I love to eat out, I never eat at fast food restaurants but I do enjoy a carefully chosen few restaurants. The trouble is that so many places only do the same old food, filled with calories and very little nutrition. Its delicious but you just end up feeling stuffed afterwards and not particularly well. This is why I love going to The Bell in Godstone, they have some great new recipes on their menu that suit my diet and are so good that you don’t feel like you have missed out. My other favourite place to eat is Comptoir Libanais , I love this place, great Lebanese food that is healthy, light and good for you. The restaurant is bright and colourful and always buzzing with a great vibe. I would eat here every day of the week if I could ! Maybe lunch here and dinner at The Bell would be the perfect life !

My favourite thing to order is the Fattoush Salad, such simple ingredients, but so well put together that I always have it as a meal on its own. It really does not need anything else to go with it to make it filling and satisfying. I always have it with a fresh rose mint tea and always finish with a bowl of their delicious frozen yoghurt.

So, for Christmas this year I brought Hubby the Comptoir Libanais cookery book, its full of all of our favourite recipes and we have a whole week of meals planned this week from this fabulous book, but we of course had to start with my favourite salad.

I think what makes this salad stand out from the rest is just the simple addition of baked pitta chips, drizzled in olive oil and dusted with sumac before going into the oven they add a great crunch to this salad and for me this is unusual that I would like this, I hate croutons in salads !

Its so simple to make, is great on its own, great served as a side, but just a quick word of warning, if you want to save some for lunch the next day, don’t add the dressing until you need it. Overnight it became a little bedraggled but it did still taste amazing, it had just lost a bit of its crunch.

So if you fancy eating out, fancy something a little different and maybe are just looking for a healthy alternative to eating out, give Comptoir Libanais ago and I can also highly recommend the cookery book.

Buon appetito

fattoush salad

Serves 4-6

For the sumac pitta croutons :-
2 pitta breads
2 teaspoons sumac
Olive oil, plus more to finish

For the salad
3 baby gem lettuce, chopped into bite-sized pieces
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 spring onions, chopped
1 small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 small cucumbers, diced
4–5 radishes, thinly sliced
1 pomegranate
Salt

For the dressing
75ml pomegranate molasses
50ml cider vinegar
1 teaspoon dried mint
2 teaspoon sumac
Juice of 1 lemon
125ml olive oil
1 clove garlic, mashed
Salt, to taste

Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6 and have a baking tray ready.

Slice the pita open, cut it into 1–2cm squares then spread these on the baking sheet. Pour over a little oil then sprinkle with a little sumac and toss the pitta squares so they’re lightly coated. Bake in the oven for 15–20 minutes or until the pitta has crisped and started to brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, then transfer to a bowl.

For the salad, put the lettuce in a bowl with the herbs, tomatoes, spring onions and cucumber. Scatter over the radish slices and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds.

Make the dressing by whisking the ingredients together until smooth. Then add salt with extra lemon juice to taste.

To serve, pour about half the dressing on the salad with little salt, add a few handfuls of pitta croutons and toss everything together. Have the remainder of the dressing in a small jug on the table to serve alongside.

pitta