Fattoush-Inspired Chopped Salad with Tahini-Buttermilk Dressing, Chickpeas, Sumac, and Pine Nuts

A chopped salad with many of the flavors found in Fattoush.

A few years ago a reader sent me her recipe for Fattoush, and I was smitten at first bite with the traditional Lebanese salad that includes romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, mint, parsley, toasted pita chips, and lemon-sumac vinaigrette.  Since then I've become a huge fan of London chef and cookbook author Ottolenghi.  I have all his cookbooks, and in the most recent book, Jerusalem, I was intrigued by a recipe for Fattoush with buttermilk in the dressing.  I love buttermilk in just about anything, and Ottolenghi's dressing inspired me to combine it with olive oil,  lemon, garlic, Tahini, dried mint, and Sumac to make the dressing for this Fattoush-Inspired Chopped Salad.  I experimented with the dressing ingredients for a couple of weeks to get it just right, and Jake and I loved the flavor combinations in this salad   Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

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