Halloumi and peri peri vegetable sandwich

I think I must have the shortest attention span of anyone, anywhere, ever.

I’ve currently been working on this post for about 4 hours. I’ll edit one photo, then get distracted by Pinterest (oooooh, pretty things). I’ll come back, do one more photo, then oooooh Facebook.

In fact, I wrote that very first sentence up there about an hour ago before getting distracted by my Google Reader. Stop posting such great things on your blogs please, because it means I get absolutely nothing done on my own.

It happens at work too. During a busy period at the restaurant, when there are lots of orders needing to be prepared, I’ll think ‘I must remember to do x, y and z as soon as it’s a bit quieter’, and then as soon as the quieter period comes, I have absolutely no idea what it was that I needed to do. My brain just can not hold onto a thought for more than a few seconds.

Of course, as soon as the restaurant gets busy again I remember what it was I was meant to do, because it’s not been done. Whoops.

Oh well, I have a day off today so I’m going to spend it happily forgetting things and being distracted by pretty pictures all day long, and maybe by the end of the day this blog post will be finished. Maybe.

This isn’t exactly a complex recipe (remember? My poor brain can’t handle it), but I wanted to share it anyway since halloumi is one of my favourite things to have at lunch time. And thanks to a certain restaurant called Nando’s, I know that peri peri sauce goes insanely well with it. I buy Nando’s brand peri peri from the supermarket, but if you can’t get it, any hot sauce will be good.

Halloumi and peri peri vegetable sandwich

Serves 1

1 fresh roll or chunk of baguette
100g halloumi cheese
1tbsp oil
1/2 red pepper, cut into strips
50g mushrooms, sliced
1-2tbsp peri peri sauce or alternative hot sauce
1tbsp sour cream, to serve (optional)

Cut the halloumi into 1/2cm slices. Lay them in a dry frying pan, and cook over over a fairly low heat for around 4 minutes each side, or until they are slightly golden.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a separate pan, and cook the mushroom and pepper over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until soft.

Cut the roll or chunk of baguette in half, and spread a small amount of peri peri sauce over one half. Add the slices of halloumi and the cooked vegetables.

Serve with sour cream if desired.

Note: I don’t use any oil in the pan I cook my halloumi in, but if your pan is not non-stick, you may want to use a small amount of oil.

I find the peri peri sauce I use pretty spicy, so I only use a little, but if your sauce is milder you can obviously use more. I prefer to only spread a little inside the bread and use more as a dip if needed – on more than one occasion I’ve ruined a sandwich by putting too much peri peri in and making it unbearably hot!

The halloumi I bought came with a very small amount of herbs pressed into it. If your halloumi is plain, you may wish to add a small amount of dried herbs when cooking.