Roast Vegetable Quinoa Haloumi Salad with Honey Sea Salt Almonds
Felt inspired by my own photo (food of course….) that I posted on socialsover the weekend and looked at the fridge with HALOUMI front of mind and created this delicious number for lunch. We teamed it with some tinned tuna and it was perfectly light but wholesome and just, well scrumptious!
ROAST VEGETABLE QUINOA HALOUMI SALAD + HONEY SEA SALT ALMONDS
Serves 4 as a side
Gluten free : Vegetarian
2 cups cooked quinoa (if going from raw you’ll need about 1 1/4 cups to make 2 cups cooked)
4 carrot, sliced into sticks about 1cm thick
1 large red capsicum, seeds removed and cap cut to the same size as carrots for even cooking
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup raw almonds, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons pinenuts
1/2 tablespoon honey
200g haloumi, cut into 16 pieces
1 1/2 cups baby spinach
4 asian shallots, white part finely chopped (save the greens to throw into asian dishes and broth)
1/2 cup parsley leaves, finely chopped
1/4 cup mint leaves, finely chopped
1 avocado, finely sliced
1/4 cup kalamata olives
1/2 lemon
sea salt and black pepper
Preheat oven to 200C and line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper. Spread carrots and capsicum over the tray, drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil, season with sea salt and toss to coat. Place in oven to cook for 20 minutes. Whilst veggies are cooking, if you haven’t cooked the quinoa now is the time – do so according to packet or your own method, then fluff and set aside to cool. Line a small baking tray with greaseproof paper, place almonds and pinenuts on tray, drizle with honey, season with sea salt, then pop in the oven when the veggies have cooked for 15 minutes so the nuts cook for the last 5 minutes with them. I usually put nuts etc in the middle of oven so they don’t risk burning at the top. Remove veggies and nuts, set aside to cool slightly. Heat a frypan on medium to high heat, drizzle with 1 teaspoon olive oil, then fry haloumi until golden on each side. In a large bowl toss cooked quinoa, vegetables, baby spinach, spring onions, herbs, olives and lemon juice. Arrange half on the platter, pop half the avocado and haloumi over this layer, then repeat. Sprinkle the top with the honey sea salt almonds and pinenuts, season with black pepper and serve with your choice of protein.
