Fattoush / Arabic Bread Salad

       Yet another healthy and delicious salad from the Middle East.. Apart from the vegetables and leaves, the addition of fried pita breads (Arabic Hubbs) make a twist in its flavour.. Infact more interesting than the addition of croutons.. If you have some stale pita breads with you, then cut it into small pieces and deep fry it in oil or toast it in the oven. Then add it to your salad and you have a delicious dish which is quite filling.. I am ignorant on the aspect of how this Labanese salad would have evolved. May be when somebody was preparing salad, they didn't have croutons with them and had some stale pita breads and they just might have experimented by adding pita breads. It's just a guess ;) The very first time I saw it in Arabic restaurants, I had an intuition that it might be awesome and it was.. Very much satisfying and relishable.. I came to know that it is an addition in Arabian Ifthar parties and befriended it with my other Ifthar dishes..

Coming to the recipe..

Things you need:

1 head of romaine lettuce, torn in pieces
A few Persian cucumbers or English cucumbers
A few tomatoes,seeded and  diced
A few radishes sliced
Green onions sliced
A hand ful of chopped Italian parsely and a hand ful of fresh mint
A green pepper diced (optional)
A large loaf of pita bread or 2 small pita breads
Olive oil for frying the pita breads

For dressing:

• 2 small lemons, juiced
• 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 generous table spoons of 'sumac' plus extra to sprinkle on pita bread slices.( 'Sumac' is a dried leaf powder which has a tangy flavour and available in Arab markets, used in some of the salads. It has a reddish brown colour)
• 2 or more cloves of garlic mashed in a dash of salt in a mortar. If this salt is not enough, you can add more salt in the salad according to taste.

Method:

1. With kitchen scissors cut the bread into thin square slices. Fry them in oil until crisp and brown. Take out from oil and drain on a kitchen towel. Immediately sprinkle sumac powder over it and keep aside.
2. Prepare all the salad ingrediants. Mix the dressing. When ready to serve, toss the salad with the dressing, incorporarte the fried pita breads and serve.