This vegetarian baked halloumi with tomato sauce is the perfect recipe for a mid-week dinner. I love this recipe because you can add loads of different veggies into your sauce and blitz everything together to hide them. The perfect meal for all fussy eaters!
I love a good vegetarian meal. One where you eat it and don’t miss the animal protein at all. This baked halloumi with tomato sauce is exactly like that. It’s creamy and rich with a lovely baked skin on the cheese – all the best components for a winning meal.
A squeaky block of halloumi cheese is the perfect way to swap your animal protein for a vegetarian option. This ingredient brings lovely saltiness, and it has the bite that you always get from any meaty meal. If, before now, you weren’t sure about this product… now’s the time to try it out.
Because this squeaky cheese came from Greece, there’s nothing better than serving it with a beautiful rich, red tomato sauce. And this sauce is not your usual one – it’s the perfect recipe to hide veggies from your fussy eaters.
This time, I sneaked in lovely mushrooms that according to my husband he absolutely hates. Well, surprise surprise, he ate this baked halloumi dish with tomato sauce, went for seconds and finished everything the following day. I guess that hate feeling wasn’t so strong after all!
How to Make the Most Delicious Tomato Sauce?
I love tomato sauce, it’s so versatile and adds extra notes of flavour to any type of dish. Nailing the basics is essential though, and a massive help in the kitchen.
For this recipe, you’ll need to follow these steps:
- Review your fridge and take out the veggies you want to use (onions, leeks, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli, aubergines – everything and anything works).
- Cut all the veggies into small pieces.
- Cook the veggies with a drizzle of olive oil and season to your liking.
- Add the tinned tomatoes (or fresh if they’re in season) with a glass of water into the cooked veggies and simmer everything until the sauce gets thick.
- Tip everything into a food blender and blitz.
- Add a splash of water if needed and season to your liking.
That’s it. You just need to do these 6 steps for the most versatile dish ever. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
Baked Halloumi with Tomato Sauce: Ingredients
To make this baked halloumi recipe, you’ll need these simple ingredients:
- Garlic – just roughly crush the garlic cloves and add them to the pot with veggies. This helps bring some earthy tones to the recipe.
- Chilli pepper – I love a gentle kick in my dishes, and due to this I used two chilli peppers. Feel free to skip this ingredient if you’re not of fan of heat, or add more if you aren’t afraid!
- Mushrooms – not a fan of mushrooms? Well, if you blitz this veggie in a blender, you won’t even know it exists. Mushrooms bring rich and earthy tones to the meal though and are definitely worth including.
- Tinned tomatoes – it’s no surprise, but this is a hero product. So try to use the best quality tinned tomatoes you can. They need to be aromatic and flavourful. My favourites are Mutti Peeled Tomatoes or Epicure San Marzano Tomatoes.
- Italian herb mix – if you don’t have this spice mix in your cupboard, just use a mix of dry dill, parsley, rosemary and thyme.
- Olive oil – a good glug of extra virgin olive oil is vital in this dish and helps combine all the ingredients together.
- Halloumi cheese – it’s the perfect ingredient that can carry all the favours. This cheese was made to sink into a rich tomato sauce.
If you need more inspiration for where you can use the tomato sauce, try these recipes:
Spaghetti with Lentils and Tomato Sauce
Spaghetti with Homemade Tomato Sauce
Spaghetti with Harissa and Roasted Peppers
Recipe
Ingredients
Tomato Sauce:
2 garlic cloves
¼ leek
1 chilli pepper
100g button mushrooms
1 tin of tomatoes
1 tablespoon Italian herb mix
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 blocks of halloumi cheese
Fresh parsley
1 chilli green pepper
Serve it with:
Warm flatbread
Cooked green beans
Method
Prepare the tomato sauce:
- Cut all the veggies into small pieces. Add them into a saucepan with a good glug of olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Cook the veggies for 5 minutes until they get soft.
- Add the tinned tomatoes with a glass of water to the cooked veggies and simmer everything for 40 minutes.
- Tip everything into a food blender and blitz.
- Season to your liking.
Prepare the dish:
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.
- Add the tomato sauce to the oven dish.
- Cut the halloumi blocks in half. Take each half and cut down at ½ cm intervals along the length (leaving a couple of millimetres from the bottom uncut) of the block. Repeat with the rest of the cheese.
- Arrange your halloumi chunks on the tomato sauce.
- Bake the dish in the oven for 35 minutes.
- Take it out the oven and finish with chopped fresh parsley and green chilies.
- Serve the dish with warm flatbread, boiled green beans and grated parmesan cheese.
