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The Quick Roasting Tin: Halloumi and Red Onion Salad with Giant Couscous recipe

Name: The Quick Roasting Tin: Halloumi and Red Onion Salad with Giant Couscous
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 3
Ingredients: 1 tbsp olive oil (plus more to oil the tin); 200g wholewheat giant couscous (or 300g, see notes); 400ml vegetable stock (or 600ml, see notes); 250g halloumi, cubed; 400g tin of chickpeas; 1 red onion, sliced; 1 tsp smoked paprika; 100g frozen peas (optional); 100g fresh spinach, roughly chopped; 15g fresh coriander, chopped; 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil; juice from half a lemon (or a whole lemon); salt and pepper

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Easy chickpea, halloumi and spinach salad with minimal prep, all in one roasting tin. If you've got a 300g packet of couscous, use it all so you end up with leftovers, which are brilliant for lunch the next day. See the notes for more details.

Prep10m
Cook40m
Total50m

roasting-tin salad vegetarian

Edit Recipe The Quick Roasting Tin: Halloumi and Red Onion Salad with Giant Couscous

I received two of Rukmini Iyer's Roasting Tin cookbooks for my birthday: the original (affiliate link) and the quick version (affiliate link). I love everything about them, from the gorgeous looking food to the friendly and down to earth writing, but mostly I love the concept. Spend a little time prepping some ingredients, chuck them in the oven, go and do something else and dinner’s ready - the oven has taken care of the hard work.

As someone who’s recently been cooking their way through the incredible Dishoom cookbook, I'll just say: the recipes are amazing but they are demanding. The Roasting Tin cookbooks offer a welcome change of pace.

The first recipe I tried was "Chilli Peanut Beef with Red Peppers, Sweetcorn and Spring Onion". While the vegetables and peanut dressing were lovely, the rump steak turned to shoe leather in the oven. Nervous but undeterred, I made "Chickpea, Halloumi and Red Onion Salad with Coriander and Giant Couscous". It did not disappoint. Salty, paprika flavoured halloumi, sweet red onions and perfectly al dente couscous. All faith restored in the book.

The dish is supposed to be lightly roasted and it will be if you stick to the 30 minute roasting time. I like a bit more colour on my halloumi so I roast it for 40 minutes and it's perfect. The halloumi turns golden brown and the couscous still has bite. This is a real keeper of a recipe and delivers exactly what the book promises. We wolfed it down while marvelling at the flavours and textures achieved from less than 10 minutes of prep.

Notes

Rukmini Iyer is spot on with her portion sizes and the quantities she specifies will feed three generously. I sometimes increase the amount of couscous from 200g to 300g and add more stock (600ml instead of 400ml) because giant couscous often comes in 300g packets. This way it makes around five portions, which suits us as we’re happy to eat leftovers several days in a row. Whatever amount of couscous I use I always throw in some frozen peas and extra lemon juice.

I use a roasting tin that's roughly 20 x 30cm (8 x 12"), which comfortably manages 200-300g of couscous.

This is a ‘Make Ahead Lunchbox’ recipe but I love it for dinner. Leftovers are best eaten at room temperature as fridge cold halloumi can be tough.

Recipe credit

The Quick Roasting Tin (affiliate link) by Rukmini Iyer

Recipe

The Quick Roasting Tin: Halloumi and Red Onion Salad with Giant Couscous

Prep10m
Cook40m
Total50m

Serves: 3

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil (plus more to oil the tin)
200g wholewheat giant couscous (or 300g, see notes)
400ml vegetable stock (or 600ml, see notes)
250g halloumi, cubed
400g tin of chickpeas
1 red onion, sliced
1 tsp smoked paprika
100g frozen peas (optional)
100g fresh spinach, roughly chopped
15g fresh coriander, chopped
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
juice from half a lemon (or a whole lemon)
salt and pepper

Method

Preheat your oven to 200°C (180°C fan).
Drizzle a little olive oil into the corners of a medium sized roasting tin (this will help to stop the couscous from sticking) and add 200g of giant wholewheat couscous and 400ml of vegetable stock.
In a large bowl, toss 250g of cubed halloumi, a 400g tin of drained chickpeas and 1 sliced red onion with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika. Add to the tin, transfer to the oven and cook for 40 minutes.
If using frozen peas (100g), defrost in the microwave or soak for a few minutes in boiling water, then drain.
When the roasting time is up, remove the tin from the oven and add 100g of roughly chopped spinach, 15g of chopped coriander, the peas if using, 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and the juice from ½ a lemon (I usually use a whole lemon). Mix well, season to taste, eat immediately and store any leftovers in the fridge for up to 3 days.