Farro salad with halloumi and cranberries
This delicious farro salad recipe with halloumi is super easy to make, keeps well and can serve as a lunch or as an easy dinner.
Farro salad with halloumi
You might have noticed if you come here more often that I have a thing for halloumi. I even made it myself a while ago. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend making your own halloumi for this farro salad with halloumi but if you’re up for a challenge go for it.
Table of contents
Thankfully it is quite easy to buy halloumi from the super market these days, so no need to dive into the kitchen to create your own cheese.
Now what makes halloumi so special? If you look at the package you bought you won’t see anything interesting and if you cut of a piece and taste it you will probably not be impressed. However, once you fry the halloumi… it becomes a whole new thing.
Frying the halloumi
If you fry the halloumi in a bit of oil it becomes delicious, crispy and addictively delicious. A few things to keep in mind if you’re wanting to make this farro salad with halloumi. First is that halloumi has a tendency to spatter when dropped in oil.
I shallow fry it so I don’t use a huge amount of oil, but I always keep a spatter screen (one of those things you can put on top of the pan to prevent hot oil spatters to get out of the pan) on hand when I fry halloumi.
Draining on kitchen paper
The second thing to do is to drain the halloumi on paper towels before eating or using. That will make them crisp up properly. Also don’t add them to the salad in advance. This is one of those things that should be added at the last minute to preserve the crunch.
And the crunch is really what you want here.
Farro or spelt
For this recipe I’ve used farro but you can definitely substitute this for spelt if you have that handy or can find it easier. The two are not the same but very similar in taste and structure. Farro is sometimes harder to find here (in the Netherlands) so in that case I go for the spelt.
Is farro gluten free?
No it is not. Farro is a type of wheat but the good news is that it tends to be easier digestible by people who have a gluten intolerance. It is a different kind of grain and less processed than your average wheat. That makes it a better choice. The same goes for spelt.
If you want this salad to be gluten free substitute the farro for rice instead. You can use wild rice too. That will also give it a more nutty flavor similar to the farro.
Dressing
For the dressing I made a rather simple mix of mustard mayonnaise and a bit of lemon juice. The mustard mayonnaise is easy to make by using a base recipe for making your own mayonnaise and then adding a bit more mustard to it. It’s as simple as that.
I added salt and pepper to taste. If you find it too sour you can add a little bit of honey to the dressing as well.
Farro salad with halloumi and cranberries
Ingredients
- 100 gr farro
- 5 radishes
- 25 gr dried cranberries
- 2 spring onions
- 75 gr halloumi cheese
- 1-2 sprigs flat leaf parsley
For the dressing;
- 1-2 tbsp mustard mayonnaise see note
- juice of half a lemon
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Start by boiling your farro. Drain and let cool down.
- Cut the halloumi into cubes and fry them in hot oil until golden brown. This goes very quickly so stay with it for best results. Leave to drain on kitchen paper. Cut your spring onion in slices, cut the radishes in slices and chop your cranberries a little smaller. Chop your parsley.
- Mix the cooled down farro with the cranberries, the radishes, the spring onion and the parsley.
Dressing
- For the mustard mayonaise I used regular mayonnaise ingredients but added a bit more mustard in it. I then mixed two tablespoons of that mayonaise with lemon juice and added pepper and salt to taste.
Nutrition Information
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
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