Crispy Shredded Halloumi Salad (with kale)

Introducing my latest food obsession: crispy shredded halloumi. Box grate it, pan fry until golden, then scatter it over everything for instant crunch, salt and serious cheesy goodness! Today in this Halloumi Salad, we’re showering kale. Great as a side, or top with a soft-boiled egg for a satisfying, veg loaded meal.

Crispy Shredded Halloumi!

If you’ve never shredded and pan fried halloumi before, it is time to discover this magic!!! It’s a crispy, golden, cheesy, salty rubble that reminds me of pangrattato – but better, because it’s 100% cheese. 😉

I see so many uses for it in my future – on pastas, soups, roasted veg, hmm, I wonder if it would be too much to top my Mac and Cheese with it….. 🤔😈 And because it stays crispy for days, you can make a batch and keep it in the fridge for days, ready to sprinkle on everything!

Another Spoon Salad

In today’s recipe, I’m turning something pretty virtuous into something exponentially more exciting using the crispy halloumi crumbs – a kale salad. 🙂 It has a surprising amount of kale in it – 5 big leaves – plus rice. The chewy grains go really well with the crispy halloumi bits, I find. I tried other things like chickpeas and quinoa, and didn’t think it was as good, the crispiness of the halloumi gets lost.

I like to chop the kale up into small pieces so it jumbles up nicely with everything else (rice, red onion, pine nuts and the halloumi crumbs) to make a big salad that can be eaten with a spoon where you get a bit of everything in every bite. I call these Spoon Salads and I’m fond of them – like this one, this one and this one. I like the eating convenience :).

Ingredients in Crispy Shredded Halloumi Salad

Here’s what you need to make this. I use rice to fill this out to make it a meal-worthy salad or a handy 2-in-1 side dish (ie veg plus starch in one dish), but you can switch that with another starch of choice if you like, I’ve listed some suggestions below.

• Halloumi – A firm, brined cheese from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus that’s famous for holding its shape when cooked instead of melting. It develops a crisp golden crust while staying chewy inside, and it’s so delicious, everybody wants to eat it straight out of the pan, plain! It’s pretty widely available these days, available at regular grocery stores.

  Look for halloumi with “PDO” on the packet label (Protected Designation of Origin). This is a mark of excellence that proves a products’ quality and cannot be used on any product made outside of Cyprus. I get Alambra and Dodoni brands.

• Cooked rice – I use long grain white rice, but feel free to use any rice you want, whether it’s white, brown, black, wild rice or even quinoa, farro, freekah or other grains. I wasn’t the hugest fan of using chickpeas – I think the “meatiness” of the chickpeas takes over and makes the halloumi seem much less crispy than it actually is. I think the same would apply to other beans.

• Kale – I use curly kale here, but it would be great with cavolo nero / lacing kale too. Baby spinach and English spinach would also be great, and I think rocket lettuce (arugula) would work nicely too.

• Dill (or parsley) – Adding a fresh herby element to this salad is lovely. My favourite is dill – it makes it a little more special – but parsley is also great. If you don’t have any fresh herbs, it is still worth making! Try adding a bit of dried herb into the dressing – oregano would be nice.

• Pinenuts (or slivered almonds) – This is optional but, like the herbs, it definitely takes it up a notch to have toasty nuttiness littered throughout this salad. Pinenuts is my first choice but slivered almonds would also be great, I think!

• Red onion – This is to add a bit of freshness into the salad. You could also use finely sliced green onion.

garlic apple Cider vinegar dressing

Spoon salads like this that have lots of little bits have lots of surface area to coat, so you need more dressing than usual. To keep the amount of oil in check (I use 1/3 cup – already more than I’d use for a typical salad of this size), I use a few of my go-to tricks: honey, dijon, and apple cider vinegar (explained below).

• Honey – Just 1 teaspoon of honey to take the sharp edge off the vinegar so I can reduce the usual vinegar-to-oil ratio from 1:3 to 1:2.

• Dijon mustard – Just a smidge (literally, 1/2 teaspoon) thickens the dressing so it clings to everything without relying on extra oil. If you don’t have Dijon, any other non-spicy smooth mustard will work just fine, you can’t taste it.

• Apple cider vinegar – This is a little less sharp than some other vinegars so you can use a higher vinegar to oil ratio than some other vinegars without making the dressing lip-puckeringly sour. White or red wine vinegar make good substitutes. If using lemon juice or regular vinegar, you’ll need a little more oil to take the tang off.

• Salt and pepper – For seasoning. The dressing only uses 1/4 teaspoon of salt as it gets plenty of salt from the halloumi than jumbles all throughout the salad.

• Garlic – Because, garlic! Make the dressing first to give the garlic flavour time to blend into the dressing.

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How to make Crispy Shredded Halloumi Salad

The halloumi will feel a little more bouncy rather than crispy when it’s hot out of the pan, but it crisps up substantially as it cools. You can even refrigerate overnight and it stays fully crispy, making this salad a great one for work lunches!

1. Dressing first – Shake the Dressing ingredients in a jar until the honey is fully mixed in. Set aside to let the garlic meld while you make the rest of the salad.

2. Shred the halloumi using a standard box grater. Some brands of halloumi might crumble which is fine, just use your hands to crumble larger clumps into smaller pieces, or gather and grate. I leave them on the cutting board rather than transferring into a bowl to minimise handling as they are quite fragile at this stage.

3. Toast pine nuts – In a large non-stick fry pan (skillet), toast the pine nuts over medium heat for 3 minutes or until they have golden spots. Immediately transfer into a bowl and leave to cool.

4. Make the halloumi crumbs – Put the same pan back on the stove and turn it up to medium high. Add the olive oil, and once hot, scrape the shredded halloumi in and stir to spread them around. At first, they will go watery but then once the water evaporates, they will start to go golden. Stir every now and then at first, but once the water evaporates, you want to stir regularly to encourage even colouring.

5. Golden crispy halloumi – The halloumi crumbs are ready when they’re mostly golden to deep golden (there will still be white bits on the halloumi). Don’t let them go brown, we want golden! Transfer them immediately into a bowl. While hot they won’t seem very crispy, but they get crispier as they cool and they also darken a bit more, they only need a few minutes while you dress the kale.

   The larger bits will have a nice bit of chew on the inside while the smaller bits (especially the powdery type) will be fully crisp all the way through.

6. Dress and massage kale – Put the kale and red onion in a bowl, pour over about 2 tablespoons of Dressing then use your hands to massage and scrunch the kale, coating all the leaves with the Dressing. In this step, we are also softening the kale leaves, so don’t hold back, scrunch boldly!

7. Toss – Add the rice, dill, most of the pine nuts (reserve a few for topping) and remaining Dressing. Toss very well.

8. Plate up – Spread out in a wide, shallow bowl (we want lots of surface area to cover with crispy halloumi!). Sprinkle the surface all over with the crispy halloumi and remaining pine nuts. Serve!

Warm or room temperature, or meal prep!

I’ve tried this both warm and at room temperature and enjoyed it both ways, which makes me happy because that means it’s a great all-seasons dish. To serve it warm, add warm rather than cooled rice. You can even pop the whole salad in the microwave for a bit (before topping with halloumi, after dressing) – this is what I did.

As for meal prepping – the crispy halloumi stays crisp for days, how good is that!! Not on the salad, but in a separate container. So I’ve popped meal prepping directions in the recipe notes. It’s such a great one! Take it into work for lunch. Tell your co-workers to hush as your shower your salad with the crispy halloumi crumbs so they can hear the clatter as they fall! 😂 – Nagi x

PS Oh, I meant to mention – as pictured above, if you pop a soft boiled egg on top, then you’ve got a protein hit as well which makes this a lovely wholesome, well rounded veg-starch-protein dinner. #WellnessQueen

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Watch how to make it

More kale salads

I thought I had more…. 😔

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More ways with halloumi

Alarmingly small collection for a cheese I declare to love so much! This must be rectified… 🙂

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Life of Jaffle

From somewhere up in the Big Sky Kitchen, Dozer is yelling, “JAFFLE! Leave the kale! Trust me, mum makes much better things than that!” 😆

Honestly, I couldn’t believe it, he munched through all the leaves then ran off with the stem like it was a precious juicy bone….

….and munched his way through the entire stalk.

I’m not worried though. Once his puppy tum can handle more human food and he experiences roast chicken, brisket, pulled pork and crispy skin salmon, kale won’t stand chance. Right Dozer?? 😂