Haloumi, chorizo and roasted capsicum salad

 

This salad was a part of the meal we ate last night with our cousin. It accompanied rib-eye steaks with chimichurri sauce. Obviously I am becoming Austrian, as the salad contains meat and cheese. But not just any cheese - haloumi - fried Greek/Cypriot cheese, what joy!

This salad would be great to serve at a bbq or you could serve it as a stand-alone dish for lunch with some crunchy bread and a glass of cold white wine. It is a big, hearty salad; nothing diet about this dish. But there is plenty of taste and texture.

I roasted my own capsicum for this recipe, but you could just buy some at the shops if you like.

What you'll need

*This salad serves six to eight people as a side dish.

For the salad

4 capsicums, roasted, skin removed and roughly chopped into slices OR 200g shop-bought roasted capsicum, roughly chopped. I used red and yellow capsicum.

3 chorizo sausages, thinly sliced

400g haloumi cheese, thickly sliced

1/2 cup fresh basil, thinly sliced

700g tinned, white beans, rinsed

For the dressing

1/4 cup olive oil

5 tbl balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

What to do

Heat a large frying pan on high heat. Place the cheese into the pan and fry until brown and crispy, turn and repeat on the other side. Once cooked, you can chop the haloumi into smaller, bite-sized pieces or leave it larger.

Heat another frying pan on medium heat and cook the chorizo until brown and fragrant. Drain on some paper towel to remove the oil.

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, pour over the dressing and mix well to combine.

Serve immediately while still warm.