Halloumi is well known as a substitute for meat in burgers or and added into tasty kebabs for a barbecue. However, there’s much more to this versatile cheese. Leyla Kazim shares this delicious Cypriot recipe for halloumi with pasta.
There are few things more pleasurable than biting into the yielding flesh of a thick slab of smoky halloumi taken straight off the barbecue blistered brown by the heat and relinquishing all its salty wonder with every bite.
Ingredients
200g of halloumi
400g of pasta, whole wheat
2l chicken stock
2 lemons
2 tbsp of dried mint
4 sprigs of mint, fresh
Method
1
Finely grate the cheese and mix with the dried mint. Chop a handful of the mint leaves and set aside. In the meantime, cook the pasta in the chicken stock. If you don’t have ready made stock, use three chicken stock cubes in around 2 litres of water. The liquid should cover the pasta by an inch or so
2
If the liquid gets too low before the pasta is cooked, add a splash more. You want most of the liquid to have been absorbed by the end, but with some still remaining
3
Layer some of the grated cheese and mint in an empty shallow bowl per person. When the pasta is al dente, ladle half a portion into the bowl along with a little of the stock
4
Sprinkle another layer of the grated cheese, top with some more pasta and finish with the final layer of cheese. Sprinkle with a generous amount of the fresh mint. Squeeze the juice from ¼ to ½ a lemon over each bowl (depending on how much your guests like lemon – I like it a lot), and serve with a few more wedges if needed