05/22
Who Invented Fattoush?
One of our feature salads at Aladdin Mediterranean Restaurant is Fattoush. This delicious and vibrant salad is of Mediterranean origin, and varies depending on where you get the salad. Most versions of Fattoush include leafy greens such as romaine lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes, and garlic. The dressing is usually a combination of olive oil and lemon juice. One of the most distinguishing features are the pieces of pita bread sliced into the salad.
This salad isn’t just a salad. The ingredients tell a story of centuries of tradition. It goes back to a time when resources weren’t quite as bountiful as they are today, and people of the Mediterranean had to be thoughtful about how to make their food stretch.
The combination of greens and bread is likely a practical way to use leftovers. By combining bread and salad, the people of the Mediterranean made use of everything they had to make something delicious.
This tradition spread in popularity because it was so delicious. Now it is a favorite food in the region, and a feature menu item at almost every restaurant in the Middle East
Possible Origins
While Fattoush can’t be traced back to one particular person, most researchers agree that it probably originated in North Lebanon. Historians believe that the farmers in Lebanon would take their old, dry, stale flat breads and try to reuse them.
What can you do with old, dry bread? In their wisdom, Lebanese farmers figured out that if the old bread was baked or fried, it became crunchy and delicious instead. This old bread could then be reused in a flavorful, tasty way.
Salad greens are readily available throughout the year owing to their quick growth, so mixing it into a salad was a sensible choice. The result was Fattoush. Additional ingredients came along later, such as the lemon to brighten the taste of the salad. Sumac is also sometimes used to give the salad a distinctive flavor.
Many legends surround Fattoush, such as a family by that name harboring Christians who were fasting and couldn’t eat meat, but these stories are very unlikely. The name Fattoush is more likely to come from the Arabic word, “fatt” which means crushed or crumbled. It’s likely this word was used for the pieces of flat bread or pita crumbled into the salad.
A Taste of Sustainability
Fattoush is often celebrated as a sustainable dish because of it’s history making use of leftovers. It also makes use of seasonal ingredients, and can be adapted to keep people fresh, healthy, and getting the most out of their food all through the year.
Fattoush has been popular in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine for hundreds of years. What was once a dish designed by thrifty farmers to try and reuse food is now a celebrated dish widely eaten around the world.
The next time you order a salad, consider trying this remarkable dish. Fattoush is delicious, healthy, and has a rich history behind it as well.