What did the Cheese say when it looked in the mirror? … Halloumi!
(Sorry I really like cheese puns, it can brie very annoying)
I’m just going to do a bit of a roundup post from this month as I have been literally obsessed with halloumi this month. A few months ago I started to think it had kind of had its moment and we were over it and it was really just a little overrated. I am just going to go ahead and tell you that I was wrong.
Maybe it’s the sunshine and the fact I’m suddenly inspired to eat meals that contain leaves and still taste nice cold, but I’ve really loved rediscovering my love for halloumi through various at home meals and by eating out.
Now in my post Summer BBQ for vegetarians you will have read about the halloumi skewers I had recently at a BBQ. I’d like to start by saying how great halloumi is as a meat alternative for salads, wraps and skewers. The salty, chewy consistency is so easy to pair with a variety of salads, sides, dips and veggies, that is makes lunch prep incredibly easy. I also made delicious halloumi fajitas this week!
I went through a phase a couple weeks ago where I had a halloumi salad every day for lunch. I basically involved frying some halloumi in the morning with a handful of seeds (sainsburys do a pot of these for like £2 and they last forever) and then taking in a ripe avocado (ha, easier said that done) into work with a tupperware full of mixed greens and a salad dressing made up of olive oil, cider vinegar and pepper. Super easy and an actual delicious salad. I also used swapped the greens out for rice & quinoa and then added cherry tomatoes instead of avocado for a dinner outside in the garden and that was also amazing.
What got me back on the halloumi craze was actually going out with my friends for lunch at Bill’s, where they serve the most delicious halloumi fries known to mankind (perhaps an exaggeration, perhaps I happened to be in a particularly good Bill’s on a particularly good day). They were so nice that I basically have been on a halloumi diet since.
I next had halloumi again at The Cheese Bar, where I accidentally ate meat for the first time in 2 years (everyone makes mistakes…) when I had the angloumi stuffed with nduja. This was easily the best thing on the menu and if you are a meat eater, or you want to pretend to not know what nduja is, I’d highly recommend this English alternative to the lovely Cypriot cheese.
Then I had it in a burger at the pop up Butchies for John Lewis’ Summer of Sound on the Roof near Bond Street station (it’s totally a thing and it’s great, check it out!) This burger was served with chilli infused honey, which was as good as you would expect, and named The Freddie Mercur-v.
Finally, spending a lot of time at Euston Station, I grabbed breakfast at Paul Hollywood Bakery & Coffee, purely because it promised that the veggie box contained halloumi. This was halloumi, poached egg, avocado and half a tomato. A hefty price of nearly £6.00, but sometimes you need that halloumi fix.
Please let me know your favourite places in London or Manchester to visit that have halloumi options, or if you have any (very simple) recipes I’d love to hear them.
What cheese to you use to hide a little horse? Mascarpone.
Did you hear about the explosion at the cheese factory? Yes, there was de-brie everywhere.
How do you encourage a cub? “Camembert”
You’re welcome!
Kayleigh
