The temperatures in Seattle have finally cooled a bit, but inside the house it’s still pretty warm — so we’re still on a “how can we cook without heating up the kitchen” kick. Tonight we made fattoush, a Lebanese/Syrian salad that features a variety of veggies and toasted pita bread — but with a twist. We started with the basic recipe found in Secrets of Healthy Middle Eastern Cuisine, but in order to make it more of a main course rather than a side dish, we tossed it with chopped grilled lemon-pepper shrimp. It worked quite well with the lemon-sumac-herb dressing; that entire bowl was gone in just a few minutes!

Fattoush with Grilled Shrimp
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2 large arabic pitas
8 large romaine leaves
1 cup chopped parsley
1 small green pepper, chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch slices, halved
3 medium tomatoes, cubed
4 green onions, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 small onion, sliced, halved
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp sumac
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp mint
1 tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup lemon juice
1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
lemon-pepper seasoning

In a large salad bowl, tear lettuce into small pieces. Add the choppeed parsley, green pepper, cucumber, tomatoes, and onion. Toss.
To prepare the dressing, whisk together the garlic, sumac, oregano, mint, olive oil, and lemon juice in a small bowl. Set aside.
Prepare grill on high heat. Arrange shrimp on a grill rack or broiler pan and shake lemon-pepper seasoning over the shrimp. Spray with cooking spray. Place the shrimp on the grill and cook for 4-5 minutes or until done. Lower grill to a low flame and toast pita bread until it is crispy. Remove from grill and break the pita into 1-2 inch pieces.
To assemble the salad, roughly chop the warm shrimp, reserving 3 or 4 whole for garnish. Add the chopped shrimp to the salad, then toss with the dressing. Finally, add the broken pita bread and toss once more. Top with the reserved whole shrimp. Serve immediately.

Makes 2-3 very generous portions.