Glazed, Charred, On The Table In 15 Minutes

I will tell you a secret about halloumi. Most people cook it wrong. They slice it too thin, drown the pan in oil, and serve it naked on a plate, squeaking and a little sad. Then they say halloumi is boring. It is not boring. It is waiting for somebody to give it a reason.

When I started Full Feast in 2014 it was a catering company, not a row of jars. Weddings, birthdays, long tables in back gardens. And at every event there were the vegetarian guests, and too often, at other people’s parties, I watched them get the leftovers of the menu. A few roasted peppers. A bit of rice. I could not stand it. In my mother’s kitchen in Guadeloupe nobody left the table hungry, and nobody got the plate that nobody else wanted. Six children, and she knew exactly what each of us liked.

So I went looking for something that could take a proper glaze, the way the fish took one at the market in Pointe-à-Pitre, brushed with sauce over the coals while the boats were still being pulled up the beach. Halloumi was the answer. It holds its shape in a hot pan. It goes golden and crisp on the outside and stays soft and salty in the middle. And when you pour a spoon of smoky, fiery sauce over it at the very end, it drinks it up and turns sticky and dark.

That dish went on every menu I cooked for years. Meat eaters stole it from the vegetarian table. Now I make it at home on nights when I have fifteen minutes and no patience. Let me show you.

Recipe at a glance

• Cuisine: Caribbean fusion
• Prep: 10 minutes • Cook: 5 minutes • Total: 15 minutes
• Serves: 4
• Featured sauce: Flaming BBQ Sauce
• Heat level: 8/10, smoky first, then the chilli arrives
• Diet: Vegetarian

What you’ll need

Two blocks of halloumi feeds four people as a main with salsa and something on the side, or six as a starter. The salsa matters here. The halloumi is salty and the glaze is hot, so you want something sweet, cold and sharp next to it. Fresh pineapple is best. Tinned pineapple in juice will do on a weeknight, just drain it well.

For the halloumi

• 2 x 225g blocks of halloumi
• 4 tbsp Flaming BBQ Sauce
• 1 tbsp runny honey
• Juice of half a lime
• A few sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked (optional, but I always do)

For the pineapple salsa

• 200g fresh pineapple, cut into small cubes
• Half a cucumber, deseeded and diced
• Half a small red onion, very finely chopped
• A small handful of fresh coriander, chopped
• Juice of 1 lime
• A pinch of sea salt

To serve

• Rice, a green salad, or warm flatbreads

How I make it

1. Make the salsa first. Put the pineapple, cucumber, red onion and coriander in a bowl. Squeeze over the lime juice, add a pinch of salt and stir. Leave it to sit while you cook. The onion softens in the lime and everything gets juicy.

2. Mix the glaze. In a small cup, stir together the Flaming BBQ Sauce, the honey and the juice of half a lime. Taste it on your finger. It should be smoky, sweet and hot all at once. That is what you want.

3. Slice the halloumi. Cut each block into slices about 1cm thick. You should get eight from each block. Not thinner, I promise you, or they dry out and break. Pat them with kitchen paper. Water is the enemy of a good crust.

4. Heat the pan dry. Take a large non-stick frying pan and put it on a medium-high heat. No oil. Halloumi has enough of its own, and a dry pan gives you a better colour.

5. Fry the first side. Lay the slices in the pan with a little space between them. Work in two batches if you need to. Now leave them alone. Two to three minutes, until a little liquid comes out, bubbles away, and the underside goes deep golden. You will hear it change from a hiss to a crackle.

6. Turn them over. Flip each slice and give it another minute. Scatter over the thyme leaves now if you are using them, so they crisp in the heat.

7. Glaze it. Turn the heat down to low. Spoon the glaze over the halloumi and let it bubble for 30 seconds to a minute, turning the slices once so both sides are coated. The sauce goes thick and sticky and catches a little at the edges. That catch is flavour. Take the pan off the heat before the honey burns.

8. Serve straight away. Halloumi waits for nobody. Pile the slices onto a plate, scrape every bit of glaze from the pan over the top, and put the salsa next to it. Eat while it is hot and soft.

The role of Flaming BBQ Sauce in this dish

Halloumi is salty and mild. On its own it needs help. Flaming BBQ Sauce is my BBQ sauce with the heat turned all the way up, smoky and rich underneath like food cooked over wood, with real chilli heat coming through on top. In the pan, the sugars in the sauce and the honey caramelise in seconds against the hot cheese, so you get a dark, sticky coat that clings to every slice. The smoke makes the halloumi taste as if it came off a barbecue, even on a rainy Tuesday in a flat. And the heat builds slowly, so the cold pineapple salsa has something to do. Bite of cheese, bite of salsa. That is the rhythm.

Tips from my kitchen

• Glaze at the end, never at the start. If you marinate halloumi in the sauce first, the sugar burns before the cheese is golden. Crust first, glaze last.
• Do not crowd the pan. Too many slices and they steam instead of fry. Two batches is better than one soggy one.
• Want it milder? Use 2 tablespoons of Flaming BBQ Sauce and 2 of my regular BBQ Sauce. Same smoke, half the fire.
• On the barbecue, thread thick cubes onto skewers with red onion and peppers, grill them until charred, and brush on the glaze for the last minute only.
• Make the salsa first, always. It gets better in ten minutes, and the halloumi gets worse in ten minutes.

What to serve it with

For a proper dinner, I serve this over plain white rice with a handful of rocket, and the salsa spooned over everything so the juice runs into the rice. On a lazy night I stuff it into warm flatbreads with shredded lettuce, the salsa and a dollop of thick yoghurt to calm the heat. For a party, cut the halloumi into fingers before frying and serve them on a board with cocktail sticks. They vanish.

If somebody at the table cannot take heat at all, give them a slice cooked plain and a spoon of my Fresh Herbal Sauce on top. All the herbs, none of the fire, and it is beautiful with salty cheese. And if you want to try the whole family of sauces before you choose, the Spicy Discovery Trio is how I would start.

FAQ

How do you cook halloumi in a pan?

Slice it about 1cm thick, pat it dry, and lay it in a dry non-stick pan over a medium-high heat. Give it two to three minutes until the underside is deep golden, then flip it and give it one more minute. No oil needed. The whole thing takes five minutes.

Can you eat halloumi raw?

You can. It is a cooked cheese already, so it is safe straight from the packet. But raw it is firm and squeaky and very salty. Heat is what turns it soft inside and crisp outside, and that is when it becomes something special.

Is halloumi vegetarian?

Not always, and people are surprised by this. Some halloumi is made with animal rennet. Most supermarket halloumi in the UK uses vegetarian rennet, but check the label if it matters to you. And if you cook for someone who avoids gluten, read the jar too: my BBQ sauces contain wheat.

Can I cook halloumi in the air fryer?

Yes. Slices or thick fingers, 200°C for about 8 to 10 minutes, turning halfway, until golden. Then warm the glaze in a small pan and toss the halloumi through it at the end. Do not put the glaze in the air fryer, the honey will burn.

How spicy is this halloumi recipe?

With 4 tablespoons of Flaming BBQ Sauce it sits around 8 out of 10 for me, but the honey, the cheese and the cold salsa all soften it. If you are cooking for children, use regular BBQ Sauce instead and let the grown-ups add Flaming at the table.

Final word from me

This is the dish I made for the people who usually get forgotten at the party, and it ended up being the one everybody wanted. Fifteen minutes, one pan, a jar of sauce and a bowl of something fresh. That is my idea of a weeknight. Cook it tonight, and save me a slice.

JP