Roast Halloumi and Veggies

AKA “Halloumi Snack” - a flexible, easy to prepare and most importantly DELICIOUS dish.

Pairs well with specialty rices, like black or red rices, ones with strong nutty flavours.

Quick Reference

  • Oven to 200C/fan 180/gas 6
  • 25 mins initial cook with just veggies
  • 10-15 mins with halloumi and chickpeas

Ingredients for 4 good portions

  • 2 red onions
  • 1 red pepper
  • 1 aubergine
  • 1 courgette
  • 4 mushrooms
  • 8-12 cherry tomatoes
  • 400g can chickpeas in water, drained and rinsed
  • 200g halloumi, diced to around 2cm chunks
  • 3-6 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
  • Zatar
  • Smoked paprika

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C/fan 180/gas 6
  2. Coarsely chop the onions, pepper, aubergine and courgette. Aim for roughly 1-2cm chunks, or chunky wedges for the onion. Pierce the cherry tomatoes with the tip of the knife.
  3. Toss the veggies together with olive oil, zatar, paprika, crushed garlic cloves, and season to preference.
  4. Put the prepared veggies in a large roasting tin, and pop in the oven for 25 mins, at which point it should be tender and beginning to brown at the edges.
    • This is a good time to prepare the chickpeas and dice the halloumi
    • You can also get the rice ready to go in here, as normally the specialty rices take 20 mins or longer to cook
  5. Stir in the chickpeas, then lay the halloumi on top - this helps it get lovely and toasted! Back into the oven for 10-15 mins, optionally taking a bit longer to rotate the halloumi to brown on all sides.

Blurb

A go-to favourite that’s hard to get wrong. The fundamental point is that roast veggies are delicious and halloumi is great, so why not just… do that?

Mix up the vegetable mix - similar recipes online with go heavy with courgettes or peppers, but I’m a big fan of variety when it comes to the veggies in my recipes. I’ve had good results with carrots and leek rings, though you might want to adjust the herbs and spices for more complimentary flavours.

I often have it with a drizzle of sriracha sauce to enliven the roast flavours, and a bit of stock in the rice water or a little green pesto stirred through the rice can also make for some fun variations.

Leftovers re-heat very well and can combine eg with pasta for lunch the next day.