepper and salt and toss together again. Spoon the fattoush into serving bowls, drizzle with additional olive oil, and sprinkle each serving generously with sumac or lightly with black pepper (optional).  

Makes 6 servings.