This is a vegetarian recipe that contains protein from the halloumi cheese and Greek yoghurt (or cream cheese, if that's what you have at home, but Greek yoghurt has a higher protein content). To add more protein to this recipe, you could chop up nuts such as pine nuts and add them to the pasta.
Halloumi fried in honey tastes so good, the sweetness of the honey subsidises the intense salty flavour of the cheese. Honey-fried halloumi makes a delicious snack by itself, if you don't want to make the pasta.
Ingredients:
Around 100g of pasta per person – This serves around 3-4 people so use around 3-400g pasta
Olive oil
Salt
One pepper sliced into small pieces
One onion cut up into small pieces
2 cloves of garlic crushed, grated or sliced finely
Cherry tomatoes sliced in half (to taste- I really like tomatoes so I add a lot so the pile is a similar size to the pile of pepper)
Smoky paprika powder
Chilli powder/flakes
Tomato paste or passata
A quarter cup of water if the sauce is thick, but if it’s runny then it doesn’t need it
A few tablespoons of Greek yoghurt or cream cheese
Halloumi (I used one block)
Honey
Some grinded black pepper to serve
Some basil leaves to serve
Method:
- Cook the pasta according to the pack instructions in a large pot of water with a dash of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Once the pasta has cooked for around the recommended time, fish out a piece of pasta with tongs and taste it to see if it’s ready. Turn the heat off once it is ready and pour it into a colander over a sink.
- Place a saucepan on the stove under a low-ish heat and pour some olive oil in it. Once it has heated up put the garlic, onion and pepper into it and stir them with a wooden spoon for a couple minutes, and then turn the heat off once they are slightly wilted.
- Add the cherry tomatoes to the saucepan. Turn the heat back up and mix them until the peppers and tomatos are wilted and very nearly cooked.
- Add tomato paste, smoky paprika and chilli powder, stir in and then let it cook. You can add the water if you think it needs it. You can add a couple of pinches of salt if you like.
- When the tomatoes are cooked and the paste has been cooking in it for a little while, add the yoghurt, mixing in each tablespoon at a time until the sauce is as creamy as you would like it to be and the colour lifts from red to orange. If you are using cream cheese then you won’t need to add as much to the recipe as you would Greek yoghurt. Let it cook for a couple of minutes (especially if it’s watery).
- If the pasta is finished at this point, add it to the saucepan and stir it into the sauce.
- Slice the halloumi into chunks (the size is your choice). Set up a frying pan and add a few pours of olive oil and around a teaspoon (or more) of honey, and a little chilli powder/flakes if you want. Add some halloumi chunks with tongs. Be careful of the hot oil spitting at you.
- Use the tongs to flip the halloumi repeatedly (especially if you’re not using a non-stick pan). Cook until both sides are golden-brown (it’s ok if they end up black or pale brown) and then add each piece to the pasta and sauce.
- Serve it with salt, grinded black pepper and basil.
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