Lebanese Eggplant Fatteh: A Layered Chickpea and Yogurt Recipe

What is fatteh?

Fatteh is a layered dish: crisp bread on the bottom, something warm and savory in the middle, cool garlic yogurt over it, and toasted pine nuts on top. This version uses fried eggplant dusted with Aleppo pepper. Every component can be made ahead, and the assembly takes two minutes right before you eat.

Quick facts

• Serves: not specified in the source recipe
• Prep: 20 minutes, plus 1 hour for the eggplant to sweat
• Cook: about 20 minutes

What you'll need from the spice cabinet

• Aleppo Pepper: sprinkled generously over the eggplant as it comes out of the oil
• Sumac: the final sprinkle over the finished dish

Ingredients

• Small eggplants (amount not specified), or 2 large
• 1 tsp salt
• Vegetable oil, enough for frying in a pot
• 1 tbsp Aleppo Pepper
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1/2 tsp dried mint
• Garlic cloves, grated (amount not specified)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp pine nuts
• 1 or 2 Lebanese breads
• 1 1/2 cups canned chickpeas, drained
• 1 tbsp tahini
• A handful of parsley, chopped, to garnish
• 1 tbsp Sumac, to garnish

Method

1. Sweat the eggplant. Cut the eggplants into cubes, sprinkle with the salt, and set them in a mesh strainer to drain for at least an hour. Overnight is fine.
2. Toast the pine nuts. Melt the butter in a pan and add the pine nuts. Cook over medium heat until they start to brown, and do not look away, because they go from golden to burnt in seconds. Set aside.
3. Make the pita chips. Cut the Lebanese bread into triangles and fry them in the same pan until crisp.
4. Make the yogurt. In a small bowl, mix the yogurt, dried mint and grated garlic. Set aside.
5. Fry the eggplant. When the eggplant has finished sweating, heat enough vegetable oil in a pot for frying. Fry the eggplant until golden, turning it a couple of times. Lift it onto a plate lined with paper towel and sprinkle generously with the Aleppo Pepper.
6. Assemble. Everything can wait until you're ready to serve. Then layer in this order: pita chips, chickpeas, the yogurt mix, eggplant, parsley, pine nuts, a drizzle of tahini, and finally the sumac.

Tips

• Do not skip the sweating. Salted eggplant fries up creamy instead of soaking up oil.
• The bread must go on the bottom and the dish must be eaten right away. Fatteh waits for no one, the chips go soft in minutes.
• Warm the chickpeas in a little of their liquid before layering, if you want the dish warm through.
• Finish with flaky salt alongside the sumac if your yogurt is unsalted.

The spices behind it

Both spices in this dish come from Beirut Spice Co. The Aleppo pepper brings mild, fruity heat to the fried eggplant, and the sumac adds the final tangy note on top.