Freekeh salad with roasted courgettes and halloumi

Earlier this month I posted my first freekeh recipe on this blog: Smoky freekeh with peppers, beans and sweetcorn. Now I'm utterly freaking out for freekeh! At least I should get all my proteins and fibre at the moment, judging by the amount of freekeh I've been eating. This smoky freekeh is just perfect for different seasonal dishes at the moment and today I have made a warm and cold salad with it. The salad consists of roasted baby courgettes, halloumi, mixed leaves, pumpkin seeds and of course some freekeh. The fresh coriander added a wonderful flavour to this dish and as so often, I couldn't leave fried halloumi out of this salad.

Here's my salad recipe that is also my contribution to the 'Eat Your Greens' challenge by Shaheen from the A2K – A Seasonal Veg Table blog for the month January.

Freekeh salad with roasted courgettes and halloumi

Ingredients

1 shallot

1 garlic clove

2 tbsp olive oil

½ cup smoky freekeh

1 ½ cup vegetable stock

200 g baby courgettes

250 g halloumi

2 tbsp vegetable oil

½ tsp smoked paprika

Pumpkin seeds

Fresh coriander leaves

110 g mixed salad leaves

Olive oil + balsamic vinegar + salt + pepper drizzled on the top

Method

Rinse the freekeh. Chop the shallot and garlic finely and cook them soft in olive oil.

Add the freekeh to the pan with about one and a half cups of vegetable stock. More liquid can be added later if needed.

Let simmer under lid for about 30 minutes and season with the smoky paprika towards the end.

Cut the courgettes in about 1 cm long pieces and brush with olive oil. Roast them in the oven until they are soft with roasting marks.

Cut the halloumi into cubes and fry them in vegetable oil until golden brown.

Combine the components on a plate, drizzle olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper on the top and serve as a warm and cold salad.

Done! Easy!

Your VegHog

Acorn squash salad

I think that this salad could well be served at Christmas. It's colourful, wholesome, comforting... the clue is in the mixture of warm and cold components: the squash, lentils and halloumi will be served warm and the salad leaves and pomegranate cold. Have a look below, how easy it is to compile.

Salad ingredients

1 acorn squash

1 tbsp olive oil for roasting the squash

½ cup green lentils

1 vegetable stock cube

250 g halloumi

1 tbsp vegetable oil for frying the halloumi

200 g mixed salad leaves

1 pomegranate

Dressing ingredients

1 tbsp pomegranate molasses

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

4 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp thyme

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Method

Cut the acorn squash into slices, basically rings, and remove the seeds. There's no need to peel the squash. Then brush the slices with olive oil and roast at 180C for about 30 minutes until they are fully roasted. The roasting time can vary depending on the thickness of the squash slices and the oven's performance.

Rinse the lentils and cook them in water with the vegetable stock cube until soft, yet with some bite. This takes about 20-30 minutes. After that drain them.

Cut the halloumi into cubes and fry them in hot vegetable oil until they are golden brown.

Wash the salad leaves and remove the pomegranate seeds.

During the roasting and cooking, the dressing can be made. Just mix all the ingredients together.

Then assemble the salad. Make either a nice presentation on individual plates, or place the components nicely into a salad bowl and drizzle the dressing on the top.

Your VegHog

Warm lentil and halloumi salad with walnuts

The VegHog feels that salad needs to contain some wholesome ingredients like cheese, eggs, roasted vegetables or nuts in order to be a stand alone main dish. Side salads can be lighter combinations.

For this particular salad The VegHog got its influence from a renowned Northern Irish restaurant but their original recipe has been altered slightly. The main idea is that the cheese and lentils are served warm on a cold salad. You can use either fried halloumi or goat's cheese, both taste good with walnuts and lentils.

Ingredients

Halloumi (or goat's cheese)

Watercress, rocket and spinach mix

Walnuts

Green lentils

Vegetable stock

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar 

Salt

Pepper

Start by preparing the lentils: Rinse and boil them until tender. I boil them in vegetable stock so that they taste more intense. 

Slice halloumi and fry it in oil until brownish; If you use goat's cheese instead, gently warm it in the oven. Cut walnuts in half. Wash salad and place it on the plate, throw walnuts on there. When lentils are cooked, put them on the salad and finally the fried halloumi on the top. Spice the whole thing up with salt, pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

And there you have it, enjoy!

TheVegHog