Olive Fig Grape

After a succession of posts that ventured away from the traditional ideals of Lebanese cuisine I've decided to dip my toes back into the tried and tested. But words are cheap and I didn't actually abide by any classic notion of what a fattoush salad is. But that's part of the fun of making a salad, it's an open invitation to be creative and I've altered and/or exchanged some of the ingredients and I've included some alternative techniques to give this classic a new lease of life. I began this blog to experiment with what New Lebanese cuisine could be and I believe this recipe to be a marker of what simple creative changes can produce. My variation of this salad is best described as the illegitimate love child of an exotic Lebanese fattoush and a sultry Tuscan panzanella. Hungry yet?

















Ingredients
* radishes
* tomatoes
* stale bread
* cucumber
* spring onion
* courgette
* lemon
* good quality extra virgin olive oil
* sea salt and pepper
* cumin (optional)

* denotes that you should put whatever quantity of each ingredient you fancy, it's more fun to tailor this salad to your tastes.

















Method
Cut the stale bread into bite size pieces (you may need to put the bread in the oven for a few minutes so you can cut it without it crumbling everywhere). Chop the tomatoes, radishes, cucumber and spring onions roughly and place in a bowl. Drizzle with quite a bit of olive oil and lemon (the bread will soak the liquid up so over dress the vegetables) and sprinkle on the salt and pepper. Mix in the bread and let it sit at room temperature for the flavours to infuse.

















Marinate sliced courgettes and radishes in olive oil, lemon and a little cumin and char grill for a few seconds. Spoon the salad into a bowl and place the grilled vegetables on top. Drizzle with more olive oil to finish. Fattoush. Done.