Pomegranate and Halloumi Salad

Last autumn, my boyfriend and I visited Western Cyprus for the first time. I remember quite clearly on the first night we were there we went to a taverna in the nearest town of Polis and ordered some mezze. There were two outstanding dishes I had during that feast, one was the local stew Stifado, which is basically the same as the Greek version but made with beef and pork. 

The other knockout was earlier on in the mezze and that was the halloumi. They served simply on a bed of tomatoes and drizzled with local olive oil, but it was beautiful. It still had that rubbery texture you get with the cheese, but it was oozing salty minty juices in your mouth and it was that flavour that I was craving when I made this dish.

So off I went to Waitrose to buy myself a packet of halloumi to griddle for a warm salad. I served it on top of dressed rocket and mint leaves and scattered pomegranate seeds , walnuts and parsley around the cheese. So there’s really hardly any cooking involved and what you end up with is a dish so colourful and immensely satisfying to eat. The rubbery saltiness of the cheese is overset by the acidic bursts of the pomegranate seeds and the walnuts are there to give the dish the crunch it’s missing.

Ingredients
Block of Halloumi
1 Pomegranate
1 Lemon
small bunch of fresh Mint, torn
small bunch of fresh Parsley, torn
handful of Rocket
1 spring Onion, finely sliced
olive Oil
small handful of Walnuts, crushed

Recipe

Heat and griddle pan. Take your halloumi block and cut it into four equal slices. When the griddle pan is hot, add your halloumi and grill on each side for a couple of minutes until the edges start to crisp and turn brown. Remove from the heat and set to one side to cool down.

In a small bowl, cut your pomegranate in half and then bash the skin side of the fruit with a wooden spoon so that the seeds fall into the bowl. I’d say you need about 5 or 6 good bashes to get all the seeds out. Discard any hard white bits that may have fallen out and the remaining skin. Add parsley, spring onion, salt, pepper, about a tablespoon of oil and the juice of ¼ lemon.

In a separate bowl, toss the rocket and torn mint leaves in a dressing made from lemon juice and olive oil. Finally assemble your dish by placing the rocket and mint in the centre, top with the cheese and surround with red pomegranate jewels. Enjoy.