Fattoush (Leftover Pita Bread Salad)

One of the most photogenic of all foods, fattoush is a classic leftover dish: a Lebanese grandma's way to get rid of stale pita and uneaten veg. The idea is to toast (or fry) the pita, and toss it with herbs, a vinaigrette, and whatever you've got lying around. It sounded simple—until we consulted Chef Google.

From him, we learned that authentic fattoush is a very daunting undertaking. It requires barrel-aged feta, salt-cured olives, Arabic bread, pomegranate seeds, purslane, sumac, brined pickles, vine-ripened cherry tomatoes (is there another kind?), seedless English cucumbers, and French breakfast radishes (as opposed to French dinner radishes, which are equally common in our supermarket).

Then we stopped. It can't be authentic to turn a simple leftover dish into a $20/plate rare vegetable treasure hunt. Our advice is to concentrate on the pita, and empty out your produce drawer.


Fattoush

2 stale pitas, cut into triangles (Making your own works best, and it's really not hard.)
¼ cup olive oil (the yummy stuff)
1 tbsp chopped garlic
2-cups vegetables (in our case, hot cooked corn tossed with raw spinach)
Herbs (we used 2 tbsp of chopped parsley and mint)
10 or so kalamata olives, pitted
10 grape tomatoes
10 bite sized hunks of goat cheese
1-2 cups cucumber cubed

1. Heat oven to 350.
2. Heat oil and garlic together.
3. Toss pitas through the garlic oil, then spread on a sheet pan.
4. Bake until almost hard through.
5. Mix vegetables, herbs, olives, cucumbers and tomatoes.
6. Toss together with pita toasts.
7. Top with dressing (see below)

Sumac-buttermilk dressing

Before your head explodes, remember that cultured buttermilk is not leftover churned butter; it's similar to yogurt.

¼ cup buttermilk
1 tbsp olive oil
2tsp lemon juice
dash salt
1 tsp pureed garlic
1 tbsp sumac (ok, so we broke down, it is really nice)
1 tbsp of dill and parsley chopped.

1. Add lemon juice, garlic and salt to a small bowl.
2. Whisk vigorously while pouring in oil in a thin stream.
3. Add buttermilk and whisk.
4. Add sumac, dill, and parsley.
5. Taste and adjust.