He is THE star of plant-based cooking in the UK, with every public appearance causing almost as much hysteria as Céline Dion outside her Paris hotel. In his new cookbook Simple Too, published by Hachette Cuisine, Yotam Ottolenghi once again proves that a handful of good ingredients can work wonders. For a vegetarian dish that ticks all the boxes for an easy, comforting and seriously indulgent dinner, look no further than this recipe for halloumi braised with tomatoes and black-eyed beans, as pretty as it is generous. Juicy cherry tomatoes, creamy beans, golden halloumi and za’atar come together in this sun-drenched Mediterranean dish, best served with rice or good crusty bread to mop up every last drop.
Ingredients
- 350 g cherry tomatoes (use different colours for an even prettier result): half halved, the other half left whole
- 400 g black-eyed beans (or white beans), rinsed (240 g drained weight)
- 5 cloves of garlic: 4 cloves thinly sliced, 1 clove crushed
- 5 to 6 sprigs of thyme + 1 tsp finely chopped leaves
- 1 lemon: 4 thin strips of zest, the remaining zest finely grated + 1 tbsp juice
- 9 cl of olive oil
- 250 g halloumi, cut into 6 slices
- 1 tsp za’atar
- Fine sea salt and black pepper
The Recipe
Serves 2. Prep time: 10 min. Cooking time: 35 min.
Served with rice or bread, this dish makes an easy dinner for two, but you can also serve it as part of a mezze spread. It pairs beautifully with our miso and grapefruit green beans (p. 182), but any seasonal vegetable will work perfectly well. Served with two fried eggs, it also makes a fabulous weekend breakfast.
Preheat the oven to 180°C fan (200°C conventional).
In a shallow round ovenproof dish (26 cm in diameter), mix the tomatoes with the beans, sliced garlic, thyme sprigs, lemon zest strips, lemon juice and 7.5 cl of olive oil. Add ½ teaspoon of salt and a generous pinch of pepper. Arrange the halloumi slices in the dish without pushing them down into the ingredients (they should remain visible), then drizzle with the remaining oil (1 tablespoon) and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the tomatoes have released their juices and the cheese is golden and gratinated.
Mix the crushed garlic, thyme leaves, grated lemon zest and za’atar in a bowl. Remove the dish from the oven, stir in the mixture and serve.
Also discover Dina Nikolaou’s eggplant caviar with a taste of Greece and a vanilla and pecan ice cream… with no added sugar!
