Ingredients
1 red pepper
100 ml vegetable stock (or water), boiling
70 g couscous
250 g ripe tomatoes (cherry and vine tomatoes or a mix)
Handful of black pitted olives
1 tbsp capers
1 unwaxed lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
10 g fresh mint
10 g fresh parsley
10 g fresh basil
250 g pack of halloumi, sliced into 8-10 pieces
(Serves 2)
Method
- Heat oven to a very high grill setting.
- Put the pepper on a baking tray and place on a high shelf in the oven. Allow to char (this will take about 8 minutes per side), turning occasionally. Once blackened all over, remove from the oven, place in a bowl and cover with a plate to cool for a few minutes.
- While the pepper is cooking, place couscous in a heatproof bowl and pour over the boiling vegetable stock. Stir and then cover with a lid or plate. (No scales? Use 3/4 mug of couscous + 1 mug of boiling water + 1 stock cube).
- Half or quarter the tomatoes and cut the olives in half. Place in a bowl, along with the juice and zest from half of the lemon, the capers, and 3 tbsp olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, mix gently, and leave for the flavours to develop.
- When the pepper is cool enough to handle, remove the blackened skin – but don’t wash it. Deseed and cut into 1-cm wide slices. Mix with the tomatoes and olives.
- Finely slice the mint and basil leaves and roughly chop the parsley. Keep to one side.
- Heat a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the slices of halloumi and fry for a couple of minutes until the water evaporates and the edges start to brown, then flip over and caramelise the other side (which will take less time). Move to a plate and keep warm in the oven.
- Pour the tomato and pepper mix into the hot pan and cook on a high heat until the mixture warms through and the tomatoes begin to soften. When ready, pour over the couscous, top with the halloumi, sprinkle over the herbs and drizzle over some olive oil. Then eat…
