Halloumi & Pomegranate Salad

Yesterday we went to the Combermere for Sunday lunch with some friends. It was a perfect day in Cheshire: Lovely weather, great company and delicious food! While Mister Lapin was driving I was admiring the Cheshire countryside. Whenever it is during the year, the countryside has always something charming here. Yesterday was sunny and, with the arrival of autumn, the trees leaves had these peculiars colours. You know, the ones where you want to jump in it and roll, roll, roll…

Yesterday was also the first time of my life for drinking a G&T (I know, shame on me, waiting all these years!) and I have to say, I don’t see what’s all the malarkey about it. It was good but (and maybe I put too much pressure on it) no big deal. Maybe I should give it another try...

Anyway, it was nice to see everybody, talking and eating around a big old wooden table with a pint. Few months back I was talking with my friend Rachael (she lives in London so couldn’t be with us) and we realised that in our group of friends, we are ALL passionate about food! I noticed it was the case once again yesterday. We were eating and we still managed to talk about recipes and cooking  (and it wasn’t the ones in our plates)!

So, I did this halloumi salad last night, because I wanted something fresh and we were still full from the Sunday lunch and starter and pudding… It was time for something light!

I really love halloumi: it’s easy to cook and the flavour and taste is very characteristic! I like to have it in my salad with pomegranate. Like that it will counterbalance the saltiness of the halloumi. After that, you can go wild: Add croutons, tomatoes, pines nuts… anything you want!

Ingredients: (for 2 pers)

Young leafs salad

225gr halloumi

3 tomatoes

2 slices dried bread

1 handful pine nuts

1/2 pomegranate

Dressing

1 garlic clove

Method:

Heat a Small pan. Add the pine nuts so they slowly toast. Toss on a regular basis. During that time, rub the bread with a garlic clove and cut in cubes. In another pan, heat some olive oil and toast the bread until golden.

Dice the tomatoes, leave in a salad bowl and add the salad. By now the pines nuts should have cooled down. If so, add to the salad.

Bash the pomegranate to get the seeds out. Note that the white part is very bitter! Add the seeds to the salad. Slice the halloumi (about 1 cm thick).

Heat a griddle pan, on high. Cook the halloumi for a few minutes on each side. Season your salad to taste and serve in individual plates. Cover with croutons and finally, arrange the griddled halloumi.

Ta-dah!