My go-to 'lazy girl' lunch is easy to make and full of Mediterranean diet-approved ingredients
Chloe Pantazi
- I've been making a baked sweet potato with halloumi and a simple Greek salad for lunch for years.
- It takes less than 30 minutes to make, and only requires a handful of ingredients.
Growing up in a Greek-Cypriot family, I've been eating halloumi for as long as I can remember.
To me, the cheese — made from goat's and sheep's milk, and today often cow's milk — is perfect eaten as it is, fried with a little olive oil, or on the grill. (It doesn't melt!) And you can eat it any number of ways: grilled then tucked into pitta; grated on top of kritharaki; or thinly sliced with watermelon as a refreshing snack.
But my favorite way to eat the Mediterranean staple is on top of a baked sweet potato. The saltiness of the halloumi cuts the sweetness of the potato, and the semi-hard texture of the cheese goes beautifully with the fluffy mash. It tastes decadent enough that you don't even need to add butter.
A friend introduced me to this quick lunch in college, and I've been hooked ever since. It's become my go-to "lazy girl" lunch on weekdays, and now it can be yours too.
A baked sweet potato with halloumi makes the perfect "lazy girl" lunch. It's filling, delicious, and foolproof to make.
I also like to make a simple Greek salad of cucumber and tomato to complete the dish.
You could always add more to your salad if you like. I sometimes throw in spinach or romaine, or other greens in my fridge if I need to use them up.
You only need a handful of ingredients: a sweet potato, halloumi, cucumber, and cherry tomatoes (plus salt, pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar for seasoning). The best part is they're Mediterranean diet-approved.
In 2023, a panel of experts for the US News & World Report named the Mediterranean diet the healthiest way to eat for the sixth consecutive year.
As Insider's Gabby Landsverk has previously reported, it's based on traditional eating patterns in countries such as Greece, Italy, and Spain, and emphasizes vegetables, healthy fats, lean protein, and complex carbohydrates. Studies, like one published in The Lancet in May 2022, have suggested that the diet can help lower the risk of heart attack and stroke. It's also been touted as a healthy way to lose weight.
I don't strictly follow the Mediterranean diet, but being Greek-Cypriot I've grown up eating a lot of foods that fit within it. But if you do, you may want to use a smaller amount of halloumi in this recipe as the diet is light on dairy. That said, some who follow the eating plan have found halloumi to be a great replacement for meat, given its dense texture.
To get started, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Prick the potato with a fork all over then stick it in the microwave for five minutes.
There's really nothing fancy about this recipe. I just throw the potato onto a plate for this step and haven't had any microwave explosions.
If you'd prefer to skip putting your potato in the microwave, or don't have one, you could jump to the next step and add five to 10 minutes to the cooking time in the oven.
Next, slice the potato lengthwise and crosswise down the center with a sharp knife — without cutting all the way through. Wrap the potato tightly in foil, and pop it in the oven for 20 minutes.
I like to put the foil-covered potato on a tray to avoid any mess, but if you'd prefer to minimize the dishes you have to wash up later you could always forgo one.
While your potato is baking, place a pan over medium heat on the stove, then add a drizzle of olive oil. As you wait for the oil to heat up, dice up some halloumi into a handful of inch-sized cubes.
Like most Greek-Cypriot cooks, I rarely measure ingredients. I just go with how much halloumi I want to make that day; some days, it's a more generous handful than others. This was one of those days.
Once the oil is hot, add your halloumi to the pan and turn it with a spoon occasionally, cooking until it's a dark gold. This usually takes about five to eight minutes. Turn off the heat when it's ready.
Keep an eye on the cheese while it's cooking; if you find it darkens too quickly, lower the heat. You don't want the halloumi to get too tough, either.
While your halloumi is cooking, make the salad. I like to keep it simple and just cut up some cucumbers and cherry tomatoes. Then, I add salt, pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar to dress the salad.
I usually just let my salad sit for a few minutes and let the vinegar pickle the cucumber a little.
You can also throw in any other salad ingredients you like. This truly isn't a science.
When the sweet potato is ready, carefully remove it from the foil and using a fork shimmy it over to a plate. Using the same fork, pull open the potato skin at the top, and add salt and pepper before topping with the fried halloumi.
I like to lightly mash the potato with my fork before I add the halloumi. Sure, it doesn't look as pretty but in an ultimate lazy-girl move, it makes it even lower effort to eat.
And there you have it: the laziest girl lunch that also happens to be delicious.
I told you it was simple.
It's such an easy dish that I make this a couple of times a week, and try to keep a block of halloumi in my fridge at all times since it's the one ingredient that's often a little harder to find in US grocery stores in my experience.
Halloumi really is the star of the show in this meal, and works just as well in other Mediterranean diet-approved dishes. You could fry up a few cubes and sprinkle them on top of a Greek salad and, in the fall, butternut squash soup.
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