Buttermilk Fattoush
Adapted from Falastin: A Cookbook by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley
If decent tomatoes aren't available, substitute 2 cups (380g) of halved or quartered cherry tomatoes. I don't advise overdraining the cucumbers with salt in step #2 as they can get soggy. It's a step they don't do in the book, but I like to do it to get rid of some of the excess water. I supposed if you're serving the salad right away, it's not necessary, although it's a habit of mine to do it.
Fattoush often uses stale or day-old bread, which often isn't as crisp as bread that's lightly oven-toasted. To make the toasted bread, put the flatbreads directly on the rack of a moderate oven (about 350ºF/180ºC) for a few minutes to dry them out.
For making the salad ahead of time, you can prepare most of the ingredients in advance; dress the sumac onions, put all the chopped ingredients (except the bread) in a large bowl, and mix up the dressing separately. Then toss everything together just before serving.
Ingredients
For the sumac onions
- 1 medium onion peeled, halved, and thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil plus a bit more if necessary
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sumac
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or sea salt
For the salad
- 3 small cucumber peeled and diced in 1/2-inch (1.5cm) pieces, Persian
- 1/4 teaspoon salt plus 1 1/4 teaspoons for seasoning the salad, kosher or sea salt, for the cucumbers
- 3 large tomato diced in 1/2-inch (1.5cm) pieces
- 12 radish sliced
- 1 cup (20g) packed mint leaf coarsely chopped, fresh
- 1 cup (20g) packed flat leaf parsley coarsely chopped
- 2 tablespoons thyme finely chopped, fresh leaves
- 2 large flatbreads such as pita (see headnote), crumbled, toasted or stale
- 1 1/4 cups (300ml) buttermilk
- 1/4 cup (60ml) extra-virgin olive oil plus more for serving
- 3 tablespoons lemon freshly squeezed juice
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and minced
- 2 tablespoons cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sumac plus 1/2 teaspoon for serving
- black pepper freshly-ground
Instructions
- To make the sumac onions, in a small bowl mix the onions with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 1/2 teaspoons sumac, and salt. If the onions seem a little dry, add a touch more olive oil until they are glistening. Set aside.
- Put the diced cucumbers in a strainer or colander, sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and let stand over a bowl for about 10 to 15 minutes, to drain away some of the liquid. (Don't let them sit too long, though, as you don't want them to get soggy.)
- Put the tomatoes, radishes, mint, parsley, thyme, and crumbled flatbread in a large bowl. Blot the drained cucumbers with a paper or kitchen towel, then add them along with the buttermilk, 1/4 cup olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, vinegar, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons sumac, half the sumac onions, and several good grinds of black pepper.
- Mix everything together then transfer to a serving platter. Strew the remaining sumac onions over the salad, drizzle with a little extra olive oil, and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of sumac. Serve immediately.
Notes
- Note: This recipe makes about four servings as a main course, six servings as a side salad.