Tonight I made myself a kick-ass dinner and the star was a big ‘ol slab of cheese.
I’ve been wanting to try out Halloumi cheese for a while now, and I was really hoping to have some while in Greece on my honeymoon but for some reason that never happened… (hmmm now I kick myself for that)
This is a cheese that originated in Cyprus and is popular around the middle east. It has a high melting point so that it can be grilled or fried and not melt.
Well I was reminded of this interesting cheese when I stumbled upon this recipe a few weeks ago, and then saw Elina had referenced this same recipe and I knew it was finally time to make it!
(so I forgot to take a photo of the package but it looked more or less like this one)
It only take a few minutes to cook, so I started on the broccoli!
I cut up 2 small heads of broccoli crowns and mixed them with:
- 1 T olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- pinch of lemon zest
- salt
- crushed red pepper (just a little)
I roasted it at 400 for about 15-20 min. I stirred a couple times. It was sizzling, so I’d recommend checking on it every once in a while.
Then I put together a little topping for the cheese inspired by my honeymoon in Greece!
Finally broke into the Santorini sun dried tomatoes we brought home 
I chopped up 2 of these small tomatoes (much smaller than normal sun dried tomatoes) with:
- Santorini capers! (also from the honeymoon)
- fresh lemon juice
- a tiny drizzle of olive oil
- kosher salt
I sliced 2 thin pieces of Halloumi cheese off the block and threw them on a non-stick pan with some cooking spray on med-med/high heat.
Just a few minutes on each side. Smells like a grilled cheese while it cooks…mmmm.
On with the broccoli
and topped with the caper mix!
This was delicious!! The cheese has a really interesting texture. It gets nice and hot and seared on the outside and has an almost chewy texture…not bad chewy though. It was salty, cheesy, deliciousness. I mean come on! It’s pan fried CHEESE!!
I had a great workout last night consisting of 30min of running and walking on the treadmill before Body Pump!! I haven’t been in almost a month!! Craziness. Regular Body Pumping resumes now :)
Tonight I also did something I haven’t done in ages…have a date with my DVR!!
- 2 episodes of Gossip Girl
- 1 round of 90210
- and now I’m watching Glee :)
It’s amazing what you can fit in when you fast forward through commercials :)
