After I invented this sandwich I had it for dinner 3 nights in a row. Yum. It’s loaded with veggies and all kinds of great vegetarian fats and proteins, it’s messy to eat, and it is delicious.
Oddly enough, I love the messiness of this sandwich. It drips, slips, and is perfect with sweet potato fries on a sunny patio with a beer. Squeaky halloumi, creamy avocado, goat cheese, and a stack of all the best roasted vegetables. Utterly fantastic.
I’d recommend taking stock of your local veggie market before making final ingredient decisions. I chose sweet potato, zucchini, bell peppers, and tomato. If you find some nice eggplant or summer squash, feel free to swap something out to make room for it. This sandwich is all about the things that are delicious right now.
BBQed Veggie & Halloumi Sandwich
4 sandwich rolls, split—they should be soft or you will have serious issues eating these!
1 package of halloumi, in 4 horizontal slices
1 zuchinni, in angled slices
1 small sweet potato, in 1cm thick slices
1 bell pepper
4 golf ball sized tomatoesOlive oil, as needed
Seasoning salt, as needed1 avocado
Plain or herbed chèvre
Basil pesto
8 fresh basil leavesPreheat your BBQ to medium heat. While the BBQ preheats, brush all the sliced veggies & halloumi with olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada) and sprinkle them with seasoned salt (or whatever herb mixture you like).
BBQ the veggies and halloumi (though you should definitely put the halloumi in a tin pie plate or it will go pretty gooey on you… throw the tomatoes in there, too). Throw the sliced roll on an upper rack towards the end to toast a bit.
Once the veggies are tender and have light golden grill marks on them, take them off the grill. Spread the roll with chèvre. Put about a quarter of the avocado on the bottom, and some pesto on the top of the roll. Now it’s time to stack! Halloumi on top of the avocado, then sweet potato, roasted bell pepper, zuchinni, and tomato. Top with two basil leaves, stack it up, and enjoy the messy delight!
I have not heard of halloumi. What is it?
Good question, Dave! It’s a mild, white cheese from Cyprus that has very unique melting properties. It doesn’t go all gooey and just spread out like mozzarella or cheddar; instead, you can fry it and get a tasty crispy skin on the outside, and a warm, gooey centre. And it squeaks when you eat it! I just love it in sandwiches. Mmmmmm 😀
This is actually the first recipe I have ever seen using halloumi. I will never forget the first time I tasted it in Cyprus. I was hooked. If people in Canada and the US knew how good it is they would be eating it all the time. It took a while for me to find it in Canada but I finally did, and thankfully it is easy to find these days.
I sometimes can’t decide if all of Canada should know about how awesome halloumi is, or if I should keep the secret to myself so I never have to worry about the stores running out 😛 I first had it while I was living in Aus/NZ, where it was easily available at even the tiniest little grocery shops in the smallest rural towns. Here (Calgary) I generally have to go to specialty cheese shops, but it is starting to show up at specialty grocery stores as well, so that’s something. That reminds me… I should have some halloumi for dinner tonight!
I just fried some up… deadly!
What’s your favourite way to prepare it? Just fried in butter? ‘Cause that’s awesome!
I just fry it up, but after seeing your sandwich I think I am going to try it out. I love a good sandwich. I make my own, but sometimes I just go across the street. There is a funky little pizza spot. They make an awesome thin crust pizza but they also make fantastic sandwiches, a ham hero, and an meatball. If you want to check out a couple of awesome food blogs, check out the Homesick Texan, and Kevin at Closet Cooking.
Damn, I do love a good sandwich as well. If you’re ever in Toronto, get yourself to Ravi Soup and have their truffle mushroom soup and their veggie wrap. The combo is absolutely heavenly. Mmmmmmmm tasty!
Also, I remembered I’ve got 2 other delicious halloumi recipes here—Fettuccine with Chévre, Sundried Tomatoes, and Halloumi, and Seared Chipotle Halloumi. SO GOOD!
The food blogs you suggested are beautiful (I’m a total sucker for good food photos, but who isn’t?) and it even looks like there’s some good vegetarian stuff in there as well. Yum! Thanks for the tips 🙂