Bill Granger again? Halloumi again? Yes, and I’m not going to apologise because it won’t be long, at least in the UK where it already feels like autumn, before tastes like this seem like a distant memory. This is a delicious mini-tweak to a relatively standard recipe and the crisp heat of the cheese is a lovely contrast to the fresh chill of the tomatoes, cucumbers and onions. The original recipe uses mint and parsley; I like coriander in a Greek salad so I swapped that for the mint. I also threw in the lemon zest to zing up the dressing. I could eat this all week.

Greek salad with fried halloumi (adapted from Bill’s Open Kitchen)

For two good portions you will need:

Cupboard (or things you may already have)
olive oil, a tablespoon plus a bit extra for frying the cheese
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Shopping list
lemon, ½
big ripe tomatoes, 2
cucumber, ½ a smallish one
red onion, ½
pitted black olives, ¼ cup (about 40g)
halloumi cheese, 100g (½ a standard packet)
fresh coriander leaves, small handful
fresh flat-leaf parsley, small handful

How to
1. Zest and juice half a lemon and mix the juice and zest with a tablespoon of good olive oil. Season and tip into a salad bowl.
2. Halve the tomatoes then slice them horizontally (so instead of quartering them go in the opposite direction).
3. Peel and finely chop the red onion, cut the cucumber into smallish chunks, rinse (and if necessary de-stalk) the herbs and add them all, with the tomatoes and olives, to the dressing. Mix everything together well.
4. Slice the halloumi into ½ cm thick slices (as thin as you can go really without it collapsing). Put a good dash of olive oil into a largish frying pan, heat it until the oil starts to shimmer then add the halloumi slices. After about 30 seconds turn them over and once they are golden brown on both sides remove and put on top of the salad. Serve immediately to make the most of the hot/cold contrast.