Oven Grilled Vegetable, Halloumi Salad

Oven Grilled Vegetable, Halloumi Salad – a guilt-free dinner.

Can we be more blessed with these gorgeous sun-filled Spring weather? Even though summer is still couple of weeks away, I think non of Sydneysiders can wait to slap on the sunscreen and head to one of our wonderful beaches, refresh ourselves in the cool ocean water.

Anyway, back to food. What is the best for a summer-like night? I am wondering if there is any better combination than a warm salad with a cold drink. Somehow, warm salads always make me feel like a proper meal.

For me, one of the things I love about having a blog is, that it encourages me to experiment new ingredients to create new recipes. I love halloumi. It is a cheese made from goat and sheep’s milk and it doesn’t melt over high heat so it’s ideal for grilling or pan frying. It is also a great option for vegetarians.  Eat it as soon as you can after you take it out of the pan, it’s at it’s most delicious when it’s hot.

This delicious Oven Grilled Vegetable, Halloumi Salad filled with a great source of vitamins: green lentils, fresh crunchy purple cabbage, red bell pepper, zucchini, eggplant and juicy grape tomatoes in garlic lemon and paprika and olive oil marinate. I hope you enjoy this easy, delicious, guilt-free summer dinner. It will surely please your stomach and sole.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 zucchini, cut in half and thinly sliced
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced in 2 cm thick
• 1 medium eggplant, thinly sliced in circles
• a handful purple cabbage, thinly sliced
• a handful of mint leaves
• 1 package halloumi – 180 gr, thinly sliced
• 250 gr mixed grape tomatoes
• 1 cup green lentil

For the marinate:

• 4 table spoon olive oil
• 3 table spoon lemon juice
• paprika to sprinkle
• 2/3 tea spoon salt
• 1 garlic clove, crushed

METHOD:

1. Mix all the marinate ingredients together in a small bowl and In a large mixing bowl, put all the vegetable slices (zucchini, red bell pepper, onion, eggplant) together, pour the marinating sauce over the vegetables and toss.
2. Preheat the oven at 200º C. Then evenly lay all the vegetable slices on the oven grilling racks and grill for 20 minutes (do not forget to put an oven size tray on the bottom of the oven to carry all the juice drifted from the grilling vegetable to avoid making your oven messy)
3. Rinse the green lentils well under water and put the lentils in a small sauce pan, cover it with water and boil for 10 minutes at medium high heat until it really soft. Drain well in a colander.
4. Spray a grilling pan with olive oil and heat it up at medium heat. Grill all the halloumi slices (both sides) until they get golden brown
5. In a big salad bowl, combine all the grilled vegetables, lentils and halloumi. Throw in the purple cabage and mints leaves, toss and it is ready to serve.