Arugula Salad with Grilled Halloumi

I don’t know if you have ever eaten Halloumi cheese but I love it. This cheese is having ‘a day’, showing up on menus in restaurants & it is available in most major grocery stores….in my city of Edmonton anyway.

I have posted a recipe using Halloumi before Halloumi Cheese with Spinach Salad The salad recipe I am posting today is with Arugula, capers & nuts.

The recipe is from fine Cooling, by Diana Andrews, so I knew it would be good.

I made it exactly as the recipe says except that I didn’t have pistachios so I roasted some walnuts & added those. They were very good in this salad.

I served it for company twice….different people each time, & everyone really enjoyed it. One meal I served it with a boccochini & tomato salad & a Potato Salad, the next time was with a corn, tomato & feta salad & a grilled vegetable torte

Here is the recipe

*** I doubled the recipe to serve 8 people, the salad was part of a buffet type of meal & I had very little left over…we had around 8 people at each meal

Here is the recipe

Ingredients

For the salad

1 pkg of Halloumi cheese

2 tbsp olive oil

5 oz arugula

1/4 cup toasted walnuts or the recipe calls for pistachios.. chop the nuts *** to roast the walnuts, put them onto a lined baking sheet into a 350f oven for about 5 -10 minutes..watch closely …they will burn quickly…when they begin to brown take them out!

For the dressing

3 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp capers, rinsed, drained & finely chopped

1 tsp flat leaf parsley, finely chopped **** I didn’t have this….

1 tsp grated lemon zest

1 tsp honey

1/2 tsp garlic, minced

salt & pepper

Method

1.  This recipe says to soak the Halloumi cheese in hot water for 15 minutes, then dry it off. Cut the cheese into cubes
2. Heat the 2 tbsp of oil in a skillet & cook the cheese until it is a light golden brown. Stir often & flip it over to get both sides brown. Set Aside
3. Put the arugula in a bowl big enough for the salad..I like to use a flat dish with sides so the pieces of cheese don’t just fall to the bottom of a bowl…but use whatever you would like. Set Aside
4. Make the dressing by putting the olive oil, red wine vinegar, capers, parsley, lemon zest, honey, garlic & salt & pepper into a small jar….I use a jam jar & shake well to mix all of the ingredients together…. or whisk all of the ingredients together in a bowl
5. Pour the salad dressing,…(as much as you like… but reserve about 1 tbsp of the salad dressing to pour on top of the salad after adding the cheese & nuts)…. onto the arugula & toss
6. Put the Halloumi cheese on the top of the arugula & the nuts & pour the reserved bit of salad dressing overtop of the cheese & nuts
7. You can toss of this together or serve it with the cheese & nuts on top…

Enjoy!