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This Mediterranean Tomato and Halloumi Bake has a rich, gooey sauce topped with the salty cheese. It’s a quick and healthy vegetarian family meal that’s sure to become a go-to favourite when you need a speedy one-pot heartwarmer.
Please let’s just take a moment to appreciate what this veggie recipe brings us – the crunchy, salty, golden halloumi cheese on top of a good-for-the-soul Mediterranean-style tomato vegetable sauce.
We love halloumi and eat it lots in vegetarian dishes. The best thing is, this recipe is all chucked in one pot before being stuck under the grill for 5 minutes to get that crispy texture, making it an easy peasy midweek winner.
Why you’ll love this Baked Halloumi recipe
⭐️ It’s packed full of goodness (3 of your 5 a day)
⭐️ It’s delicious, comforting, inexpensive and easy
⭐️ Reheats well for a leftovers lunchtime treat!
How we came up with this recipe
You know I love a simple one pot recipe AND you know I love recipes with halloumi cheese.
I wanted to create a Med-inspired dish that has all the light and fresh flavours that we need while still managing to be utterly hearty and rich.
Similar to a classic Ratatouille, it’s packed with colourful vegetables and what I love about this is that you can enjoy this as a low carb dinner, a hot lunch or you can pair it with a side dish of choice.
Unlike most of my recipes, this Halloumi Bake is for 2 people, so don’t forget to adjust the servings tab if you’re feeding more. (A few more veggies, another tin of tomatoes and an extra pack of halloumi should do the trick.)
Serving suggestions for this dish…
Comfort Food
No Knead Bread {Easiest Ever Overnight Recipe}
Side Dishes
How to Cook Couscous
Side Dishes
Cucumber Salad {with Yoghurt Dressing}
Halloumi Bake Ingredients Notes
- Olive oil – This will be for frying the veggie and you’ll need some for brushing on the halloumi to get that nice brown finish
- Veggies – I use courgettes, aubergine, garlic and onion in mine but feel free to add more
- Spices – Cumin and smoked paprika will you that rich, delicious flavour
- Tomatoey sauce – This is made up of tinned tomatoes and tomato puree. Try buying good quality here as it’ll make all the difference to the depth of flavour in the sauce
- Halloumi – Use a block and slice it up for the top
- Honey – This offsets the saltiness of the dish and gives a nice slight sweet edge
How to make Halloumi Bake
1. Fry the onions and garlic in hot oil and add the vegetables and spices for another 5 minutes. Add in the tomatoes, puree, honey and season well, plus water. Simmer for about 10 minutes with the lid on.
2. Slice the halloumi cheese, then place on top of the sauce and brush with oil. Pop it under a preheated grill for about 5 minutes until the cheese is crunchy and golden.
Substitutions
- Vegetables – This rich sauce lends itself well to the courgettes and aubergine I put in, and it really does have that Mediterranean taste, but feel free to add anything you prefer. Mushrooms, peppers, peas or broccoli are tasty alternatives
Leftovers
In the fridge You can keep this recipe in the fridge for 3 days. This reheats surprisingly well and the leftovers make a great lunch.
In the freezer You could freeze this but it won’t be at its best when defrosted and reheated (it will be a little mushy).
That said, it’s worth freezing instead of going to waste. Reheat thoroughly once defrosted.
Top tipS
Cooking time
Ten minutes is the minimum time to cook down the vegetable stew part of this recipe, but if I have longer, I try to let it cook for up to 30 minutes.
It’s not necessary, but it just makes it a bit richer in flavour.
Halloumi consistency
I like to let the grilled halloumi cheese get really crispy and crunchy. You can grill it for less time if you prefer it soft though.
More recipes with halloumi cheese…
Under 15 minutes
Halloumi Burger {15 Minute Recipe}
Under 15 minutes
Halloumi Fajitas {15 Minute Meal}
Under 30 minutes
Peanut Butter Noodles with Halloumi {Satay-Style Stir Fry}
Vegetarian
Halloumi Curry {30 Minute Meal}
FAQs
No, halloumi is made from sheep’s milk, but you can buy vegan halloumi cheese as an alternative.
Let me know how you got on and what you thought of these recipes. Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ below.
Also I’d LOVE to see your cooking creations. If you’d like to share yours with me, you can tag me on Instagram (@tamingtwins).
Mediterranean Tomato and Halloumi Bake
Ingredients
- 1 tsp Olive oil, Plus extra for brushing
- 1 Large onion, Peeled and chopped into chunks
- 3 Cloves garlic, Peeled and crushed
- 2 Medium courgettes (zucchini), Chopped into chunks
- 1 Large aubergine (egg plant), Chopped into chunks
- 1 tsp Ground cumin
- 1 tsp Smoked paprika
- 400 g (2.5 cups) Tin of chopped tomatoes, See notes
- 1 tbsp Tomato puree, See notes
- 1 tsp Honey
- Salt and pepper
- 250 g (1 cups) Halloumi cheese
Optional:
- Fresh parsley or basil to garnish
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large lidded frying pan. Add the onion and garlic and soften for 5 minutes.
- Add the courgettes, aubergine, cumin and smoked paprika and cook for a further 5 minutes until softened.
- Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, honey and salt and pepper. Half fill the empty tomato can with water and splosh in too. Pop the lid on the pan and let everything cook down for about 10 minutes. (See notes below.)
- Preheat the grill to very hot.
- When the sauce had thickened and softened, cut the halloumi cheese into thin slices, place on top of the vegetable sauce and brush (or spray) with oil.
- Pop under the grill for about 5 minutes until the cheese is crunchy and golden.
Did you make this recipe? Click here to let us know how it went and give it a ⭐️ rating! Your feedback helps us to make more recipes you really want.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation. Nutritional values are per portion unless otherwise stated.
This post was originally published on May 20, 2019 and updated later to make improvements.
Instructions were easy to follow, I substituted the aubergine with a chopped small broccoli and carrots. Preparation was easy, and more to the point, didn’t take long.
Followed the steps as accurately as I could. After adding the main ingredients to cook for 10 mins to reduce down, I found that as mentioned in the notes, I needed to cook it down much longer. I think that adding not only the tin of tomatoes and tomato paste, it wasn’t necessary to add the extra half a can of water as well. I say this because it took ages to reduce the mixture to a level where it thickened sufficiently to support the halloumi cheese pieces. Maybe highlight the fact that the cooking time may be longer in the cooking instructions, and not have to click on a hidden note, to reveal a very important consideration.
I also found that the electric grill took a long time to crisp off the cheese as well. I’m sadly stuck with an electric cooker as I don’t have mains gas, ( which I’m used too) so maybe the more efficient burn and controllability of the gas flame worked well for the recipe author, but it might be worth mentioning which cooking fuel was used in cooking the recipe, as there’s a distinct difference in cooking times between different fuels. Just a thought, not a criticism.
Overall, I was dry happy with the taste, the bonus was that having cooked for two, there’s only one of me🙄😢 BUT, I put the other half in a dish for another day, which is a bonus. Being very fond of vegetables, I don’t like to cook them for too long, and enjoy them a little firm, but once they were in the reducing stage, I felt they were overcooked for my taste, by the time the mixture had sufficiently reduced.
I’m very pleased with the results, and it’s fuelled me to be more imaginative in cooking for one. Thank you !
End result is good but recipe was all over the place. No way aubergine will cook down in 25 minutes and the recipe amounts were crazy for 2 people, more like 4.
This recipe is amazing and a firm favourite in our house! I leave out the honey and add some tinned beans for some protein. We love it with couscous or crusty bread. Thank you!
absolutely delicious