There is a middle eastern restaurant near my daughter’s university…Ali Baba in Newark, DE. It is one of my favorite places to eat. They have many delicious dishes, but somehow, whenever I go there I have to order the fattoush.  Fattoush is a middle eastern bread salad, and I think I am addicted to it.

I am not sure if I have mentioned it, but this has not been a great summer for my tomatoes.  Good ones have been few and far betwen, but I finally have a few good ones on the counter.

I also happened to have some pita bread and one last cucumber from our garden. Time for me to do my own riff on fattoush!

I had a lot of lima beans in the fridge that needed to be used.  I realized that roasted lima beans would go wonderfully on top of the salad.

I used a “dressing” similar to one I use for a Persian tomato-cucumber salad, toasted pita and roasted lima beans – a fattoush with my own twist. And it was both yummy and satisfying.  I am quite proud of this one!

Fattoush

2 large tomatoes, chopped (from the garden)

1 large green pepper, chopped

1 or 2 cucumbers, sliced and/or chopped (from both mine and a friend’s gardens)

2 or 3 green onions, sliced

2 pitas, toasted

1 tsp dried mint

Juice of 1 lemon

Roasted lima beans

Sumac

Directions

Mix the tomatoes, green pepper, cucumbers and green onions in a bowl.

Toss with the mint.

 Break of the pitas into bite-sized pieces and add to the salad. Sprinkle the lemon juice over the top and toss.

Divide the salad among the serving plates and top with roasted lima beans.  Enjoy!

Serves 3.

Note:  if you do not use the lima beans, you will need to add salt and parsley to the salad.