Grilled halloumi & vegetable salad with a fresh herb and yogurt dressing. A great Vegetarian lunch dish, perfect for warm Summer days.
Grilled halloumi and vegetable salad, a Vegetarian lunch dish, but one that can also serve as a side dish too. Roasting the halloumi cheese and the vegetables in a char-grill pan adds a lovely smokiness to the dish. The halloumi and vegetables are stacked then fresh yogurt and herb dressing is added to liven the dish up.
Very often recipes spin around in my head for weeks before they actually come to anything. I taste something I like and it triggers my imagination … this was one such occasion. I was vegetarian for many years before I went back to eating meat again. Its the years spent as a vegetarian that resulted in my ability to spice and flavour food. Michelle and I eat lunch together a lot and we enjoy the lightness that comes with a vegetarian lunch.
I first ate a dish very similar to this in Singapore many years ago. I remember the vibrant yellow squash that I’d never seen before. Nowadays of course we grow these courgettes in pots in our own gardens. For the stack itself I’d recommend that you use the vegetables that you like to eat, mixing it up by using a variety of different colours (we used purple and white aubergine, yellow and green courgettes, yellow and red peppers and a red onion).
If you like this recipe then try our Harissa & Chickpea Salad, our Chicken & Harissa Salad with Quinoa or our Broad Bean & Feta Salad.
Grilled Halloumi & Vegetable Salad
Ingredients
- 250 g halloumi cheese - sliced
- 1 aubergine - sliced
- 1 courgette - sliced
- 2 plum tomatoes - sliced
- 1 sweet pepper - sliced
- 1 red onion - sliced
- 1/2 pomegranate - seeds only
- 100 g pistachio nuts - shelled
Dressing
- 4 tbsp natural Greek yoghurt
- 1 bunch fresh coriander
- 1/2 bunch fresh mint
- 1/2 bunch fresh parsley
- juice of half a lemon
- salt & pepper
Instructions
- Slice the aubergine, place it in a collender and sprinkle with salt. Set aside for 30 minutes and the salt will help to extract the bitter juices from the aubergine. Rinse off the salt and pat dry with some kitchen paper.
- Heat up a chargrilling pan on the hob and place the peppers on skin side down. Allow the skin on the peppers to blacken and once this has happened place the peppers in a plastic bag and set aside for 10 minutes allowing the peppers to sweat and making the skins easier to peel off. Since with water and pat dry with some kitchen paper.
- Continue to chargrill the sliced onion, courgette, tomato and finish with the Halloumi.
- Place the fresh coriander, mint and parsley in a food processor along with the lemon juice and blitz together. Season and spoon in the yoghurt before giving one final blitz to mix all the ingredients together reading for dressing.
- On each serving plate place the grilled vegetables in a stack, alternating the vegetables as you go. Drizzle over the dressing and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and pistachio nuts.
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