Going Green

Maddie LaKind  

This week, I’m going green. Not in an environmental sense or anything, but rather in choosing to feature a dish that is neither deep-fried nor cheese filled. Please, no tears. I promise that despite the omission of these luxurious preparations, this dish doesn’t skimp on flavor or joy of eating.

My basis for this week’s selection came about after dining at Jerusalem Garden last Sunday for possibly the tenth time in the last four months. Unlike most of my visits to J-Garden where I have remained a falafel sandwich and lentil soup purist, the duo just didn’t seem to call out to me this time around. Seeing this as an opportunity to expand my hummus horizons, I settled on the fattoush salad. I don’t know what was in the air on this particular day, but the salad, despite my having tried it a time or two before, displayed an entirely new allure this go-around.

As I’m sure many of you are thinking at this point, what is a fattoush salad? Is that even a real word? It is indeed a real word and is an Arabic salad composed of a variety of mixed vegetables, salad greens, and chopped pieces of either fried or toasted pita bread. Like any loyal Ann Arborite, I have already been conditioned to love the bread/salad hybrid through the consumption of far too many chipatis to count; the fattoush seemed like a healthier and much lighter follow up.

Based on where you have eaten fattoush in the past, the means of preparation can vary slightly, but they all tend to maintain a similar look, taste, and string of ingredients. J-Garden’s fattoush combines finely chopped cucumber, tomatoes, red peppers, red onion, carrot, and lots of fresh parsley until it almost resembles a chunky vegetable salsa. A simple dressing of lemon, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and sumac—a tart, citrus-flavored spice with a stunning ruby color—ties everything together before being crowned with a handful of crispy, salty pita chips.

Now, I know I am already going back on a claim I made at the start of this whole thing, but when choosing your means of pita preparation for the fattoush, fried is the clearly superior road to take. The crunch is better, the flavor more pronounced, and who doesn’t love a little bite of salty, oily goodness to accompany their veggies?

Delving into this salad, you are immediately hit with a sensory overload of sorts. The hodge podge of vibrant colors combined with loads of fresh parsley and the bright scent of sumac and lemon juice triggers feelings of a simple summertime lunch in the garden.

The flavor of all the components married together really carries this feeling home. The crunch of the cucumber, peppers, and onions, sweet, juiciness of the tomato, vibrant fragrance of chopped parsley, a touch of citrus, and bite of pita chip make for a veggie-tastic explosion of taste. Unlike the standard, uninspiring salads offered in most take-out spots, J-Garden’s fattoush borders on the addictive side with each bite trumping the next in flavor. Also, by some miraculous feat of food science, the fried pita topping remains perfectly crisp until the last bite. Don’t ask how. Just enjoy.

With a salad this good, it often begs the question, “can this really be good for me?” The answer folks is a definitive yes! Minus the fried-ness of the pita bread—which is merely a small bonus in a pretty substantial bowl of salad—this dish has everything you need to leave feeling energized, satiated, and yearning for more. Eaten in conjunction with a bowl of lentil soup, a side of stuffed grape leaves, or a simple plate of pita and hummus, J-Garden provides a perfect foodie escape from the typical drudgery of campus cafeterias or at-home easy mac. At only $3.50 for a small size and $4.25 for a large, the fattoush salad is also a great way to have an authentic dining experience without spending a fortune.

Jerusalem Garden 307 South 5th Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48104