Beetroot, Orange and Halloumi Salad

This week is National Vegetarian Week so I decided to share this recipe. I saw someone put a picture of their beetroot orange and halloumi salad up on Instagram – I can’t remember who – and I thought I have to make that. It looked so pretty. Halloumi is a great cheese if you feel you might miss meat. It is very robust and moreish. I can’t think of a better way to describe it so if someone more eloquent wants to help me out here, that’s be great! Even my resident meat lover was won over by this.

Halloumi heats well without melting so it is also a great cheese to use on the barbecue. You can use it with veggies to make kebabs for the barbecue so your vegetarian friends aren’t just stuck with cold salads! You can also get it made completely with sheeps or goats milk so it is good for anyone cutting back on cows milk. If you don’t want to use it, feta or goats cheese would also work well, but don’t try to fry them.

Keep it simple, you can buy the beetroot in vacuum packs ready cooked and peeled. Just don’t buy the pickled stuff in the jars of vinegar. Use any salad leaves you like but I’m trying to eat more spinach so I’ve gone with that.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 3 x roasted beetroot
• 20g hazelnuts
• 1 x large orange
• 2 tsp of white balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 250g halloumi cheese
• Baby spinach leaves

 

Method:

• Start by toasting the hazelnuts, either in the oven or as there is such a small amount, use a dry nonstick pan over a medium-high heat. When you can smell the nuts toasting remove from the heat and allow to cool before roughly chopping them up.
• Segment the orange over a bowl, allowing the juice to fall into the bowl and leave the segments to one side. The best way to segment the orange is to take a slice off the top and bottom of the orange, put it on a chopping board and slide a knife down the sides to remove the peel and pith. Then hold the orange in your hand and use a small sharp knife to cut in next to the membranes and you will have neat orange segments.
• When the orange is segmented, squeeze the juice from the membranes into the bowl. To make your salad dressing, add the olive oil and vinegar to the juice and a nice pinch of salt and pepper. Whisk this well together and taste to see if it needs more seasoning. If you would like to sweeten it a bit you could add some honey but I prefer it without.
• Put the non stick pan back on to a medium high heat, slice the halloumi – I get 6 slices from 250g – and add to the dry pan. Cook for about 2 minutes each side until the halloumi is golden.
• While the halloumi is cooking, dress the spinach leaves in some of the dressing and put on the plates. Slice the beetroot and divide this and the orange segments between the two plates. When the cheese is cooked, place it on top of the salad.
• Sprinkle over the chopped hazelnuts and some more dressing and serve immediately.