Where do you sit on the great halloumi debate? I’m guessing if you’re reading a post that has ‘halloumi’ as the first word in the title you feel pretty positive about this cheesy goodness, so let me introduce you to this weeknight wonder dinner of a halloumi and roasted chickpea salad.
This to me is a great dinner to have during the week when you want something that is pretty darn tasty, but is not going to take forever to make (because let’s be honest, who has time - or is prepared to wait - to cook for hours when they get home from work? Certainly not me). This halloumi and roasted chickpea salad fits the easy, mid-week bill perfectly. There are vegetables, there is some form of protein and best of all there is, of course, a fair bit of cheese involved. Naturally you can be perfectly measly on the halloumi front if you want to be, but there’s also the opportunity to have double the cheese I do in the photos. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have more halloumi in a pan that you just cannot see.
Now before this all gets too healthy, let me tell you the secret to making this quite so delicious: you pan fry the halloumi slices in butter. And I mean quite a lot of butter. Which you can also use to drizzle over the top once you plate up, for extra added deliciousness.
Have you decided this is something you need in your life yet? Thought so.
Halloumi and roasted chickpea salad
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: Serves 2 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
This recipe is one that I’ve made a bunch of times and tweaked as I’ve gone along, so it’s an original to The Usual Saucepans. It takes about half an hour and serves 2.
Ingredients
- 8 slices of halloumi (or 4 if you don’t want much)
- 1 tin of chickpeas (400g)
- 1/2 head of broccoli
- 1/2 punnet of cherry tomatoes (about 16)
- 1/2 red onion
- 1/2 lemon
- 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
- salt and pepper
- 2 tsp sesame seeds
- 20g butter
Instructions
Heat your oven to 180°C.
Start by slicing your onion into thin slices, halving your cherry tomatoes and breaking down your broccoli into florets. Also slice your halloumi, then drain and rinse your chickpeas.
Put the onion, tomatoes, broccoli and chickpeas onto a large oven tray and then drizzle with the oil, season liberally and lightly squeeze some juice from your lemon half over it all. Slice up your lemon and chuck the pieces in the tray too. Get in there with your hands and mix it all together to ensure everything is mixed and coated.
Slide into the centre of the oven for 25-30 minutes until the broccoli is cooked and starting to blacken on the edges.
About 4-5 minutes before the tray is ready, put the butter in a frying pan and put on a medium heat. When it’s melted and bubbling add in your halloumi. Cook for about 30 seconds to a minute on each side (until golden). Remove the pan from the heat.
Take the tray from the oven, sprinkle over the sesame seeds, add the halloumi on top and serve immediately.
- Category: Dinner
I’ll have 12 slices on mine, my favourite cheese!
That sounds about the right number of slices. But I think it’s the frying in butter that makes it!