Halloween is nearly here and that means the shops are packed with pumpkins, scary outfits and huge bags of sweets. On my walk home from work the other day I spotted a big box of mini munchkin pumpkins outside the greengrocers on Gloucester road and bought a bunch of them because I thought they looked cute (I enjoy cute miniature things). I decided to roast them with some delicious spices and team them with shallots and halloumi cheese in a healthy halloween-ish salad. The salty halloumi goes great with the sweet pumpkin and the hot spices. This is a great salad for autumn as it’s filling and served warm.

Pumpkin and Halloumi Salad

Serves 4

Prep time 15 miuntes

Cooking time 50 minutes

Ingredients

½ large pumpkin or 4 munchkin pumpkins

8 shallots, halved

3 large cloves garlic, peeled

Olive oil

200g halloumi, cut into 2cm cubes

1 tbsp cajun seasoning

Extra virgin olive oil

1 bag of mixed salad leaves

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pre heat the oven to 200°C.

Scoop the seeds out of the pumpkin, remove the pumpkin fibres and set them aside (you can roast the pumpkin seeds with spices for a delicious healthy snack.

Cut the pumpkin into chunks about 2-3cm in size. Place the pumpkin, shallots and garlic in a large baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle over the cajun seasoning and give it a good stir.

Put in the oven and roast for 40 minutes, or until tender, turning the shallots occasionally to ensure they don’t burn.

10 minutes before the end of the cooking time add the halloumi to the tray. Place in the oven and cook for about 10 minutes or until golden.

Serve the cooked vegetables and halloumi  warm on a bed of mixed salad leaves, drizzled with a little extra olive oil and seasoned with salt and black pepper.

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