After a long hard day, you are going to want something that is both filling but easy to make. While it is easy enough to order take out or shove a quick pizza into the oven, it is hard to claim to lead a healthy lifestyle if this is the kind of food you are eating on the daily. It is also hard to save up for family holidays or that one of a kind outfit you have seen if your main meals are ordered.
This halloumi and chorizo salad is one to keep close by. Taking only 20 minutes to make from start to serving, it is the perfect starter for any dinner party. Likewise, it is the ideal after school / after work meal to satisfy your hunger while keeping a balance between comfort food and healthy food. This is one of those recipes you are going to love to make time and time again.
After searching through various online halloumi and chorizo recipes, this is the one with the greatest rating that has cut out all the messing around during preparation. Instead it this recipe allows you to whip up a quick and easy gourmet style meal without spending hours on the details.
Blending spicy chorizo sausage and smooth halloumi cheese, this salad is given an added crunch with the use of fresh broccoli. To make this recipe vegetarian friendly, feel free to replace the chorizo with chickpeas.
First comes the prep work. You are going to want to chop up the appropriate ingredients so that preparing your meal comes easy and you do not have to stop what you are doing to chop the next needed ingredient.
Blanch your broccoli in boiling, salted water for no longer than 5 minutes and put them aside to cool.
While your broccoli is cooling, oil a large non-stick frying pan with 1/2 tbsp of olive oil. and put it on medium heat. Wait until the oil has heated up and add your chopped chilli, breadcrumbs, red onion and lemon zest.
Keep stirring the ingredients as to make sure they do not burn. You are going to want to wait until everything has turned golden brown then add the garlic. Continue to stir for a few more minutes then remove the pan from heat and set aside and let rest as to allow the ingredients to absorbs each other's flavours.
After a few minutes, place the same pan back on a low heat and fry the chorizo until each piece is browned on both sides. Here you can add an extra bit of olive oil if your oil has fried off. Spoon the mixture on top of the chorizo pieces after turning them to mix up the flavours appropriately.
Once each piece has browned, remove the pan from the heat and drain the leftover oil into a separate bowl.
Once drained, add your mustard, vinegar, olive oil and chopped tomatoes to the chorizo oil. Season this mixture with black pepper and your cut up parsley. Mix everything in the bowl together until coated in the oil.
Using the same pan that the chorizo had been fried in, fry the halloumi slices until they too are golden brown. Season this with more black pepper and some more finely chopped parsley to add that extra bit of flavour that most halloumi recipes miss out on.
You do not need to use much more additional salt as halloumi is already a salty cheese and this will ruin its flavour.
Now it is the time to serve and relish in your taste filled dinner. Place your broccoli, chorizo and halloumi on your plate and sprinkle your breadcrumb mixture over your serving.
To conclude, drizzle with a little more olive oil and add a few more chopped cherry tomatoes to finish your chorizo and halloumi salad.
With one quick reading of the ingredients list included in this article, you can clearly see how this is already a fairly healthy recipe. But there are always changes you can make to make it even healthier.
For example, buying local made halloumi cheese is sure to be healthier than store bought cheese due to less fat and less chemicals being mixed into the cheese mixture when it is made.
You could also refrain from drizzling your food with extra oil when serving. This is sure to cut down on the calories. If you do want an extra boost of flavour upon serving then there and plenty of other dressings that you can use.
As mentioned before, chickpeas are a great way to go if you need to replace that chorizo to adhere to your personal diet.
There are plenty of recipes and instructions on how to prep chickpeas that you are sure to love, but in terms of this halloumi and chorizo salad, just add in the chickpeas where you would add the chorizo so that they can absorb all the same flavour and you are not losing out.
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