Recipe: Felafel & Haloumi Bowl {Mediterranean Vego Delight!}

Summary: This is such a delicious and easy dinner for two! It has all my favourite things – oozy fried cheese, crisp salad, felafels with tzatziki bring real chickpea substance and homemade focaccia adds that carb you didn’t really need but absolutely wanted! I know it’s not really a recipe per se but it is a great dinner idea and let’s be honest, we are always looking for a new dinner idea. This is so simple yet jam packed with flavour and 100% satisfying. It comes together so quickly and with an easy clean up. You can fancy it up with homemade bread and falafel or pick things up from the supermarket for a perfect weeknight meal. You could easily make this vegan by swapping the cheese for extra falafel and the tzatziki for hummus or just add hummus anyway because it loves to join a dinner party! For that matter you might love oilves and want more, so go for it, make this bowl suit you. 

Ingredients for 2 Bowls

• 225g felafels, premade or homemade
• 225g haloumi, sliced in to 1cm slices
• 200g mixed leaves, torn
• 2/3 cucumber, sliced
• 1/2 capsicum, chopped
• 1/2 small red onion, sliced into half moons
• 6 sundried tomatoes, chopped plus oil from packaging
• 8 cherry tomatoes, sliced
• 10 olives, sliced
• 6 tblsp tzatziki
• 2 lemons
• Focaccia or pita bread, to serve

Instructions 

1. Prepare the salad by mixing the mixed leaves, cucumber, onion, sundried tomatoes and olive in a bowl. Drizzle with some of the oil from the sundried tomatoes and squeeze the lemon to form a dressing. Toss to combine and set aside.
2. Heat the falafels via your favourite method. I tend to prefer a very quick deep fry (40-60 sec) or shallow frying if I am using premade bought falafels and the oven for homemade. Even though many packs of falafel state they can be microwaved, I find they become too tough if heated this way. If I have had enough foresight to allow them to come to room temp beforehand, I can skip heating altogether. Do what works best for you.
3. Either heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat or heat an electric sandwich press (I always go for the sandwich press) and fry the haloumi slices in batches. I like mine to be golden and darker brown but that’s preference. I find I need no oil on non stick and the sandwich press is quicker because it does both sides at once and it’s easy clean.
4. Assemble your bowls! Add half the salad, falafels and haloumi to each bowl plus half the tzatziki. Add some lemon wedges and serve with the bread of your choice, we had some homemade focaccia with ours.