Courgette and halloumi fritters
With roasted pepper salsa
The pepper salsa
- Roast the pepper. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cut the pepper in two and remove the seeds. Place the pepper on a baking tray and roast for 20 minutes. The skin should be a bit blackened. Transfer the pepper to a plate and cover with a plastic wrap (cling film). Leave it for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the other ingredients of the salsa. Chop the capers and the parsley and put them in a bowl together with the lemon juice, the olive oil and a pinch of salt.
- Remove the skin from the pepper, cut the pepper into thin stripes. Put it into the bowl and coat the pepper with the mixture. Put it in the fridge until required.
The courgette fritters
- Prepare the ingredients. Grate the courgette. Place it on a clean kitchen cloth and squeeze it to remove the liquid. Grate the halloumi, chop the spring onions and beat the eggs.
- Prepare the mixture. Place all the ingredients for the fritters in the bowl, season with salt and stir to combine.
- Fry the fritters. Fill the pan about 2cm deep with vegetable oil and heat it over a medium fire. Add 1 tablespoon of the courgette mixture, flatten and cook 1-2 minutes on each side (or until golden). Place on the paper towel to drain. Repeat it with the remaining mixture.
- Serve the fritters. Top each fritter with a spoon of pepper salsa.
Halloumi is a traditional Cypriot cheese. It has a high melting point (it melts in a higher temperature than other cheeses) which makes it perfect for frying and grilling. It has a very interesting flavour, salty with a bit of smoky aftertaste. It's available in the supermarkets, but unfortunately, I've never found an organic version of it.
You can substitute halloumi with feta cheese which will melt beautifully, but the fritters may lose a bit of their unique flavour. If you replace halloumi with any other cheese it might get burnt before your fritters are done.
The recipe comes originally from the Vegetarian Live magazine, but I've made some little adjustments, e.g. added capers into the salsa. They give this little 'something' to the whole dish.
Spoon's tips
1. Be careful with salt when using halloumi as the cheese is very salty itself.
2. If you don't have an oven for roasting the peppers, just heat up a fry pan to medium hot, and lay the peppers in there skin side down. Fry until the skin starts bubble up and darken. Set it aside for 10 minutes and then remove the skin.