Salt and Pepper Halloumi Fries (+air fryer method)

UK Takeaway style Chinese Salt and Pepper Chips have a cheesy makeover with these incredible Salt and Pepper Halloumi Fries!

Deliciously crispy Air Fryer Halloumi Fries and crunchy vegetables are tossed in a five spice salt & pepper seasoning!

This recipe makes the party food favourite halloumi fries even more exciting - I didn't think it could even be possible until now.

I love my fusion food, especially British-Indian fusion but now I am venturing out into different cuisines like this British-Chinese combo! Throw in Halloumi and this is truly a global dish!

I had a packet of store-bought halloumi fries and a sorry looking pepper sat in the fridge so I thought I'd experiment with them and make a salt and pepper version! I'm so glad that I did - the flavours all complement each other so well.

Halloumi is a white hard cheese that hails from Cyprus. Thanks to the properties of halloumi, it doesn’t melt when cooked so holds its shape beautifully for fries and for these BBQ Halloumi and Mushroom Skewers or Vegetable Paella with Halloumi.

Ingredients

Halloumi Fries Ingredients

Halloumi - halloumi is easy to source from your local supermarket in the cheese section. Any type of halloumi works well. Halloumi that is packaged with dried herbs may impart a bit of a Mediterranean flavour to the dish so you may want to try and find one without the flavouring. You can also use grilling cheese which is available in some shops. Another option is paneer which has a high melting point so will hold its shape.

Other alternatives are Greek semi-hard cheeses such as graviera, kefalograviera and kefalotyri.

Flour - plain flour or all purpose flour works great and you only need a small amount for a block of halloumi. Gluten-free flour also works just as well. Corn starch or rice flour leads to even crispier halloumi

Spray cooking oil

If shallow frying: use a neutral flavoured oil such as vegetable, sunflower, canola or grapeseed.

For the Chinese Salt & Pepper seasoning

White pepper powder - ground from white peppercorns, you can find this in most supermarkets, alternatively use black pepper

Chinese five spice - it gives a unique savoury flavour in Chinese cooking. The powder consists of cinnamon, star anise, cloves, Sichuan peppercorns, and fennel seeds. It can easily be found

Red chilli flakes - you can adjust this according to your spice level

Sugar

Salt

Optional:

Sichuan peppercorns - to make this recipe more spicy, add crushed Sichuan Peppercorns which provide a numbing heat

Garlic Powder - if you do not want to use fresh garlic in the recipe, you can add some garlic powder to the seasoning.

Vegetables

Fresh vegetables: white onion, spring onions, bell pepper (red and green), red or green chillies

I like to cut the vegetables into long strips and cut the chillies and spring onion into fine rounds.

Garlic - fresh minced or finely chopped garlic is best.

Oil - use a flavourless oil

How to make Salt & Pepper Halloumi Fries

Firstly, prepare the halloumi fries:

Preheat your air fryer.

Slice the halloumi into chips/fries. Coat in your flour of choice then shake off the excess.

Arrange in the air fryer basket in a single layer. Spray with cooking oil. Air Fry for 10 minutes on 180C. You may have to turn the fries at the half way mark.

Prepare the seasoning by mixing together the powders. Keep this for later on.

Next, prepare all the vegetables.

I like the onions and peppers to be cut into strips but you could cube them if you prefer. I finely chop the garlic and cut the spring onion and chillies.

Add oil to a pan and add all the vegetables and sauté on high heat for 1-2 minutes. I do not sauté for long because I want the vegetables to remain crunchy.

Toss in the halloumi fries (or chips, tofu, aubergine, hash browns or whatever you happen to be using). Sprinkle over about 1-2 teaspoon of seasoning or adjust according to your taste and how much you're making.

Mix gently so not to brake the fries and serve immediately!

Tips

To make this recipe even more easy for yourself, you can spruce up a packet of ready-made halloumi fries from the supermarket and toss them in your homemade salt and pepper seasoning! So easy, quick and    chances are, you’ve already got a stray pepper kicking about in your fridge anyway!

Leave on the milky fluid that’s in the packet as it helps the flour to stick to the halloumi

You can easily use gluten-free flour in replacement of plain flour

Rice flour or corn-starch provides an even crunchier coating

You can also use paneer batons as paneer holds its shape with cooking. 

Do not overcook the vegetables, they are best crunchy and also more nutrients are retained that way.

For children, you can leave out the chilli flakes or use less in the recipe.

Serving Suggestion

Serve this dish hot to enjoy the vegetables at their most crunchy and the halloumi at its most crunchy!

The delicious finger licking coating means that these are best eaten as they are - no dip required!

Why not make a meal and serve with Vegetable Chow Mein.

As always if you make this recipe, be sure to leave me a comment, rate this recipe and tag me on Instagram @jcookingodyssey or #jcookingodyssey. I love seeing all your photos of my recipe recreations!

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