This isn’t so much a recipe as it is a list of ingredients layered between 2 slices of bread (preferably rye). The result is a herby, tangy, sweet and salty haloumi sandwich. I’m not including amounts in the recipe, just ingredients, as it’s up to you how much of each ingredient you want in the sandwich. You can also easily adjust the recipe for the amount you’re making. With the roasted sweet potatoes, you’ll need one medium sweet potato per 2 sandwiches, sliced and roasted.
I’ve also included the recipe for pickled beets. You can buy them, however, I prefer making my own. They’re not complicated to make, require just 4 ingredients and allow you to reduce the amount of sugar (and other added ingredients). The recipe for beets uses up a bunch of beets (5-6 medium-large beets). You can adjust it to the number of beets you have. The general rule I follow for pickling, is using a ratio of 1:1 of water:vinegar. You also need to make enough of the water vinegar solution to completely cover the beets. You can also change the vinegar you use, for beets I go for either regular white vinegar or rice vinegar. When it comes to the sweetener you can use sugar, honey or a sugar substitute like fructose. If you are going for a substitute, go for something that doesn’t give that artificial sweetener taste. Fructose which is a natural sugar made from fruit is my favourite alternative. They keep for about 1 month in the fridge in an airtight jar. They can be added to sandwiches, salads and pasta.
Haloumi Sandwich with Pickled Beets, Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Pesto
Ingredients
Sandwiches
- rye bread sliced
- sweet potato peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch slices
- haloumi cheese sliced
- pesto homemade or bought
- pickled beets recipe below
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
Picked Beets
- 5-6 medium Beets
- 1 C white vinegar
- 1 C water
- 1 tbsp fructose
Instructions
Sandwiches
- Preheat the oven to 200C.
- Add sweet potato slices to a bowl and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix well to ensure every slice is coated.
- Spread the slices evenly over a baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes until the sweet potato slices are golden brown around the edges and cooked through. Remove and let cool slightly.
- Prepare the haloumi cheese by heating up olive oil in a frying pan. On a medium heat, fry haloumi for about 30-60 seconds on each side until lightly golden browned.
- To assemble the sandwich, spread pesto over 2 slices of Rye Bread. Layer sweet potato, followed by the beets and then the haloumi, and top with the other slice of rye bread.
Pickled Beets
- Wash the beets well and trim the top and bottom of the beets. Leave the skin on the beets. The beets are boiled, and I’ve found that the flavour stays in the beets better when they’re boiled with the skin still on.
- Add the beets to a pot of water and boil until the beets are fully cooked. About 60-90 minutes. To test whether the beets are fully cooked, prick a beet with a knife or fork, it should easily pierce the beet.
- Once cooked, remove from the pot from the heat and allow to cool completely.
- Once the beets have cooled, remove the skin. You can do this either by using your fingers to push the skin back (it’s soft so it will just peel when you slide your fingers across) or using a knife to gently peel it off.
- Slice the peeled beets into ½ inch thick slices, and pack them tightly into a clean and dry heatproof glass jar
- Add water, vinegar and fructose to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer until the fructose has completely dissolved. Remove from the stove and pour the hot vinegar mixture over the beets making sure that the beets are fully covered. Seal the jar tightly and leave on the counter to cool completely.
- Once the jar of beets has cooled completely, put it in the fridge.
- Wait at least 24 hours before eating them to get the full pickled flavour. Store beets in a sealed glass jar in the fridge for up to a month.
