Let’s hear it for squeaky cheese

My eldest sister brought me back some gorgeous sesame seeds from Jordan recently. Paired with Toons Bridge Dairy halloumi and some local East Cork honey, they make a gorgeous spring salad. I've added some mint leaves and beetroot to the salad leaves.

Mint and beetroot are delicious with lemon juice. It’s one of my favourite combinations and a great way to eat beetroot raw. The mint is perfect for balancing the earthiness of beetroot and lifts those root vegetable flavours while lemon juice adds a burst of citrus. It is also delicious with the floral honey.

If you can find the pretty Chioggia or golden beets then they make this salad a visual feast, but the regular dark purple beets are just as dramatic. Beetroot is so good for us; that rich colour means it is bursting with antioxidants.

Halloumi is known as the squeaky cheese. Its texture can be quite springy but when fried and served piping hot, it really is irresistible. It is quite salty, so no need to add salt anywhere else in this dish. I’ve fried it coated in sesame seeds to create a delicious crunchy crust on the outside. When drizzled with honey, the combination of salty and sweet is a real winner.

It is often fried and served with honey as part of a larger mezze meal. When fried and drizzled with honey and sesame seeds it's known as halloumi saganaki in Greece. Here I've built a salad around these moreish halloumi bites.

This time of year, as salad leaves are beginning to grow again and we are coming out of the hungry gap, it is tempting to fire up the barbecue and serve lots more salads and raw foods. But the evenings are still quite cold, so I like to make salads that have hot or warm elements.

Roast root vegetable salad served with plenty of fresh herbs and some goat’s cheese crumbled over; beetroot and carrot salad with toasted hazelnuts is one of my favourites, or I sometimes add a handful of raw baby spinach or salad leaves to a curry or risotto just before serving. It gives just the right amount of green and freshness, reminding us that summer is just around the corner.

HALLOUMI AND SESAME SALAD WITH HONEY

Ingredients

100g salad leaves

1 beetroot, peeled and cut into thin matchsticks

250g block of halloumi cheese

150g sesame seeds

100g flour

1 egg

Juice of ½ lemon

1 tbsp olive oil

To serve:

Honey for drizzling over

Oil for frying the halloumi

Method

Prepare all of the salad ingredients first. Place the salad leaves in a large bowl or serving platter. Scatter the matchsticks of beetroot over the leaves. Squeeze the lemon juice over everything and add the olive oil. Gently mix, so the leaves are just glistening. Set aside.

Pour the oil into a wide, high-sided frying pan, it will need to be about 1½ inches high.

Crack the egg into a cereal bowl and whisk to combine. Place the flour and sesame seeds into two separate cereal bowls. Cut the halloumi into bitesize pieces. Coat each piece in the flour, egg and finally the sesame seeds. Once all of the pieces are coated, drop them gently into the hot oil. Fry till golden on the outside.

It’s best to try and cook them all in one batch as the seeds will burn if left in the oil too long. Two batches will just about work. Once the halloumi is cooked, place it on kitchen paper to remove any excess oil, then tumble the crunchy halloumi bites over the salad and drizzle with honey. Serve right away. The cheese tastes best while it is still hot.