Salads
Griddled apricot, halloumi & chermoula salad
Perfect as a summer sharing salad. Fresh apricots are the perfect balance of sharp and sweet; a great foil to strong, salty, punchy flavours. The chermoula dressing is a nod to the use of apricots in Moroccan tagines - fragrant and herby with the slight hum of chilli heat.
Cook's notes
You can switch the dressing around in this salad to your liking. Just be aware that the apricots can be quite sharp and so you’ll want the acidity of any dressing to be cautious. The halloumi can be switched for feta, goat’s cheese, or ricotta. If you want to make it vegan some crisp, roasted chickpeas can replace the cheese for body and texture.
Ingredients
main
- ½ a red onion, finely sliced
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 200g apricots, halved and stoned
- 50g mixed salad leaves – rocket, watercress etc
- 150g halloumi, sliced
for the chermoula:
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- ½ tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 30g fresh coriander, roughly chopped
- 15g parsley, roughly chopped
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- ½ tsp chilli flakes, plus more to taste
- 3-4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lemon
- sea salt
Method
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Step 1
Mix the onion with the vinegar and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. Leave to macerate for at least 30 mins, turning occasionally. The vinegar softens the raw onion taste and turns them strikingly pink.
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Step 2
Put a heavy griddle pan onto a high heat, or fire up the BBQ if the weather permits.
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Step 3
Next make the chermoula sauce by adding all the ingredients, apart from the lemon and salt, into a mini chopper or food processor and blitz to combine. If you don’t have either, use a pestle and mortar. You want a loose, spoonable consistency so you might need to add a little more oil to get it right. Season and add lemon juice to taste – don’t forget the apricots can be quite sharp. You can add more chilli too of you’d like more of a kick. Keep to one side.
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Step 4
Place the apricots onto the griddle, facedown, and cook for 3-4 minutes until they have deep char-lines on them and lift easily away from the griddle. The heat will soften the fruit but if any are particularly underripe you might want to flip them over and cook the other side too, just to make sure they are soft and sweet.
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Step 5
Keep the apricots to one side and then cook the halloumi on the griddle for a few minutes on each side until nicely coloured.
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Step 6
Now layer the apricots, halloumi, and pickled onions together with the salad leaves on a serving platter. Spoon over the dressing and serve.