Eggplant fatteh is a layered Lebanese dish of crispy pita bread, warm chickpeas, and roasted eggplant, soaked in a tangy yogurt tahini sauce and finished with sizzling buttery toasted nuts. It's a hearty, vegetarian dish eaten for breakfast and brunch across the Levant.

My Lebanese family calls any fatteh dish tisiyeh. It's interchangeable.

I recently learned that other parts of the Levant, Syria and Jordan among them, use the same name. When I asked why, the answer was that it's believed to be Syrian influence somewhere in our lineage, which tracks with how food names travel with family history more than borders do.

a plate of eggplant fatteh — The combination of flavors and textures - ouft!

What Is Eggplant Fatteh?

Eggplant fatteh, or fattet batinjan, is a layered dish built on torn, fried/baked pita bread, warm chickpeas, and a tangy yogurt tahini sauce, topped here with fried/roasted eggplant and finished with buttery toasted nuts. It's one variation in a wider fatteh family that also appears with meat, chicken, or fish.

Fatteh Across the Levant

The Arabic word fatteh simply means crushed pieces, referring to the torn bread and other bits throughout the dish.

Fatteh is beloved across Lebanon and most of the Levant and comes with a range of toppings, ground meat, pulled chicken, offal, white fish, makdous, or plain chickpeas, all built on the same base of repurposed stale pita, boiled chickpeas, and yogurt sauce.

This version, fattet batinjan (batinjan meaning eggplant), swaps in roasted eggplant as the topper. It's usually eaten as a hearty breakfast or brunch, though there's no real rule against having it anytime.

Ingredients

The complete list of ingredients with measurements, can be found in the full recipe card below.

Eggplant can be any variety, I usually reach for globe or the long type, cut into 2cm (¾-inch) cubes. Once cooked, I oven roast mine most of the time, though I'll fry it occasionally, then toss the pieces in a small amount of pomegranate molasses. This is close to how I make Lebanese fried eggplant, worth a look if you end up with leftover eggplant.

Chickpeas are non-negotiable for me, a fatteh without them isn't really fatteh, IMO. Freshly boiled chickpeas give the best flavor when you have the time, but canned work fine in a pinch, rinsed and then simmered to soften further. Save the warm chickpea water, it goes into both the sauce and the assembly for flavor. Fatteh isn't meant to be a dry dish.

The yogurt tahini sauce, salsat laban, is usually made with pot-set plain yogurt (full-fat dairy). Going plant-based, a dairy-free kefir yogurt is my pick, it has that same tang without one flavor taking over. Blend it with tahini, lemon juice, and white vinegar, the vinegar does a lot of the flavor lifting here.

The bread is the perfect use for stale Lebanese pita, though any pita will do, torn into bite-sized pieces for that rustic look. Traditionally it's the base layer, but after enough complaints from my siblings and me about soggy bread when we were kids, we now serve it in a way that makes it both crispy and soaked.

The bread will still soften eventually even served immediately, some people love that, and typically vendors in Lebanon serve it that way on purpose, but I've landed on a mix of both: bread that's soaked up flavor along with pieces that stay crisp. I use gluten-free pita for myself, and regular Lebanese pita when I make it for the rest of the family. You do not need to oil the bread prior to placing in the oven.

To finish, pan-fried sizzling nuts in butter and olive oil is the minimum topper, and honestly that alone is good enough. I usually go further with fresh pomegranate arils (1000% worth it if you can get your hands on this), chopped parsley, and a sprinkle of sumac and sweet paprika. All together, it's something else.

Layering Fatteh

The full set of instructions are found in the below printable recipe card.

crispy broken pita bread on a white plate

Layer the crispy broken pita bread, I like to leave a gap in the center, not necessary.

crispy broken pita bread with chickpeas on a white plate

Add the hot chickpeas with some of their water.

crispy broken pita bread with chickpeas and roasted eggplant pieces on a white plate

Add the eggplant pieces.

crispy broken pita bread with chickpeas, roasted eggplant pieces and white yogurt sauce on a white plate

Pour on the yogurt sauce.

Janelle's Tips

The pieces of fatteh can be prepped ahead. Bread can be baked or fried the day before and kept crisp stored on its own in the pantry. Chickpeas can be boiled ahead and reheated. The sauce can be made ahead too and loosened with warm chickpea water before serving. If you're prepping in stages, cook the eggplant and fry the nuts just before serving.
Don't assemble fatteh until you're about to serve it, this keeps the bread crunchy for longer. As above, a mix of soaked and crisp bread is my preference.
Beyond oven roasting and frying, you can air fry the eggplant too.

How to Eat Fatteh

Fatteh is always served fresh and hot, either on a shared platter or in individual bowls, as breakfast or brunch.

Since it's a layered dish with several components already going on, it's often served on its own, though it does show up as part of a bigger spread at the breakfast table.

Vegetarian Eggplant Fatteh topped with nuts and pomegranate seeds.

Did you make this? I'd love to know! Leave me a comment below with a ★★★★★ star rating or tag @plantbasedfolk on social media.