Pear and grilled halloumi salad with roasted parsnip and pumpkin seeds. Pear and pumpkin seeds give halloumi the sweetness and the crunch, and roasted parsnip chunks transform the salad from an appetiser into a main course.
Grilled halloumi is one of the most gorgeous things in this world but it’s good to find a backdrop for it that would feature a bit of sweet, a bit of salty and a bit of crunchy. Otherwise you realise that it’s a little like VERY rubbery tofu. Fruit works well; apple is boring: pear then. I do adore very firm conference pears and they play well in salads.
For the crunch I have this fantastic method of zinging up nuts, seeds and sprinkles; toss them in a little soy sauce and toast for ever in very low oven. They get awesomely salty and very very crunchy.
But since I wanted to do this as a dinner dish, I needed a filler. Sweet potato has been done to death; I detest squash of all kinds and ordinary potatoes are fattening. Parsnip then – it roasts very nicely and it’s a good sweeti-ish starch.
And then it hit me: never mind halloumi, this will be a PPP dish: parsnip, pear and pumpkin. Why not – if most foodies on social media are only concerned about dishes’ appearance, I might as well compose them alphabetically. I’m better with words than I am with styling so that’s the way to go.
Baked beans with bacon, chicken courgette couscous, fennel feta and figs, ginger and garlic gammon, lamb in leeks, Mexican mushroom meatloaf – blimey, I can’t believe I never thought about doing it like this before! What a world of opportunities! And there I was, worried that I was a generalist spreading myself thin, without a niche, without a specialty. Sorted now – I have a niche. Alliteration food. I bet no one else does it.
Spicy steamed salmon with sauerkraut salad. Roasted rye and raisin rugelach. Triple toasted teacake. Cheesy chermoula with crispy croutons. Fried faro in filo foldovers. Easy egg, endive and edam empanadas. Golden grilled goose with grape gravy. Aubergine and avocado aperitif!
So many letters, so little time.
And the small detail that alliteration is not necessarily an indicator of great taste combinations – so what? Does anyone think that the beautiful food arrangements on IG or Pinterest are edible? Surely not.
PS. In the end I tediously stuck with a more comprehensive dish name, as the halloumi is the main player in this salad. But watch it! I’ll get onto the alliteration track in my own time!