An Arabic Caesar salad with toasted bread.
Caesar salad goes back to Mexico in the twenties, but cooks in the Levant made it their own by adding toasted Arabic bread and tart sumac.
The sumac stands in for the black pepper of the original recipe and gives the salad a distinctly Arab flavor. At suhoor it opens the appetite and is served as a light mezze before the main dishes.
Cut the Arabic bread into squares and spread them out on an oven tray. Sprinkle over a spoonful of oil and toast them in a 180 degree oven for 10 minutes until they take on a golden color and turn crisp.
In a small bowl, whisk the crushed garlic with the lemon, the mustard and half the olive oil. Add the sumac and the salt and keep whisking until it comes together.
Wash the lettuce, dry it and cut it into medium pieces. Put it in a large bowl and add the toasted bread and half the grated cheese.
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently until every leaf is coated. Garnish with the rest of the cheese, the remaining olive oil and the parsley. Add the chopped boiled egg if you like.
Serve at once with lemon wedges. The salad loses its crunch 10 minutes after it is dressed, so put it together right before serving.
The glycemic index (GI) measures how quickly a food raises blood sugar, while the glycemic load (GL) measures how much a full serving raises it. Together they give the complete picture.
A low value (≤55) means a gradual rise in blood sugar — the most suitable range for diabetes and insulin resistance.
Glycemic load reflects the impact of the full serving. To lower it: take half a serving, or pair the recipe with a source of protein and fiber.
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000-calorie diet per FDA food-label reference values — your daily needs may be higher or lower. Values are derived from the recipe's ingredients via the USDA database.
The most common problems when preparing Arabic Caesar Salad with Toasted Pita, and how to fix them:
Drain the lettuce in a colander for ten minutes before dressing it. Excess water weakens the flavor of the dressing.
Double the lemon and cut back the mustard. Anchovy adds a hidden saltiness, so swap it for ordinary salt.
Toast it in a hot oven rather than in a pan. Older bread needs longer to turn crisp.
Remove the outer leaves and choose the pale inner ones. Older lettuce is more bitter.
One hour after it is made. Prepare the bread and the dressing ahead and combine them before serving.
The lettuce wilts and the bread loses its crunch.
| Original Ingredient | Tested Substitute | Ratio | Flavor Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic bread | toasted French bread | 1:1 | A different flavor but a similar texture. |
| parmesan | salted white cheese | 1:1 | A cheaper Levantine version. |
| mustard | tahini paste | 1:1 | A mustard-free alternative. |
| Ingredient | 4 people | 8 people | 12 people |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lettuce | 300 g | 600 g | 900 g |
| Bread | 150 g | 300 g | 450 g |
| Olive oil | 40 ml | 80 ml | 120 ml |
| Lemon | 30 ml | 60 ml | 90 ml |
Dry the lettuce completely after washing, because water thins the dressing. Toast the bread at the last moment, since it loses its crunch quickly.
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