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A colorful and flavorful Halloumi Cheese Salad recipe. This salad has all the flavors, textures, delicate herbs, and so much more! Toss it altogether in a big bowl and serve it up with your favorite protein!
Let’s do the tastebud tango.
This hot honey Halloumi Cheese Salad is hitting all the marks.
We start with oven roasted chickpeas, tossed with sumac seasoning. Then we’ll add in tons of pearl couscous as the base of the salad. Fry up some halloumi cheese, and dress it with a little hot honey action to make your tastebuds dance. And all the fresh produce gets tossed in that your summer heart desires.
All you need in a little protein action on the side because this flavorful halloumi cheese salad is packing a powerful punch.
Halloumi Salad Ingredients:
- Chickpeas: Garbanzo beans are a great way to add more protein to your grilled halloumi salad recipe. They add plenty of fiber to the dish as well, so you don’t necessarily have to serve this with a protein!
- Olive Oil: We’ll use a splash to coat the chickpeas in before we toss them with spices. You’ll also need some extra virgin olive oil for the salad dressing.
- Seasonings: You’ll need a few to add to the chickpeas before roasting them. I like to use ground sumac, hot paprika, and kosher salt. You’ll also need some Aleppo pepper to add to the halloumi when we cook it in a pan, garlic powder, and dried mint to add to the dressing. Feel free to swap the dried mint with fresh mint if you happen to have fresh mint leaves on hand.
- Pearl Couscous: contrary to belief, this is actually a type of small pasta. You can substitute this for orzo if you prefer.
- Halloumi Cheese: Halloumi is a goat and sheep milk cheese commonly eaten in Cyprus. It’s a great cheese to grill or fry in a pan because it maintains its shape because of its high melting point. It’s salty and wonderful in salads with both fruit and vegetables, topped with fresh herbs, sliced tomatoes, and bread.
- Hot Honey: I love making and using homemade hot honey. This allows you to control the heat and know exactly what’s going into your food. If you’d like to purchase it instead, this is my favorite brand.
- Cucumber: I prefer to use Persian cucumbers for this recipe and most that contain cucumbers. But feel free to replace them with picking cucumber or English cucumber.
- Red Onions: Add a bit of color and bite to the recipe. I like to toss everything into my favorite chopper and give it a good wack, but sliced red onions work too.
- Bell Peppers: Peppers add plenty of color and flavor to the recipe. Feel free to use a yellow, red or orange bell pepper. I happen to have all three on hand so I used a bit of each.
- Fresh Herbs: I like fresh basil leaves and cilantro or this recipe. Both pair well with the cucumber, halloumi, and other ingredients.
- Lemon Juice: Adds freshness to the salad dressing.
- White Balsamic: Is a less acidic vinegar so it works well for this recipe. Feel free to swap it for white wine or red wine vinegar if that’s what you happen to have on hand.
Making Fried Halloumi Salad recipe:
- Get things going. Start by preheating the oven nd tossing the chickpeas in the bowl with the seasonings. You want pop them in the oven to roast while you prepare the remaining ingredients.
- While the chickpeas are roasting. Prepare the couscous. You want to toast the couscous in a pan first in a little olive oil and then add water and cook. I typically boil couscous like any other pasta shape and then drain after 7-10 minutes. Feel free to prepare it according to package directions though, like rice.
- Cooking the halloumi cheese. Make slices and then cut them into a dice. Add the halloumi to a preheated pan with a drizzle of oil.Cook the cheese on each side for a few minutes before you drizzle it in hot honey and sprinkle with Aleppo pepper. Remove the cheese to a plate.
- Making the dressing. To make the dressing combine the ingredients in a mason jar and give it a few good shakes until it comes together. You can also just whisk it together in a bowl. Taste and adjust as needed to preference.
- Assembling the salad. Add the couscous with the dressing to a large bowl. Tossing the dressing first ensures that the pasta has tons of flavor. Then add all the remaining chopped veggies and toss it together. Taste and adjust with seasonings as desired. I like serve it cold but feel free to serve at room temperature as well.
Variations of this salad:
Add protein.
Feel free to add a shredded rotisserie chicken or even some cooked salmon to this.
Swap the veggies.
Cherry tomatoes can be subbed for bell peppers. You can even serve this on a bed of baby arugula, or kale.
Use feta instead.
Don’t want to use halloumi cheese? Swap it for feta. Skip the frying and add it right at the end with the other salad ingredients.
Change up the seasonings.
Like the middle eastern flair? Use za’atar. Want to make this more of a greek salad? Use red wine vinegar and dried oregano for the dressing.
Other Power Packed Salad Recipes:
- Grilled Halloumi Salad with Watermelon
- Moroccan Chickpea Quinoa Power Salad
- Pearl Couscous Chickpea Salad
- Greek Quinoa Salad Jars
- Tangy Date Salad with Baby Spinach And Crisp Pita Chips
Chopped Halloumi Cheese Salad with Lemon Mint Dressing
A colorful and flavorful Halloumi Cheese Salad recipe. This salad has all the flavors, textures, delicate herbs, and so much more! Toss it altogether in a big bowl and serve it up with your favorite protein!
Ingredients
Chickpeas:
- 1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1½ teaspoon ground sumac plus more
- ½ teaspoon hot paprika
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Salad:
- ¾ cup pearl couscous
- 8 ounces halloumi cut in bite-size pieces
- 2 tablespoon hot honey
- ½ teaspoon aleppo pepper or ¼ tsp pepper flakes
- 3 Persian cucumbers chopped
- ½ medium red onion chopped
- 1 yellow or orange bell pepper chopped
- ½ cup cilantro chopped
- ¼ cup basil chopped
Dressing:
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dried mint
- ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- PREHEAT: Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400℉. Line a baking sheet pan with foil. Place chickpeas in a medium bowl, atoss with olive oil, 1½ tsp sumac, hot paprika, kosher salt, and add a few cracks of pepper. Toss to ensure all the chickpeas are evenly covered with spices.
- ROAST: Spread chickpeas out on the prepared baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 20-30 minutes, tossing around the halfway mark, until they are crisp. Let them cool completely.
- COUSCOUS: While the chickpeas are roasting, prepare the couscous. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a medium saucepan over medium heat. When the oil is shimmering, add the couscous and toast, stirring often until the couscous is golden, about 1-2 minutes. Then, add water and cook according to package directions, typically couscous takes 7-10 minutes based on the size. Drain, but do not rinse. Allow the couscous to cool slightly before tossing in the salad.
- HALLOUMI: Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add a drizzle of oil. Add the halloumi pieces and cook on each side for roughly 1-2 minutes or until they start to get golden. Then, drizzle with hot honey and sprinkle with a pinch of Aleppo pepper. Remove to a plate and let cool.
- DRESSING: In a mason jar, combine the lemon juice, honey, wine vinegar, olive oil, dried mint, ½ teaspoon sumac, garlic powder, ¼ teaspoon kosher salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Place a lid on too and shake to combine,
- ASSEMBLE: When you’re ready to serve, combine couscous with the dressing in a large salad bowl. This will help loosen up the couscous. Add the chopped cucumbers, red onions, bell peppers, cilantro, basil and the prepared halloumi. Give the salad a good toss. Refrigerate until you're ready to serve. Then add in the prepared chickpeas. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Serving: 1g | Calories: 285kcal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 16g | Fiber: 4g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like This? Leave a comment & rating below!
Your salad recipes are some of my favorites out there… this was no surprise amazing like many others I have made from your site! Loved the dressing and the combo of the crunchy chickpeas with the richness from the cheese. Full disclosure I subbed paneer for the halloumi but it was so delicious!!! Thank you for this recipe!
So glad to hear you enjoyed this salad, Alex! Paneer makes the perfect sub, I meant to leave a note about that on the recipe card! Appreciate you circling back to leave a review 🙂
This was really delicious, and not difficult to make, despite the long ingredients list. The only thing I did differently was to use vegan hot “honey”, made with agave instead of actual hot honey, because I already had some left from another dish. Thanks for a great recipe!