Fattet Hummus

Fattet Hummus is a hearty Middle Eastern dish that’s usually served as a breakfast or brunch meal. Toasted pita chips, hummus, and garlicky hummus are layered in a deep dish and finished off with a sprinkle of toasted pine nuts and fresh parsley.

What Is Fattet Hummus?

Fattet hummus is popular in Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. It’s usually served for breakfast on Fridays, brunch, or as a starter and possibly a main for Iftar during Ramadan.

The heavenly tasting layers have different textures and flavors. Fattet hummus is best enjoyed right after it’s made as the toasted bread can still hold the crunch even after it’s soaked with chickpea water.  But it’s still amazing when served later and the toasted bread becomes soft.

So calling all hummus lovers out there, you NEED to try this dish! It’s a great vegetarian dish that you will really enjoy and can be easily veganized if you can get plant-based yogurt.

How to Make Fattet Hummus

1. Toast pita bread.
2. Cook the chickpeas from dried and make hummus.
3. Mix yogurt with garlic, lemon juice and salt.
4. Toasted the pine nuts and chop some fresh parsley.
5. In a deep dish, layer the dish. Start with the toasted pita chips, followed by a layer of hummus, and finally the yogurt. Garnish with toasted pine nuts and chopped parsley.

I strongly recommend that you cook the chickpeas from dried, it’s healthier and you can use the chickpea water to make this dish even more flavourful. If you use canned chickpeas, make sure that you rinse them before you use them.

Other Variations

• The Jordanian version is usually made with meat. First, the toasted bread is layered, then cooked chickpeas are added (instead of hummus) along with a little bit of chickpea water and ground cumin. Then comes the yogurt layer, which is the prepared in the same way as the recipe in this post, but parsley leaves are mixed in with the yogurt. And finally comes the meat layer, minced beef or lamb is sauteed with ghee and sprinkled over the yogurt layer with chopped parsley, toasted pine nuts, toasted sliced almonds, and pomegranate seeds. There’s also a vegetarian version which is exactly the same, but without meat.
• The Syrian version is also made with whole cooked chickpeas. Start with a layer of toasted pita bread, add cooked chickpeas, then another layer of toasted bread, followed by the yogurt mixture. Drizzle with melted ghee, toasted nuts and paprika.
• The Lebanese version is a bit different. In a small pot over medium heat, mix the chickpeas with tahini and water. Add salt, buharat spice mix, and simmer for 10 minutes. In a skillet, heat olive oil and butter and saute a minced garlic clove until fragrant. Then in a deep dish, start with a layer of toasted pita chips, followed by the chickpea tahini layer, drizzle with sauteed garlic with the oil and butter. Garnish with toasted pine nuts and sprinkle with paprika.
• The Palestinian version is similar to my version. Blitz cooked chickpeas with lemon, cumin, tahini, garlic, salt, olive oil and water until smooth and becomes hummus. Divide this hummus mixture into 2, one part will be mixed with yogurt and chickpea water. The bread is not toasted, it’s just cut into squares and that will be the first layer in the dish. Add freshly squeezed lemon juice, cayenne pepper, salt and chickpea water to the bread and let the mixture stand for 15 minutes until the bread is soaked and soft (you might need to add some hot water). Add the hummus that’s mixed with yogurt to the bread and mix everything together very well. Then layer with the other part of the hummus (without the yogurt). Garnish with toasted sliced almonds, toasted pine nuts, a drizzle of olive oil and chopped parsley. You could also add a little bit of minced cooked meat.
• My version! This is my family’s recipe that we have been making for decades, and in my opinion, it’s the best one! The healthiest, easiest and tastes amazing!

What To Serve With

Usually, Fattet hummus is either eaten on its own along with a cup of sweet black tea with fresh mint leaves, or with Arabic mezze. Such as hummus, foul mudammas, falafel, baba ganoush, mutabbal, and galayet bandora.

Fattet hummus is usually eaten on Fridays. Weekends in the Middle East are Fridays and Saturdays, and Friday is the day when the whole family gathers for either breakfast or lunch or both. Try this dish and it might become one of your weekend rituals as well.

I hope that you love this recipe as much as I do, and don’t forget to check out more of my Middle Eastern Recipes.

This recipe was originally posted on Feb 24th, 2017. And updated on May 18th, 2019 with new images. The recipe was also slightly changed.