Halloumi strikes again! Not too long ago we cooked up a rice dish with halloumi cheese, which we had been eager to try because Cyril has recently become intrigued by this Cypriot cheese that’s hard to find in the U.S. We loved it so much that we’ve been seeking out other ways to cook up halloumi, so we were happy to come across this recipe in Bon Appétit, which pairs the cheese with some nice summer squashes on a sandwich. Everything is grilled, which makes for a great texture between your two buns because the halloumi doesn’t melt when you heat it but only softens into a nice, chewy slice. As you can see below, when we adapted this recipe for ourselves the result was a colorful sandwich that was also fairly easy to put together.
To make this, you’ll need:
- A yellow squash
- A zucchini
- An 8-ounce package of halloumi cheese
- Garlic
- Olive oil
- Honey
- Basil
- 4 buns
- A jalapeño
- Vinegar
- Sugar
You’ll first want to prepare the jalapeño that also goes on this sandwich: in a small pot combine 1/4 cup of vinegar, 1/4 cup of water, 2 teaspoons of sugar, a crushed garlic clove, and a teaspoon of salt. Bring all this to a boil, and while you’re waiting slice up your jalapeño. When your liquids are boiling, add in the jalapeño and remove the pot from the heat. Let everything sit for around 10 minutes, then pour the contents of your pot into a bowl and set aside for now.
Take your buns and cut each one in half. Heat just a little olive oil in a large cast iron pan and toast the buns for 3 minutes over medium heat, then set them aside. Turn the heat up to medium-high and add a little more olive oil to the pan. Cut the halloumi into 1/2-inch thick slabs and dry the slices off with a paper towel, then lay them into the pan in a single layer and press them down with the back of a spatula. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until each slice is browned on the bottom, then divide the slices among the buns.
Next, heat another 2 tablespoons of oil in your pan. Cut off the ends of the squash and zucchini, then cut each in half and slice each half into 1/4-inch thick pieces. Use paper towels to pat them as dry as you can, then place the slices in a single layer in the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, until the squash and zucchini are browned on both the front and the back. Place these vegetables aside to cool and then cook the remaining squash and zucchini in the same way, adding a tablespoon more of oil to the pan as needed. Once all your slices are cooked, in a bowl whisk a pinch of salt into a teaspoon of honey and grate in a garlic clove, then place the squash and zucchini slices into the bowl and coat the vegetables in this mixture. Now scatter some jalapeños and basil leaves on top of the halloumi cheese on your buns and lay the vegetables on top of of that.
Now you can close your sandwiches with the remaining buns, and dig in!
The really cool thing about these sandwiches is that, unlike many others, the cheese here isn’t an afterthought or an addition to the rest of the ingredients – it’s the main part of the meal. The halloumi is nice and thick and still maintains some of its firmness when you cook it, so it’s great as the “meat” of the sandwich. The squash and zucchini brown up nicely and lend a softer texture and a contrasting taste to the halloumi, plus the pickled jalapeños add in some crunch and acid and spice, and the basil rounds everything out with as a cool green herb. We loved having so many different tastes to sink our teeth into, all in one sandwich, and this was also a great way to put together the seasonal flavors of squash and basil, which are just ending their growing season. We hope we’ve inspired you to try halloumi in a new way and to think about using this cheese as the starring player in a sandwich.