Fattoush

Much like its Italian counterpart (panzanella), this salad is a great way to use up stale bread, though in this case the bread is flatbread or pita. Though I served this for Greek night, fattoush's roots lie a little farther to the east in Syria.

Much like panzanella, use what you've got handy. Below is the version that I made this particular night.

(As an aside: I discovered that I'm apparently allergic to sumac, so if someone wants a free bottle of it, let me know.)

Fattoush

Ingredients:

Pita bread (about 2 pieces)

1/2 medium red onion

1 English cucumber, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 pint of grape tomatoes, halved (if it's tomato season, use the real deal, diced)

1/2 c. basil, torn

2 T mint, torn

1/4 c. olives (optional)

1 T. capers (optional)

1 tsp sumac (OPTIONAL!!)

olive oil

1-2 tsp red wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• If your pita bread is not stale, tear the pita bread into bite-sized pieces. Place the bread on a baking sheet and let it hang out in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or so until it's nice and crispy.
• In a large bowl, combine the pita bread, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell pepper, red onion, torn herbs to taste and olives, capers, and sumac (if using). Toss.
• Add in red wine vinegar and a decent glug (3 T.) of olive oil. You want to be able to coat the veggies and still have enough dressing for the pita bread to soak up.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• You'll want to let this sit for 15 minutes or so before serving. You want the crispy bread to partly soak up some of the vegetable juices, but still have a good bit of texture.

Tabouleh

Tabouleh is one of my favorite salads. I had it for the very first time on one of our family road trip vacations to California back in the 80s. We had this at a stop in--Oklahoma City--who knew? Tabouleh is perfect for when you want something filling, but you don't want to make a big production in the kitchen. All you need is a bowl, a knife, and a cutting board. (Also a spoon would be handy.)

One of the best things about this salad is you get a healthy dose of your greenery, plus the added bonus of a whole grain. It also keeps for a while in the fridge, so it makes for a great lunch the next day. You can also transform this as a filler for endive leaves for a party appetizer, or wrap it up in a butter lettuce leaf as a low-carb burrito, or even use it as a topping on a veggie patty.

Like pretty much anything I make, you can mix and match the ingredients to go with what you've got on hand or what you're feeling like for the day. For example, some other herbs you could use are marjoram, tarragon, basil, or arugula. One thing that is a must, the greenery must outweigh the bulgur wheat. The salad should be more green than tan.

Tabouleh

Ingredients:

1/2 c. bulgur wheat

1 c. boiling water

2 lemons

1 bunch of parsley

1 c. mint leaves

1 English cucumber

grape tomatoes, halved

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• In a heatproof bowl, mix bulgur wheat and boiling water. Cover and let sit.
• Meanwhile, chop the cucumber into a small, bite-sized dice. And finely chop the parsley and mint.
• Once the bulgur has absorbed all of the the water, zest one of the lemons into the bulgur.
• Halve both lemons and squeeze the juice over the bulgur. Add a healthy pinch of salt, several grinds of pepper, and a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Toss well to combine.
• Add in herbs, cucumber, and tomatoes. Gently toss and taste for seasoning. You may need to add more salt.

You can either serve this as is, or it will hold for a while at room temp.

Greek night!

When the weather starts to turn warm, I like to have the occasional Greek night. This mostly consists of salads, dips, or other dishes that are fine to have sit at room temp for a while and hold up pretty well over a couple of days of lunchtime meals. To be perfectly honest, most of these dishes are not truly Greek, but Mediterranean-inspired doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, now does it? The great thing about most of these dishes is that you can really adjust these to your own taste buds... Love feta cheese--just add more. Not big on red onion, dial it back a little, or leave it out entirely.

This particular night's menu consisted of fattoush, htipiti, tabouleh, hummus, and roasted carrots. (No, I do not know how to cook for 2, but I am working on it.)

This post has both the htipiti and roasted carrots recipes. Both require very little effort. Posts to follow on the fattoush and tabouleh.

Htpiti

Ingredients:

2-4 roasted red peppers* (or one really large jar)

sprigs of thyme

1-2 T finely chopped red onion or shallot

olive oil

feta cheese

salt & pepper

Method:

• Chop up the red peppers pretty finely.
• Pull the thyme leaves off of about 2-3 sprigs.
• Mix pepper, thyme, onion, in a small bowl.
• Add 1-2 T olive oil, feta cheese and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with warmed pita bread.

*Note: Yes, you can take the time to roast your own red peppers, but for whatever reason I wasn't in the mood this particular night. I find the ones in the deli section just fine and way less hassle. If you're roasting your own I'd probably do 2-4 peppers, depending on their size.

Roasted carrots with cumin seeds

This dish couldn't be easier. I love the smoky flavor that the cumin seeds give off when they roast up. I know I saw this in a magazine somewhere, but at the moment my recall is failing me.

Ingredients:

1 pound of carrots, washed, peeled and cut in to large chunks

1-2 tsp. cumin seeds

Salt

Olive oil

Feta cheese

Method:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
• On a cookie sheet toss together carrots, cumin seeds, with enough olive oil to coat, and sprinkle with salt.
• Roast the carrots for about 30 minutes, or until you start to get some nice caramelization. I usually do a toss after 15 minutes or so.
• Remove from oven and top with crumbled feta cheese.