Warm quinoa salad with grilled halloumi and parsley dressing
Anyone who’s ever tried halloumi cheese will understand why I’m so excited about this recipe. As you all know, I’m a bit of a cheese fanatic, and halloumi is one of my absolute favourites. It’s irresistibly moist and chewy, and its mild but salty flavour goes with just about anything. This time I paired it with a simple quinoa salad with leeks, broccoli and red pepper.
This is only the second time I’ve cooked with quinoa (the first was for my slow cooker lentil and quinoa tacos), but everyone seems to be obsessed with it these days, and I’m starting to see why. As with most things of its genre, it doesn’t have a huge amount of flavour on its own, which means you can dress it up however you like. It reminds me of couscous, but it’s higher in protein, which is always a good thing – and it’s gluten free! Plus it’s fun to watch that little spiral-shaped germ gradually separate (I think I need to get out more).
Aside from the halloumi, this quinoa salad cooks up in one pot, so it’s perfect if you’re not a fan of washing up (…so, everyone, right?). It’s pretty versatile too – if you’re making this as a whole meal, it’ll probably do 2 people, but you could also serve it as a side dish alongside something else (in which case it’ll go a bit further). You can skip the halloumi if you want to (I don’t know why you would, but you could), but I’d keep the parsley dressing since it adds so much flavour to the quinoa. It’s a really simple dressing – just fresh parsley, lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper – but it really brings the dish to life.
I love recipes like this, where everything’s all mixed in together and you can just mix and match what you want on your fork each time. I find it strangely comforting when everything can piled up all together in a bowl rather than laid out separately on a plate. I know, that’s weird. Let’s get on to the recipe.
What’s your favourite quinoa recipe? I could use some ideas!
- 1tbsp oil
- 1/2 red pepper, chopped into chunks or strips
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 70g leek, sliced (around half a medium leek)
- 70g quinoa
- 400ml vegetable stock
- 80g broccoli, separated into small florets
- 10g parsley
- 2tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 4tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Black pepper
- 150g halloumi, sliced
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan or wok, and cook the red pepper, garlic and leek over a medium heat for several minutes until soft. Add the quinoa, and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly, before adding the vegetable stock. Bring to a gentle boil. Wait for a few minute and then add the broccoli. Cook for around 15 minutes more, stirring regularly, until the quinoa is transparent and soft and there isn’t any excess water remaining (when the water begins to dry up, make sure you stir regularly to prevent the quinoa from sticking and burning).
- While the quinoa is cooking, prepare the parsley dressing. Place the parsley, lemon juice and olive oil in a food processor, and blitz well until the lemon and oil have emulsified and the parsley is well chopped.
- When the quinoa is nearly ready, cook the halloumi. Place the slices in a dry non-stick frying pan, and cook over a medium heat for several minutes without touching it. It will release some liquid, and once the liquid has cooked off, it will begin to brown. When the underside is golden brown, turn each slice over to cook the other side (this side won’t take as long, so keep an eye one it!).
- Serve the quinoa salad with the grilled halloumi and drizzle with the parsley dressing.
Quinoa portion of this recipe is not pleasant at all. The cooking times are way off – quinoa does take about 15 minutes to cook but broccoli is inedible mush at that point. I added it at the ten minute mark and it’s still been cooked to mush.
Hi Sara, sorry you found that! If you like your broccoli more al dente just add it a bit later.
Yum. Made this for dinner and both myself and my 5 year old enjoyed it. I grilled the haloumi on my foreman grill, halved the initial amount of oil and omitted a tablespoon of oil from the dressing, still lovely and comforting.
Thanks for your comment Hannah, really glad you both liked it! :)
this looks absolutely delicious!!!! your photos are beautiful too!
Jen
This recipe looks great! I didn’t like quinoa for the longest time, and then someone gave me a life-changing tip: rinse it. I’m not exactly sure what rinses off of the quinoa, but SO much of the bitterness is gone when you give it a good rinsing before cooking.
My favorite quinoa recipe comes from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian. It’s sweet potato quinoa salad. I’ve made it so much that I know it by heart-all you do is cook up some quinoa (broth definitely makes it tastier); add finely chopped onion and bell pepper; toss in a diced, roasted sweet potato; add a generous handful of flat-leaf parsley; and mix together a dressing of red wine vinegar, lemon juice, and olive oil. Nomnomnom.
That sounds awesome! And very autumnal :) must try it!
I love the sound of this as I adore halloumi and quinoa.
A beautiful looking healthy dish. Halloumi is my favorite.
i have never tried halloumi but you make me want to! mmm!
You definitely should, it’s the BEST :D
Quinoa and grilled halloumi are definitely two of my favorite things! I’ve done a similar salad and absolutely loved it. Might have to try your version – it looks great!
Somehow I’ve never got round to trying halloumi, this recipe reminds me how much I really want to – it looks DELICIOUS.
I’m unsure why I still haven’t managed to try quinoa! This looks fab and I definitely approve of anything with halloumi!
I put off trying quinoa because it seemed so expensive (it’s a couple of quid for a bag that looks tiny) but actually it goes really far so it ends up as like 10p a serving or something, which isn’t all that bad really :)