HungryForever

HERBY BUTTER BEAN SALAD WITH CRISPY PITTA BREAD

If you don’t want teenagers, especially hungry boys, to turn up their noses at a salad, be sure to pack it full of carbohydrates to fill them up. This Lebanese-inspired salad includes both pitta bread and butter beans, which make a mellow counterpoint to the sharpness of the lemon juice, sumac (a citrus-flavoured crushed berry) and pomegranate seeds. Great for a summer picnic with grilled meats.

Servings

Ingredients

2 large pitta breads
olive oil
400g tin cooked butter beansdrained
200g radishestrimmed and halved
2–4 spring onionstrimmed and finely chopped
1 cucumberdeseeded and sliced
4 ripe tomatoeschopped
4 celery sticksfinely sliced
leaves Small bunch of mintfinely chopped
Bunch of parsleyroughly chopped
Seeds from 1 pomegranate
1tbsp ground sumac
Juice of 1 lemon and zest of ½
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Slice the pitta breads into strips and cut across them to make squares about 2 × 2cm. Heat a large heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat. Add a glug of oil and fry the cubes in a single layer (you might need to do this in batches) until dark golden and crisp. Drain on kitchen paper and season with salt.
Mix all the remaining ingredients together in a large serving bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and season to taste. Toss in the pitta cubes, mix through and serve immediately.

HOW TO MAXIMISE LEMON JUICE

To get the maximum amount of juice from a lemon or lime, roll it hard under your palm for a minute before juicing.