Hasselback halloumi
Don’t you just love everything hasselback? I do! That’s why I was so excited when I saw my fellow Finnish food blogger Hannele from Kokit & Potit post about Hasselback halloumi! As a huge fan of crispy fried halloumi, I had to give the idea a go too. Hannele’s version included a super simple oven roasted tomato sauce. Lazy as I felt, I simply threw in some cherry tomatoes and called it quits.
Funny enough, I then took my sweet time to add a slice of garlic between each slice of halloumi… I guess I don’t mind a bit of extra work when it comes to garlic. 😀 In about 40 minutes I had a sizzling pan of juicy tomatoes, crispy halloumi and roasted garlic in front of me. All that was left to do was to serve this quick and delicious little snack with some sourdough rolls! I love to queeze the soft roasted garlic cloves out of their skins and mix them with all the tomato juices. Mop up that goodness with a slice of bread and top it off with crispy halloumi: helloooooo!
To make things spicy and sweet, I love to drizzle everything with honey and sprinkle with chili flakes. When I want things exxxtra spicy, I add in some fresh chili too! Sweet, spicy, salty, crispy, soft, juicy, tender and oh so HOT. This one pan wonder has it all!
Hasselback halloumi
Ingredients
- 200 g halloumi
- 300 g cherry tomatoes
- 1 head garlic (small or it won't cook quickly enough :))
- 1/2 dl extra virgin olive oil
- 1-2 tbsp honey
- freshly cracked black pepper (to taste)
- a handful of basil
- fresh chili / chili flakes (to taste - optional!)
Instructions
- Set your oven to 200°c. Slice the halloumi into 1/2 cm slices but don't cut them all the way through, so the pieces remain stuck to each other on the bottom part of the block. Placing two chopsticks on each side of the halloumi might help!
- Half your garlic horizontally. Slice the top parts of each clove and stuff the slices between the halloumi pieces. Add the garlic stuffed halloumi, the remining half of the garlic and the tomatoes in an oven proof skillet.
- Drizzle everything with olive oil and honey, crack some black pepper on top + add chili flakes or fresh chili if you want some heat!
- Bake everything in the oven (middle rack) until the garlic is soft, tomatoes burst and halloumi gets crispy golden on top (~30+ minutes).
- Divide into 2 bowls and serve with some nice sourdough or bread of your choice. I love to squeeze the soft garlic cloves out of their skins and mix with the tomato juices, then mop up all that deliciousness with my piece of bread!
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