How do you make something tasty for a picnic without actually having gone shopping for the necessary ingredients? The answer is faith in your food pairing instincts and some vague creative idea as to what the finished result will look like. This Kale and Haloumi Salad is just such a happy accident, the kale was saved from the drudges of the crisper drawer and revitalized in a bath of ice water and the haloumi, blessedly cryovaced, had been languishing in the back of my fridge for ages. When serving raw kale I find that it’s best to be careful about removing the rough stems and slicing the vegetable into very fine ribbons before adding to the salad. There’s something rather tough about raw kale and this attention to detail tends to soften the texture of the overall salad. The roasted shallots can easily be replaced by equal amounts of roasted red onions, leeks, scallions, and white onions that have been quartered in their skins and liberally doused with olive oil before cooking. For simplicity’s sake I have baked the haloumi in this recipe, but you may choose to grill, broil, or sear it in a hot pan. Since this was a picnic meal I had this salad alongside my mom’s potato salad and Stoli blueberry vodka mixed with lemonade.

kale and haloumi salad:

1 medium head of kale, tough stems removed and thinly sliced

3 celery ribs, thinly and diagonally sliced into half moons

1 cup of Italian flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

1 large carrot, peeled and grated

1 raw beet, peeled and grated

3 large shallots, papers left intact

1 250 g block of haloumi

1 lemon, juiced

Generous amount of freshly cracked black pepper

Olive oil, for drizzling

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the haloumi into 1 cm thick slices and place on an oiled baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes before removing from heat and drizzling with olive oil  and pepper. When cool enough to handle tear into bite-sized pieces and toss with the juice of 1 lemon.

2. Reduce heat to 375 degrees. Lay the shallots in their papers in a shallow baking dish. Drizzle with olive and bake for 30-40 minutes until the shallots can be squeezed from their husks without difficulty. When cool enough to handle chop roughly into small pieces.

3. Arrange the kale, celery, parsley, grated carrots and beets, and roasted shallots on a large salad platter. Toss with as much of the salad dressing dressing as you’d like below before scattering the torn pieces of haloumi on top. Serve immediately or within the next couple of hours.

2 lemons, juiced

1/4 cup of fruity olive oil

2 Tbsp. sherry vinegar

1 tsp. white sugar

1 chili pepper, minced

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 tsp. kosher salt

Combine all of the dressing ingredients in an empty jar and shake until completely emulsified.

 

The Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson dazzles on this Röyksopp track; her voice is blinding and gigantic, grandiose and beautiful. This is a song to instantly draw you back into reality on days when your head feels fuggy and not quite present.

Röyksopp – This Must Be It