Carrot, red cabbage & onion salad with grilled halloumi

This recipe is from a GoodFood magazine. I changed the dressing a bit, otherwise it's the same. I had to try this salad, it sounded so good and I think the ingredients are lovely. I really like halloumi cheese, and it was a wonderful companion to red cabbage, onion and carrots. The beautiful herbs and the lime dressing gave the salad nicely tangy taste, and this is a great lunch with some good bread and hummus. It's also very good for your health, it contains a lot of important vitamins. 

In the original recipe it says four carrots and a half of a red cabbage, but it's quite a lot (6-8 persons could eat from  that) so I think you wouldn't need that much of them. But if you have small carrots then it's okay. 

Ingredients:

2oog halloumi cheese

4 carrots, cut into sticks or grated

1/2 red cabbage, finely shredded

2 small red onions, finely sliced

handful or more fresh mint leaves

handful or more fresh coriander leaves

handful toasted (not necessarily toasted) peanuts, roughly chopped

For the dressing:

juice 2 limes

1 tbsp olive oil

black pepper about 2 tsp

1. Steep the halloumi in a bowl with cold water for 3o minutes (otherwise it's too salty). Cut it into slices and grill it in the oven or with a grill, so it warms and gets some colour on the edges. 

2. Tip the carrots, onions and cabbage into a big bowl. 

3. Make the dressing by mixing all the ingredients.

4. Pour about half of the dressing over the salad, tossing the vegetables in the dressing. Add the cheese, then herbs and peanuts on top and pour the rest of the dressing over. 

How to make the perfect pizza

It's a Saturday, it's snowing lightly and dark outside, the wind blows hard and it feels cosy being at home. It's also a perfect day for baking some delicious pizza ( I've never made pizza Marghuerite myself!). So that's what I did, I made four big pizzas with three different fillings (with tuna, with pepperoni and with mozzarella) and ate the one with mozarella myself. It was really fun making these, I listened to some good music and enjoyed working with the ingredients. What could make a person happier than cooking? Now, I'm going to write you the instructions for a perfect pizza Marghuerite, let's start!

The dough:

(makes 4 large pizzas)

6 dl water

1 tsp salt

14 dl durumflour

8 tbsp olive oil

25 g yeast

1. Soak the yeast into the water. Add the flour and the salt bit by bit. Add the oil.

2. Knead into four balls, then roll into a round plate. Move each pizzabase into an oven sheet.

3. Brush lightly with olive oil.

The tomato sauce:

(for 4 pizzas)

800g crushed tomatoes from a can

140g pressed tomatoes from a can

3 large garlic cloves, pressed

one pot of fresh basilic, crushed

a handful of crushed parsley

salt and pepper

1. Mix the crushed and pressed tomatoes, add the pressed garlic, crushed basilic and parsley and them some pepper and salt.

2. Top the pizzas with the tomatosauce.

The Filling for one Pizza Marghuerite:

120g mozzarella, sliced

about 4 sliced cherrytomatoes (the little ones)

about four seedless black sliced olives

some grated parmesan cheese

a handful of crushed fresh basilic

1. Put the sliced mozzarellas on the pizza, then add the olives and the little tomatoes.

2. Bake in a 250°C oven for about 15 minutes until ready. Be careful not to burn the pizza.

3. Sprinkle the grated parmesan cheese and crushed basilic on top of the pizza, cut into slices and serve with salad.

Avocado and tomato salad

half of an avocado, chopped

about 6 cherrytomatoes sliced into a half

different kinds of green salads, I used Napolitana mix (rucola, spinach, mizuna etc.)

truffle olive oil

lemon juice

black pepper

1. Mix the salads, avocado and tomatoes, pour some oil and drizzle some lemon juice on top of it and sprinkle some black pepper for the final touch.