Haloumi and quinoa salad
This was going to be a much more general post about modern salads, and I chose to use this haloumi and quinoa salad from the latest edition of Coles Magazine as an example and for my main picture. But when I went to find the link to the recipe I found a massive number of different haloumi and quinoa salads. So I have changed my mind and am launching into this very specific combination.
Mind you - what am I going to say here other than give you a list of some of them? I will indeed provide a list of recipes with pictures, but I really think I need to say a little bit more.
A trivial thing to start with whilst I gather my thoughts. Here we spell it haloumi and over there in the UK they spell it halloumi. I have no idea which is correct but some English websites won't respond to haloumi. I don't know what the Americans do. But that's just trivia.
So haloumi and quinoa - how fashionable can you get? Indeed one of the recipes I found came from one of the queens of fresh or clean food - Naturally Ella - (Haloumi salad with spinach and quinoa). Well actually not the queen of fresh - that is Deliciously Ella. Which is also an interesting aside is it not? 'Naturally Ella' is not even an Ella - I think she is an Erin, , so not naturally, Ella - and I am guessing that she is cheating a bit and capitalising on the other Ella's fame. One wonders whether there was a copyright or trademark battle. Anyway - Naturally Ella's recipe also includes spinach, and looking at the picture would seem to be mostly spinach. There doesn't seem to be either a lot of haloumi or a lot of quinoa in it.
When I found that this was a really common combination - haloumi and quinoa I mean - I thought that Yotam Ottolenghi for one, and some of my other favourite 'modern' cooks would have a recipe too. But no.
Except for Donna Hay - (Smoky haloumi and quinoa salad), which is not really a surprise because she is the queen of 'modern' trendy and light I think. And beautiful - see on the right. Now she is definitely foregrounding the haloumi.
None of my other favourites had such a recipe, although Jamie Oliver - (Quinoa, feta and broad bean salad) came close by substituting feta for haloumi. But even with just these three recipes you can see what a multitude of different things you can do with two basic ingredients - quinoa and haloumi. Maybe it's because, basically they are both pretty bland but balance each other in terms of their food value - dairy for haloumi and grains for quinoa. Then you can either pretty it up or add taste and texture with any number of other things. Here are some examples. From the top and moving left to right in each row we have:
Australian Women's Weekly - Quinoa salad with haloumi and pomegranate, Nadia Lim - Avocado, pumpkin and haloumi quinoa salad, Taste - Quinoa and haloumi salad with chilli and coriander dressing, Lauren Caris Cooks - Multi-coloured haloumi and quinoa salad, Lemnos - Haloumi, watermelon and quinoa salad, and BBC Good Food - Quinoa salad with grilled haloumi.
If you are looking further at modern salads, quinoa is a very frequent contender for main ingredient - often in tabbouleh like concoctions so maybe I should try again. I'm afraid I have resisted quinoa a bit because of the frenzy over its popularity. I remember reading about it in Bert Greene's book Greene on Grains which was written way back in the 70s or 80s, I'm not sure when, and being inspired to go and buy some. Which took some doing. I think I had to resort to health food stores. And I never used it either I am ashamed to say. These days it is everywhere.
Haloumi though I have taken to rather more. I think I have talked before about the wonderful starter I found in a Coles Magazine - BBQ haloumi with strawberry salsa - so simple and so tasty. Try it some time.
I believe there was a haloumi shortage in England some time ago, but not here. Lemnos soldiers on and other Australian makers too - as well as the imported Cypriot versions. There certainly doesn't seem to be a problem here so get to it people. The last picture goes to one of the prettiest I saw - from Sylvia Colloca (delicious) - Quinoa salad with haloumi, though the Australian Women's Weekly one looks very pretty too. I could be tempted by both of them.
