Grilled halloumi salad recipe
This is adapted from a salad I had in Istanbul, where they use wonderful Turkish chillies that have a mild, smoky, sun-dried taste. I found that by mixing sun-dried tomatoes and chilli flakes you can create a similar flavour.
Ingredients
- 250 g halloumi, cut into 5mm thick slices
- 50 g pine nuts
- 250 g cherry tomatoes
- 100 g pitted black olives, roughly chopped
- 2 handfuls basil leaves, roughly torn
- 100 g sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and finely chopped
- 1 lemon, juice only
- 0.25 tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for dressing (optional)
- 1 pinch sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Details
- Cuisine: Turkish
- Recipe Type: Main
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 5 mins
- Cooking Time: 4 mins
- Serves: 4
Step-by-step
- Heat a griddle pan over a high heat until smoking, then griddle the halloumi pieces for about 30 seconds on each side, or until you can see lovely charred lines. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- Heat a small frying pan over a medium heat. Add the pine nuts and gently toast for 1-2 minutes, or until the pine nuts are golden brown. They will change colour very suddenly, so watch them carefully, and every now and then, shake the pan so the nuts move about and don't burn. Transfer the pine nuts to a plate to cool.
- Cut the cherry tomatoes into different shapes and sizes: lengthways, sideways, quarters and leave some whole. This will make the salad look amazing and more interesting to eat. Put them in a large mixing bowl with the olives, basil, sun-dried tomatoes, lemon juice, chilli flakes and half the toasted pine nuts. Season with a small pinch of salt and good pinch of pepper and mix well. There should be enough oil in the sun-dried tomatoes to coat everything. If not, stir in extra olive oil.
- To serve, heap the cherry tomatoes in a large serving bowl and scatter over the remaining pine nuts. Top the salad with the grilled halloumi, then drizzle over a tablespoon of olive oil. Serve immediately with the squeezed lemon halves.
Recipe taken from the Mighty Spice Cookbook
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