Warm Lentil Salad With Halloumi And Aubergine

There's nothing like a warm Lentil Salad with Halloumi to finish a busy day! Nutritious, filling and exhilarating, our Halloumi and Lentil Salad features roasted aubergine, a bunch of fresh herbs and a wonderful lemon tahini dressing! If you have never tried pairing these ingredients together, this hearty salad is definitely worth a try!

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We absolutely love the combination of Aubergine and Halloumi Cheese here at Somebody Feed Seb. We make Aubergine and Halloumi Stack with Honey Lemon Drizzle and you will often catch us having an Aubergine And Halloumi Panini for lunch. But this salad is definitely one of our favourites!

Ingredients and Substitutes

Here's everything you will need for this Halloumi Lentil Salad:

• green lentils: or lentils vert (French green lentils). You may also use puy lentils in this salad. 
• extra virgin olive oil. 
• aubergine: also known as eggplant. 
• walnuts: or pecans. 
• cherry tomatoes: or baby plum tomatoes. 
• red onion: may be replaced with spring onions. 
• herbs: we used fresh parsley and mint, but you may experiment with coriander (cilantro) too. 
• halloumi cheese. 
• garlic clove. 
• freshly squeezed lemon juice.
• sumac: may be replaced with zaatar, amchoor or lemon pepper. 
• yoghurt: plain yogurt or Greek yogurt. 
• light tahini: tahini from hulled sesame seeds.

Find the ingredient quantities, detailed instructions and nutritional information in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. 

Step-By-Step Method

1. Cook the green lentils in salted water for about 25-30 minutes (more tips below). They should be cooked al dente and retain a bit of texture. Drain the cooked lentils and set them aside. 

2. Preheat the oven to 190 C Fan. Top and tail the aubergine and cut it into 1 cm-thick rounds. Place the slices of aubergine in a large bowl, add 2 tablespoon of olive oil, season with salt and pepper and mix to coat.

3. Arrange aubergine slices on a large baking tray lined with baking parchment in a single layer and pop into the oven for 25-30 minutes. The aubergine should be soft and slightly browned.

4. Toast the walnuts in a dry pan on medium heat until lightly browned and smell nutty. Reserve the pan for frying the halloumi later.

5. To the lentils, add cherry tomatoes, finely chopped red onion, mint, parsley and walnuts.

6. In a small bowl, mix minced garlic, sumac, lemon juice and olive oil. Season with salt and black pepper and pour the mixture over the lentils. Mix carefully.

7. Cut the halloumi into 9 thin slices. Heat a tablespoon of oil in the reserved frying pan. Once hot, add the halloumi slices and fry until the halloumi is browned, about 2-3 minutes on each side. This cheese has a high melting point, so it will not melt in the pan. Find more tips on cooking halloumi below. 

8. Make the yoghurt dressing by mixing yoghurt, tahini and lemon juice. Season. Alternatively, try our Maple Tahini Dressing instead!

9. Serve the lentil salad topped with halloumi with the tahini yoghurt salad dressing on the side! Alternatively, mix the dressing with a little water and drizzle it all over the top. 

Serving Suggestions

This Lentil Salad With Halloumi is one of those great salads that can be served for a light dinner to as a side dish.

We often eat it without any additional side dishes, or serve it in a large platter with a little oil drizzled on top at family gatherings. If you're serving bread alongside, it has to be our Sourdough Za'atar Focaccia - trust me!

How to Cook Green Lentils? 

Green lentils are great when you are looking for your lentils to retain some of their texture and not fully break during cooking. To make perfect green lentils, we have a few tips for you: 

• Rinse your lentils in cold water. Why? First of all, to remove all the dust and any leftovers of fertilizer and unmentionables used in farming processes that may cause digestive issues. Read more on rinsing the lentils here. Secondly, it will remove the starchy coating, preventing the lentils from sticking to each other. Whilst, rinsing, check for any pebbles too. 
• Soaking green lentils isn't necessary, but recommended if you want to reduce the time they will take to cook. 
• Cook in enough water. Add three times the volume of water to your lentils to make sure they retain their texture. 
• Cook on low heat. If you boil lentils on high heat, the skin will detach and the result will be mushy, watery and untidy looking. Gentle simmer is the way to go! 

How to Cook Halloumi? 

Halloumi is typically fried or grilled. For this recipe, we simply pan-fried slices of cheese to brown and crisp up. 

• Pat each sliced halloumi steak with a paper towel before frying. 
• Add a drizzle of oil if you are not using a non-stick frying pan. Wait for the oil to heat up before adding halloumi. 
• Fry on medium-high heat. You only want the halloumi to brown, not cook through. If the temperature is too low, halloumi will stew instead of browning. 
• Fry for approx 2 minutes on each side, or until browned, then flip the slices over and cook for another 2 minutes. 
• Reheating this salty cheese is not recommended, as it will become too rubbery. 

More Halloumi Recipes 

Halloumi lover? Us too. Here are some of our best halloumi recipes: 

• Halloumi Wrap With Greek Yogurt Sauce
• Creamy Sweet Potato, Halloumi & Leek Pie
• Ultimate Halloumi Burgers with Chimichurri Mayonnaise
• Mandarin & Halloumi Couscous Bowl