Quinoa salad with fried halloumi

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 250 g quinoa, white
• ½ bunch of spring onions
• 1 bell pepper(s), yellow
• 1 bell pepper(s), green
• 100 g tomatoes, dried in oil or 1 large fresh tomato
• 75 g Kalamata olives, pitted
• 100 g tomato paste
• 100 g arugula
• 250g halloumi
• 1 tsp herbs de Provence
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 little chili powder
• 1 little salt and pepper, freshly ground

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 15 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 15 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour

vegetarian

First, rinse the quinoa in a fine sieve with hot water, drain well, and place in a pot. Cook in salted water according to the package instructions. Trim and wash the spring onions, then slice them separately into fine white and green rings. Wash, trim, and peel the bell peppers. This works best with a vegetable peeler if you first cut them into 3 to 4 smaller pieces. Then cut the bell peppers into strips about 0.5 cm wide. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan and fry the white spring onion rings and the bell pepper strips over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 5-7 minutes. Drain the tomatoes, reserving about 1 tablespoon of the oil. Then cut the tomatoes into strips about 0.5 cm wide. If using fresh tomatoes, cut them into thin slices and then into sticks and drizzle with a very small amount of oil – if you do, simply omit the 1 tablespoon of oil. Also cut the olives into thin rings. Wash, trim, sort, and drain the arugula. Then cut it into large pieces. Fluff the cooked quinoa a bit with a fork in the pan, stir in the tomato paste and Italian herbs, and transfer everything to a salad bowl. Add the bell peppers, tomatoes, tomato oil, white and green spring onion rings, and olives to the salad bowl and mix well. Mix the arugula into the salad. Season with salt, pepper, chili, and lemon juice, and let it sit for a while. Cut the halloumi into slices about 1 cm thick and fry in the remaining oil in a pan over high heat for about 4 minutes on each side. Serve the quinoa salad with the halloumi.