This Halloumi Lentil Salad is made with cooked lentils, roasted tomatoes, zucchini noodles, and fried halloumi and is a fresh, vegetarian lunch option.
HALLOUMI! It’s so good, right? Especially in this halloumi lentil salad (trust me!).
….at this point you’re either nodding your head yes, or asking yourself ‘wtf is halloumi?’. If you are the latter, let me tell you about halloumi.
Halloumi is a type of cheese made from a combination of sheep and goat milk. It’s also a harder cheese so you can easily fry it. Yes, FRIED CHEESE, is there anything better? Also don’t feel bad if you’ve never tried it—I tried it for the first time a few months ago on a whim when I spotted some at Whole Foods. ‘Ahhhh, so this is what halloumi looks like’, I though to myself, and guys, it was absolutely love at first bite.
But don’t let me get ahead of myself, because even though halloumi is sort of the star of the recipe, I don’t want to neglect the rest of this bowl.
Remember when I said I wanted to start eating more lentils? Well, here we are with my second lentil recipe in a month. WOOHOO! This lentil salad is made up of lentils (duh), roasted tomatoes (my preferred way to eat tomatoes), zucchini, onion, and halloumi, and flavored with tarragon (a seriously underrated spice).
Can you just taste the deliciousness? It’s summer in a bowl! I’ve been saying it for awhile now, but bring on the summer produce!
For this recipe, you’ll start by cooking the lentils as you normally would, while roasting the tomatoes and cooking the halloumi at the same time. Next, you’ll sauté the onion and the tarragon and then add the cooked lentils to that skillet. Last, you’ll add the zucchini to that skillet and stir to combine, then you’ll just pour that mixture into a bowl and add the roasted tomatoes and cooked halloumi. Bada-bing bada-boom THAT’S IT.
Note: I decided to slice the zucchini into zucchini noodles, which you can absolutely do as well, but other options include cutting the zucchini as you normally would (just slicing it short-ways with a knife) or creating thinner zucchini noodles with a spiralizer—any way works!
So the next time you spot halloumi as your grocery store, I 10000% recommend buying some and making this halloumi lentil salad. So fresh and so summer!
PrintFried Halloumi Lentil Salad
This Halloumi Lentil Salad is made with cooked lentils, roasted tomatoes, zucchini and fried halloumi and is a perfect light lunch option.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 2 1x
- Category: lunch
- Method: stovetop, skillet
- Cuisine: bowl
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked lentils (I used a combination of brown and green)
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 package halloumi (approx. 8 oz), sliced
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 12 oz. grape tomatoes
- 3/4 cup red onion, diced
- 1/4 tsp dried tarragon
- 1 zucchini, sliced
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Optional: microgreens for garnish
Instructions
- Combine lentils and water in a saucepan and cook according to the instructions on the package.
- Meanwhile, heat oven to 350° and place tomatoes, along with 1 tbsp olive oil, on a baking sheet and into the oven. Roast tomatoes for approximately 10 minutes, or until tomatoes are softer.
- Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a skillet and add sliced halloumi. Fry halloumi until both sides are golden brown; set aside.
- In the same skillet, add 1 tbsp olive oil, red onion and tarragon and cook until onions are soft.
- Last, slice or chop zucchini and then assemble the bowl: lentils first, and then add the halloumi, roasted tomatoes, zucchini and onion.
- Top with microgreens, salt and pepper and enjoy!
Keywords: lentil salad, fried halloumi, vegetarian lunch
This looks delicious!!! Pinned! Can’t wait to try it!
This looks delish! I have never even heard of Halloumi never mind trying it! I am hoping my grocery store has it! Looking forward to trying this recipe.
Well. I must admit I don’t have any idea what a halloumi is. Thank you for introducing it to us. Will definitely try to check if this is available in my area.
By the way, this looks so delicious. The combination is just perfect.
I have been so good about not craving cheese but halloumi is always going to be a struggle for me. That salty flavor…UGH, so good. It looks amazing paired with the grilled veggies and lentils. Such a gorgeous bowl of goodness. I love that background too!
Sarah @ Making Thyme for Health recently posted…Beet Patties with Vegan Tzatziki
Thanks Sarah! I found it at a second hand store for $15–it was too good of a deal to pass up!
I agree – tarragon is seriously underrated! The photos on this recipe are sensational – love a bit of halloumi, especially when it comes to BBQ season.
Perhaps this would be good at scale for a side salad for a bbq in the summer – with that grilled charcoal flavour on the halloumi!
I agree–the perfect side dish. Thanks!!
This looks absolutely delicious! Must must try! Thank you for the recipe 🙂
Thanks Amanda!
I LOVE halloumi!!! Loving it in this salad. It has to go so good with all those flavors. YUM!
It’s the best!
This looks amazing!!! I absolutely love haloumi, I think it tastes best when it’s grilled! drooling right now over this recipe and photos!
Thank you Georgie–I’m going through a halloumi obsession, so I’m hoping to make at least one more recipe with it soon.
It’s been waaaay too long since I’ve had halloumi and this salad is making me drool!! All the fresh flavors with that crispy halloumi is sheer perfection. I need to whip this up asap!
It’s SO good–a little pricey, but all the best cheeses are.
As much as I try to get into lentils, I just can’t. I wish I liked them! That cheese, though…I could totally destroy that cheese lol. I also agree that roasted tomatoes are the best!
haha maybe you can make this minus the lentils 😉 aka cheese and tomatoes and zucchini–I mean…. not the worst thing ever!
Erin you have seriously outdone yourself here! This recipe and these photos are insane. I think I’ve had halloumi once or twice but now I will probably end up buying some this week 😀
Thank you Ashley!! Can’t wait to see your halloumi recipes too 😀