Recipe: Na’ama’s Fattoush

This Saturday on Good Food we are highlighting some of the best cookbooks of 2012. At the top of our list (and many others we’ve read) is Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. This recipe for Na’ama’s Fattoush exemplifies the straight forward produce driven recipes in the book. Ottolenghi and Tamimi’s cooking fits in perfectly with our farmers market driven lifestyle here in Southern California. Be sure to seek out the freshest vegetables for this dish. You can toast day old flat bread for the chips or use Stacie’s pita crisps in a pinch.

Keep reading for the recipe…

Na’ama’s Fattoush

(from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi)

scant 1 cup / 200 g Greek yogurt and cup plus 
2 tbsp / 200 ml whole milk, or 1 cups / 
400 ml buttermilk (replacing both 
yogurt and milk)

2 large stale Turkish flatbread or naan (9 oz /
250 g in total)

3 large tomatoes (13 oz /
380 g in total), cut into
-inch / 1.5cm dice

3 oz / 100 g radishes, thinly sliced

3 Lebanese or mini cucumbers (9 oz / 
250 g in total), peeled and chopped into
-inch / 1.5cm dice

2 green onions, thinly sliced

1/2 oz / 15 g fresh mint

scant 1 oz / 25 g flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped

1 tbsp dried mint

2 cloves garlic, crushed

3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/4 cup / 60 ml olive oil, 
plus extra to drizzle

2 tbsp cider or white wine vinegar

tsp freshly ground 
black pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sumac or more 
to taste, to garnish

If using yogurt and milk, start at least 3 hours and up to a day in advance by placing both in a bowl. Whisk well and leave in a cool place or in the fridge until bubbles form on the surface. What you get is a kind of homemade buttermilk, but less sour.

Tear the bread into bite-size pieces and place in a large mixing bowl. Add your fermented yogurt mixture or commercial buttermilk, followed by the rest of the ingredients, mix well, and leave for 10 minutes for all the flavors to combine.

Spoon the fattoush into serving bowls, drizzle with some olive oil, and garnish generously with sumac.