Extra Special Tabbouleh Salad with Halloumi
Have you ever had tabbouleh? It’s the perfect fresh and tasty summer salad.
Well, this isn’t your usual tabbouleh salad – it’s made extra special with the addition of some of my all-time favourite ingredients: crispy halloumi, hearty chickpeas, salty olives, and lots more. Every bite has a different mixture of tasty ingredients – it’s pretty healthy, but totally irresistible at the same time (and that’s not always an easy combination to achieve!).
This tabbouleh is a total game-changer for this warm weather. I cooked up a big batch and it kept us going for a few days, served alongside something different each time – it’s so nice to have something tasty in the fridge that I can grab whenever I need a nice, quick side dish.
Because of the variety of ingredients in this tabbouleh, it can be served as a standalone meal, or as a side dish alongside something else. Check below for some serving ideas!
Tabbouleh is a salad that originated in the Eastern Mediterranean, that’s usually made from bulgur wheat, parsley, mint and tomatoes. It’s super simple, but with heaps of flavour.
The traditional tabbouleh recipe is undoubtedly delicious, but I decided to make this version even more tasty by adding a few additional ingredients, like chickpeas, olives, cucumber, and halloumi cheese. They make the salad more hearty too, so it can function as a whole meal on its own.
If you’ve never had bulgur wheat before, you’re missing out! It’s similar to couscous, in that it’s tiny pieces of wheat-based grain, almost like tiny pieces of pasta. It’s mild and nutty, and just like other grains, it can take on any flavour profile you want it to.
Bulgur wheat is a whole grain, so it’s really good for you too.
A big batch of this extra special tabbouleh will probably last you a couple of days in the fridge (depending on how many people you’re serving!), so it’s perfect to cook in bulk. I like to have a few different things ready to serve alongside it. Here are a few ideas:
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Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe. See the printable recipe card below for detailed ingredient quantities.
Since I’ve already added lots of different ingredients to the traditional tabbouleh recipe, there’s no reason you couldn’t change up the recipe again with your own choices. The more you change, the further away from a ‘proper’ tabbouleh you will get, but it will always end up delicious, and I don’t believe in having too many rules when it comes to food!
Here are a few ideas for other no-cook ingredients you could add (but don’t use all of them at once!):
When I made my tabbouleh, I toasted the halloumi cheese and pine nuts in a pan to give them extra flavour. If you’re in a rush, you can easily add them raw instead, or swap them for an alternative ingredient.
Tabbouleh is the perfect salad to prepare in advance, and keep in the fridge to last you a couple of days. The only part you might prefer to cook fresh is the halloumi cheese. It goes a little squeaky as it cools, which I really enjoy, but if you prefer, you can cook and add the cheese just before serving.
You don’t need to do anything special to leftover tabbouleh – it’s perfect served straight out of the fridge. If you don’t want to eat the exact same meal multiple days in a row, there are a few ideas for serving suggestions in the blog post above.
No, as bulgur wheat contains gluten. If you need to make your tabbouleh gluten-free, you can swap the bulgur for a gluten-free grain instead, like quinoa or rice.
Absolutely – just skip the halloumi cheese, or swap it for your favourite vegan cheese, and you’ll have a delicious vegan salad.
The post Extra Special Tabbouleh Salad with Halloumi appeared first on Easy Cheesy Vegetarian.
Ahh, gnocchi! Adorable little potato dumplings that taste like little pillowy clouds – soft and fluffy, like little hugs for your mouth. I adore gnocchi cooked with all sorts of flavours, and this easy air fryer recipe involves:
Doesn’t it just sound irresistible?! It couldn’t be easier to make, and the classic Italian flavours are just incredible.
If you’re a regular reader here on Easy Cheesy Vegetarian, you might know that I’m not a fan of boiling gnocchi, and I usually cook it in a frying pan (see my instructions for frying gnocchi!). However, lately I’ve been experimenting with different methods – like baked gnocchi, and oven-roasted gnocchi. This time, I thought I’d use the air fryer!
I use my air fryer several times a week, and I love it. An air fryer is essentially just a mini oven, so whatever you can cook in an oven, you can cook in an air fryer instead (and vice versa) – but it’s a lot quicker when there’s a smaller space to heat up.
Cooking this pesto gnocchi in an air fryer means you can turn it on, leave it to do its thing for a while, and return to perfectly cooked gnocchi. It’s a lot less labour intensive than cooking the gnocchi in a frying pan, and it’s quicker than using the oven. Best of both worlds!
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Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe. See the printable recipe card below for detailed ingredient quantities.
If you don’t have an air fryer, you could cook this recipe in a regular oven instead, or in a frying pan on the stovetop.
My air fryer is the Ninja Foodi MAX air fryer, which I really love, and I use it several times a week. I love how it has two separate baskets, so you can cook small or large meals easily. One of the baskets was enough to cook this air fryer gnocchi.
Here’s the one I have on Amazon:
Ninja Dual Air Fryer
If you’re in the UK or Canada, click the link to see a local product.
You could easily mix up the gnocchi / vegetables / pesto in advance, then store the mixture in the fridge until you’re ready to air fry, just before serving.
I generally reheat any leftovers in the microwave. If you don’t have a microwave, you could also reheat in the air fryer or in a frying pan, but bear in mind that the sauce will dry up a bit if using these methods, so you may need to mix in a little water to freshen it up.
This recipe can be served on its own, without any additional side dishes. However, if you’d like to serve something on the side, a simple salad would be a great addition.
The post Air Fryer Gnocchi (with Pesto and Mozzarella) appeared first on Easy Cheesy Vegetarian.
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