One of my favorite things to eat in recent years is a smart, thoughtful combination of raw and cooked ingredients — especially in a dish served chilled or at room temperature.
A few years back, just before COVID, I had dinner at a sun-drenched, wood-paneled restaurant and wine bar that served one of the brightest, most refreshing main dishes I’ve ever had: poached, sliced chicken breast with cucumber, avocado and a chilled buttermilk sauce.
It was sublime — refreshing the way a dessert or beverage might be, in a way entrées are rarely granted the opportunity to be.
Another relatively new discovery I’ve eaten with reckless abandon in the past five years is halloumi, often featured in Greek cuisine, slicked with olive oil and a touch of honey, served alongside olives, pita or salads. Now, cheese has been my favorite food forever and always—I will drone on about this to anyone who’ll listen—but I was late to discovering my love for halloumi. I’ve been an adherent ever since.
Halloumi is somewhat unassuming at first. A white, square block that resembles tofu, it has a mild, milky flavor with a touch of salt—almost like a distant cousin of mozzarella. But once it’s cooked and browned? It becomes something else entirely.
I love the squeak of halloumi, the way it bounces off your teeth, the chew, the salinity. It’s become one of my absolute favorite things to eat.
So why not combine these two concepts? Here, I went for a chopped-salad-style dish, with halloumi as the star. Be careful when cooking it: halloumi is naturally “squeaky,” but if overcooked, it can veer into rubbery territory. You’re better off slightly undercooking it.
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For this salad, I cut the halloumi into planks, air fry it, then quarter it. If you’re going for more of a grilled-chicken-on-salad vibe, you can keep the planks intact. Just be sure to cut everything to about the same size, with the halloumi and cucumber making up the largest bites.
Halloumi is inherently fascinating—I mean, it’s a cheese you cook like a protein. Hard to go wrong. Pairing it with bright, punchy ingredients like grassy, celery-flavored vinegar; smooth walnut oil; sweet, chewy golden raisins; and clean, crisp cucumber creates an exploration of flavors, textures, consistencies and temperatures. Add fennel, shallot, a touch of honey, bright lemon and a blend of tarragon and fennel fronds, and it becomes the perfect Greek-Italian mash-up to welcome spring.
Eating raw produce is often considered more nutritious, and this vegetarian dish is deeply satisfying on its own. You can bolster the protein with chicken, beans or tuna if you’d like, but it’s not necessary. The vegetal purity of this dish—emboldened by halloumi as the centerpiece—is more than enough. It also comes together in 20 minutes or less. Most of the work is just knifework.
I love it. I hope you will, too.
Ingredients
8 ounces halloumi, sliced into planks length-wise
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon honey
1 to 2 tablespoons celery vinegar (champagne or white wine also work)
2 to 3 tablespoons walnut oil (or any neutral oil)
2 lemons, juiced and zested
Freshly ground black pepper
Kosher salt
1 large shallot, peeled and minced
3 tablespoons golden raisins
1/4 fennel bulb, halved, core removed and very, very thinly sliced, fronds reserved
2 seedless cucumbers, quartered and chopped, ends removed
3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
Handful tarragon, roughly chopped
Directions
- Place halloumi, in a single flat layer, in air fryer basket. Spritz with cooking oil spray or Pam. Cook for 8 minutes at 350 degrees, flipping once.
- In a large bowl, whisk honey, vinegar, oil, juice and zest, freshly ground black pepper and a touch of salt. Add shallots, raisins and fennel and let sit for 5 minutes. This will help to soften the fennel, plump the raisins and tame the shallot's sharp flavor.
- Stir mixture well. Add cucumber, pine nuts, half the fennel fronds and half the tarragon. Stir again.
- Quarter each halloumi plank. Add to salad.
- Stir, finish with the remaining herbs and serve immediately.
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