Fatoosh Salad

Another salad for the festive season, with emphasis on colour as well as flavour.
Enjoy this over the summer when entertaining.
I love  the middle eastern fatoosh. With the addition of mint, it is wonderfully fresh, almost cleansing, and very light, with a bit of added crunch. This salad goes with everything, from steak, kebabs, meatballs, chicken and  lamb cutlets. Use it in place of our green salad, which seems so boring after eating this. The traditional dressing is with lemon juice and oil,  but I like this dressing with pomegranate molasses for a change. The balsamic gives it the tartness of the lemon. If you don't have white balsamic which is slightly sweeter than other balsamic you can use lemon juice.




6 large tomatoes
3 large lebanese cucumbers or the small baby ones are gorgeous but require more cutting
6 radishes
cos  lettuce
1/2 bunch mint
2 good handfuls chopped parsley
1 large red onion
1 large pita pocket
rylstone olive oil
6 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
2 tablespoons white balsamic
2 teaspoons sugar


Chop the tomatoes into slices and then cut each slice into eights. Peel the cucumbers and cut in half all the way down the middle. Remove the seeds with a teaspoon and discard and then slice. ( they will be half slices )Thinly slice the radish and cut in half.
Finely slice the red onion and cut  the slices in half again.
Break the pita bread into biggish pieces and fry in olive oil. Drain on paper towel and set aside.
Shred the lettuce after removing the outer leaves and finely chop the mint.
Place all of the ingredients in a salad bowl minus the fried pita.
Mix the pomegranate molasses with the white balsamic, you may omit the white sugar if you would like it not so sweet or add a little more for extra sweetness.
Just before serving add the pita and the dressing, saving some of the pita to through on top for that extra crunch.