Grilled Vegetable Kebabs with Halloumi Cheese & Fresh Herbs

kebab 2Aw….. summer is finally upon us featuring lots of great herbs to infuse your veggies, meat and even cheese!  Yes cheese is awsome on the grill especially Halloumi.

This is the first time I made this mix of veggies with Halloumi Cheese. I grilled cheese in the past on its own and it was good but this makes it pop and you also end up with lovely veggies.

I chose to cut the veggies small, however, you could cube them larger if you wish.  Note, ensure your mushrooms are large enough to absorb the marinade and avoid breakage while cooking.

Marinated Halloumi Cheese Kebabs with Fresh Herbs

Vegetarians often tend to feel deprived when invited to barbecues, however, these little kebab bundles have all the summer fun and flavor- but without meat.

Serves: 6 – 8

Ingredients:

  • 12oz (350 g) Halloumi cheese, cut into 1 inch cubes
  • 1 medium pepper (any colour)
  • 1 medium red onion
  • 4 medium cap mushrooms ( Steak cut is great)
  • 1 zucchini
  • Pint of cherry tomatoes

For the Marinade:

  • Approximately 4 tsp each of finely chopped fresh thyme, oregano, rosemary, and parsley, (or similar combination of whatever herbs are available)
  • 2 large garlic cloves minced fine
  • 8 fl oz (55ml) extra virgin olive oil
  • Juice of 3 limes and 1 lemon
  • 2 tsp Dijon mustard
  • ½ tsp garlic salt
  • fresh ground black pepper

Equipment:

  • I utilized wooden skewers which must be soaked in water before making your kebabs.  This will avoid burning the sticks.
Veggie Kebabs with Halloumi Cheese

Grilled Veggie Kebabs with Halloumi Cheese & Fresh herbs

Method:

Begin by cutting the pepper, zucchini and onion into even sized pieces about 1 inch square, to match the size of the cubes of cheese. Then chop the herbs and garlic quite finely and combine them with oil, dijon, lime juice, lemon juice, garlic salt  and some freshly milled pepper.

Now place the cheese, onion, pepper, mushrooms, zucchini and tomatoes in a large, roomy, non-metallic bowl and pour the marinade over them, mixing very thoroughly.

Cover and place in the fridge for approximately 24 hours is best and ensure they get stirred around to infuse the flavour throughout.  I like to use a large well sealed tupperware container and flip the container over regularly.

Note if you have extra vegetables, this leftover marinade with the vegetables is great to roast in the oven, with extra cheese if you like. Also, add extra vegetables if you have lots of marinade left over.

POTENTIAL PROBLEM:

The Halloumi cheese is an awesome salty cheese and when charred a wee bit and grilled it is amazing, however, we discovered that unless your barbeque is non stick, the cheese will adhere and this made the grilling process very difficult.

Another option could be to utilize a special kebab rack to avoid losing your delicious cheese to the top of the bbq.   We just scraped them off and still ate them, however, this is not what you would want when entertaining.