Fattoush is a Syrian salad defined by the pieces of fried flatbread in it and sprinkled sumac. Lettuce is the base, with other crunchy vegetables included. I know it seems wrong to turn on the oven to make a salad, but one taste of your fresh, homemade pita chips will convince you otherwise. This seems like a lot of oil for the pita chips, but that is what makes them stay crispy.

My complete share this week included lettuce, parsley, cabbage, Red Russian kale, radishes, turnips, basil, and bok choy. I doubled this salad for 8 meal servings, so I used up all the lettuce (plus some leftover from last week), radishes, and turnips. I used the radish greens, turnip greens, and boy choy cooked with some Short Creek green garlic sausage, served over polenta with parsley and garlic. If you still have any greens around, I finally made this spanakopita which was unbelievably good (I used couscous as the mix in and it worked great). I’ll probably use the cabbage for a classic barbecue slaw, but this lo mein is a favorite (vegan) cabbage dish.

Fattoush

Adapted from Soframiz

Instead of thinly slicing the vegetables you can dice them for a more textured salad. If you don’t have pomegranate molasses and/or sumac, up the lemon in the dressing significantly. It should be very tart when you taste it alone, and will mellow on the salad. I also threw a handful of sprouts in the salad as I wanted to use them up. This is a great salad to use up any vegetables that taste great raw. I added in the chickpeas to make this a more filling meal, but if you just want this as a side salad you could leave them out.

Serves 4

• 2 pitas (mine were about 8″ across)
• 10 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
• 2 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons sumac
• 2 salad turnips, quartered and thinly sliced
• 3 French radishes, thinly sliced
• ½ cup chopped parsley (a large handful)
• 9 ounces of chopped lettuce (about 8 cups, or a large bowlful)
• ¼ English cucumber, quartered and thinly sliced
• 1 cup cooked chickpeas

Preheat the oven to 375F. Slice the pita bread into 1″ squares. Place pita pieces in a large bowl and pour 6 tablespoons of olive oil on top. Massage the pita so that all of the oil coats the pieces and is absorbed. Spread on a baking sheet and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt. Bake for 20 minutes, tossing the chips and rotating the tray halfway through. Allow to cool. (Try not to eat them all.)

In the same large bowl (no need to wash) make the dressing by whisking the pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, and remaining salt, and then slowly whisking in the remaining 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the turnips, radishes, parsley, cucumber, lettuce, sumac, chickpeas, and pita chips. Toss to combine.

If you don’t want to serve the whole salad right away, store the pita chips, vegetables, and dressing separately, and combine just before serving.