Hot Honey Halloumi Salad with Pomegranates & Pistachios

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Jasmine

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This is honestly just a shameless excuse to bring together some of my favourite things in a quick and easy salad. We have halloumi, we have pistachios, pomegranates, honey, chickpeas and quinoa – yum! This salad is prep-friendly and has a delicious combination of sweet, salty and just a hint of heat…

INGREDIENTS

Raw ingredients:

Yellow pepper

Cucumber

Pomegranate seeds

Swiss Chard

Dressing and flavours:

Extra-virgin olive oil

Honey

Chilli flakes

Pomegranate molasses

Fresh mint

Everything else:

Halloumi

Chickpeas (pre-cooked – canned or jarred)

Light quinoa

TIPS & NOTES

We are keeping things very simple this time! But I still have a few tips. Firstly; you don’t have to toast the pistachios but I recommend this step (or buying pre-roasted nuts) because it releases so much delicious sweet flavour. I also recommend not adding the honey and chilli flakes to the halloumi right away because it can burn; instead I recommend waiting and adding it once the moisture is absorbed and flipping the halloumi a couple of times so both sides pick up the flavour and turn golden.

Finally, you can obviously use whatever leaves you like in this salad, from rocket to kale, I just like chard for the colour, flavour and the fact it doesn’t wilt if I’m prepping this ahead of time.

Hot Honey Halloumi Salad with Pomegranate and Pistachios

  • Servings: 3
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

Hot honey halloumi, but make it a salad

No special equipment or advance prep needed


Ingredients

  • (1/3 of a cup (c. 80g) of light quinoa (rinsed)
  • 1/2 a medium cucumber (c. 100g) (cut in half, deseeded and cut into sem-circle slices)
  • 1 yellow pepper (cut into chunks)
  • 100g of halloumi (cut into chunky slices)
  • 200g of chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
  • 75g of pomegranate seeds
  • 45g of pistachio nuts
  • 5 leaves of chard (c. 250g) (slice the stems and half-ribbon the leaves by stacking them, rolling them into a small package and making several slices along the short side and one long lengthways slice)
  • A small handful (c. 2g) of mint (remove the stems and ribbon by stacking them, rolling them into a small package and making several slices along the short side)
  • 1/2 a tsp of dried chilli flakes
  • 1 tbsp of honey
  • 1 tsp of pomegranate molasses
  • 2 tbsp (c. 30g) of extra-virgin olive oil + more for cooking
  • Salt and pepper to taste


Directions

  1. In a small lidded saucepan, add a drizzle of olive oil over a medium heat, add in the quinoa, salt and pepper to taste and toast for a couple of minutes
  2. Add 1.5 parts water to 1 part of the quinoa (2/3s of a cup or 240ml), cover and bring to the boil before reducing to a simmer and allowing to cook, which will take 15 minutes or so (once it’s done – set it aside to cool off)
  3. Meanwhile, in a frying pan over a low heat, toast the pistachios for 5 minutes or so until they’re fragrant – once they cool, give them a rough chop
  4. Over a medium-high heat, add the halloumi strips to the frying pan and allow the moisture to cook off before drizzling over half of the honey and sprinkling on half of the chilli flakes before flipping to cook the other side, flip once again until both sides are golden (around 7-10 minutes in total) – let them cool slightly before chopping into chunks
  5. Shake or whisk together the salad dressing using the remaining honey and chilli flakes, salt (not too much – the halloumi will be salty too) and pepper, pomegranate molasses and 2 tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil
  6. Combine the chickpeas, quinoa, chard, mint, yellow pepper, pomegranates, pistachios, cucumber and halloumi, drizzle with the dressing and toss together to serve

Let me know if you try this salad!

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