Halloumi and Papaya Salad
Day 6 – Salads for Spring
This grilled halloumi salad is one of my favourite things to serve as a side dish at a barbecue because it’s interesting enough to be a conversation starter and delicious enough to please pretty much everyone. Even people who don’t think they like fruit in their salad will love this one - the salty grilled halloumi cheese paired with the creamy avocado and sweet papaya is such a winning combination that you’ll
I didn’t know much about papaya before I tried this salad but now when I have papaya I think of halloumi cheese because it’s a marriage made in heaven. Sadly I can’t lay claim to this recipe, it is the work of the Hemsley sisters and was in the first book which I absolutely adored. I think this recipe says pretty true to theirs, I tone down the red onion a bit because for me red onion at lunchtime can be a bit much if you know what I’m saying?
I know some people can be funny about fruit and salad but I would urge those people to give this a try and see what they think.
Time: 15 minutes
Skill: Easy
Serves: 1 and can happily be multiplied depending on how many you’re cooking for.
INGREDIENTS
For the dressing:
Juice of half a small lime
1tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp honey
For the salad:
1 large handful of watercress (roughly 75g))
60g cherry tomatoes, halved
Roughly 20g red onion, sliced as thinly as you can. More if you love onion!
Half an avocado spooned out of its skin
Half a small papaya (seeds removed), spooned out of its skin
50g seeds - I like pumpkin and sunflower seeds
75g Halloumi
METHOD
In a jam jar combine all of the ingredients for the dressing put on the lid and give it a really good shake – this is your lime dressing.
Slice the halloumi and in a frying pan on medium heat add a little drizzle of oil and then fry the halloumi until it’s golden brown on both sides, this only takes about three minutes in total.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl mix together the rest of the salad ingredients except the seeds. Drizzle over the dressing and toss together so it’s all well coated.
To serve, put your salad on a plate, top with the golden brown halloumi and then scatter over the seeds.
Enjoy!
If you liked this salad then why not check out the other salads from this series here, or if you want to try another halloumi salad how about these Mexican-inspired halloumi tacos?