Yogurt Chickpea Fatteh

Today we are sharing this delicious classic dish from the Levant: yoghurt chickpea fatteh. The combination of toasted bread, seasoned chickpeas, garlic yogurt and this sizzling hot finish of ghee or butter make fatteh a personal favorite hummus recipe.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 flatbread, medium size
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• parsley, finely chopped for garnish (optional)

• Seasoned yogurt
  • 2 cups yogurt
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 0.5 tsp salt

• Seasoned chickpeas
  • 1.5 – 2 cups cooked chickpeas, warm
  • 1 tsp three-spice powder *
  • 0.5 tsp salt

• Ghee finish
  • 2 tbsp ghee
  • 2 tbsp slivered almonds
  • 0.5-1 tsp Aleppo pepper (optional)

* Three-spice powder: This is cinnamon, black pepper and all spice.To make this yourself, grind each spice separately into a powder and then mix them in the following quantities:
2 parts cinnamon + 1 part black pepper + 1 part all spice.

METHOD

1. Bread: We are using one medium sized flatbread. Flatbread works best for fatteh and is quite easy to find these days especially in Middle Eastern Supermarkets. Open the bread at the seam and brush the inner part with olive oil. Then, toast it in a preheated oven under the grill at 200 degrees Celsius. Just make sure to keep turning it under the grill so it toasts evenly. When the bread is done, take it out, let it cool down and then break it into bite size pieces.
2. Seasoned chickpeas: we started with dried chickpeas that we soaked and boiled. If you’d like to learn how to do that, you can check out our video on that. It’s always best to prepare dried chickpeas yourself but if you are using canned, just wash them well , put them in a pot, cover with water, toss in a cinnamon stick, bring them to a medium simmer and cook for 20 minutes until they become warm and soft. When ready, strain the chickpeas out of the water then add the three-spice powder and salt and mix.
3. Seasoned yogurt: mince a garlic clove with some salt and then add them to the yogurt and stir to mix well. Make sure here to taste the yogurt – which has to be nicely seasoned and garlicky. If it needs for more salt, just add another pinch and mix. The yogurt also has to be chilled to give us this contrast in temperatures in this dish.
4. Assembly: layer the bottom of the plate with the crushed toasted bread. Add on top the seasoned chickpeas followed by the garlic-yogurt.
5. Ghee finish: in a small saucepan, add the ghee and the slivered almonds and toast on medium heat till they are nicely golden. Turn off the heat and add the Aleppo pepper, if using. It’ll foam a bit. Then, pour the hot ghee mixture over the cold yogurt and hear it sizzle! Aleppo pepper is a mild and bright red pepper with fruity notes. Aleppo pepper here is totally optional.
6. Alternatively, you can also toast pine nuts in some butter. Almonds just take more time to toast than pine nuts that’s why ghee works better here because it has a higher smoking point. Pine nuts, however toast quickly so butter is ok. Just make sure not to brown the butter because that’ll change the flavor.
7. Garnish: garnish with chopped parsley and serve immediately.