Asparagus and Haloumi Breakfast Salad
Spring has sprung!
The grass has riz, I wonder where all them boidies is. My mum loved this saying, and I still remember the happy silly look on her mum’s face when she recited this little poem to me. It’s funny isn’t it what random childhood memories stick so clearly with us. It’s these tiny seemingly insignificant memories that make me miss my mum the most. And now I find myself repeating the familiar lines to my own daughters when the first sign of spring appears.
Mum, like myself, loved asparagus and one of the best things about spring is the beginning of the asparagus season here in Australia - which always seems to end way too quickly. Mum taught us kids to snap the ends of the asparagus off with your hands as this is the best way to break the stalk off where its tough. Every Summer Solstice (our family’s take on Christmas celebrations), mum would make a big bowl of steamed asparagus and cover it in her delicious hollandaise sauce. Yum. Asparagus is such a hero ingredient (thanks Masterchef for ruining this phrase) that it really doesn’t need much to make it shine. However I struggle to keep my recipes to minimal ingredients and I have just totally ignored my own advice with this recipe! Though the salad is not that complicated to make.
I love how this dish is super filling with the rich egg, haloumi and avocado but balanced out nicely with all the greens and quinoa. You could serve some fresh crusty bread with it and add any other spring vegetable like snow peas or broad beans. And of course you don’t have to restrict this recipe for breakfast, it makes a great lunch and I would totally eat this for dinner.
I often make this recipe with quail eggs when my local Asian grocer has them in stock, but they were out when I was shooting this recipe. I also want my recipes to feel accessible and I was worried I might come across as pretentious using quail eggs?! I think they are so super cute but peeling them can really test your patience! So if you are feeling a bit fancy, use quail eggs instead (4 quail eggs per person).
Asparagus and Haloumi Breakfast Salad
Prep time: Approximately 50 minutes
Serves: 4
Dietary guide: This recipe is gluten free. A FODMAP friendly and vegan variation is provided at the end of the recipe.
Ingredients
½ cup of white quinoa
1 stock cube - I recommend Massel “chicken” style
1 ½ tablespoons of chopped spring onion
¼ cup of honey mustard dressing – see recipe at the end
4 loosely packed cups of your choice of greens such as kale, rocket, baby spinach or salad mix*
4 large free-range eggs
About 20 asparagus spears (broccolini is a great substitute if your prefer)
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of fresh mixed herbs such as dill, parsley, tarragon, chervil, mint.
360g of haloumi
2 avocado’s
Fresh lemon wedges to serve
1 tablespoon of black chia seeds for garnish (optional)
* Make sure your greens are washed and dried. I usually use kale as it has a much longer shelf life when dressed than other greens. Which means you can make up the kale and quinoa base and it will last for about 3 days in the fridge. Other greens will need to be eaten within a few hours. If you do use kale, I recommend massaging the kale with a little olive oil before adding it to the salad. This helps make the kale softer and easier to digest.
Method
1. Place the quinoa, stock cube and 2 cups of cold water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer on medium-high for about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat when the quinoa is nearly cooked but still retains a little crunch. It will continue cooking after being removed from the heat so you want it to be a little bit undercooked at this point. Drain the quinoa into a strainer and place this quinoa filled strainer on top of the saucepan you just used. Place a lid over the quinoa and let it sit for about 20 minutes so the residual heat can dry out the quinoa. Take off the lid, fluff and place in a large bowl to finish cooling.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the eggs. Bring a small-medium sized saucepan 2/3 full with water the boil. Turn the heat down a fraction to protect the eggs from the bubbling water, and gently place the eggs in the saucepan. Set the timer and boil the eggs for 6 minutes. Strain the eggs and place in some cold water before peeling and setting aside.
3. Mix the cooled quinoa, spring onion and salad dressing together in a large bowl – keep a little of the salad dressing, as depending on what greens you use you may not need it all. Toss the greens and herbs through the quinoa and taste. Add more dressing or seasoning if you think it needs it.
4. Pan-fry the asparagus over a very hot pre-heated fry pan in about 1 ½ tablespoons of olive oil. Try and get some nice colour on the asparagus – it should take about 4 minutes. Set the asparagus aside, wipe down the pan and bring it back to a medium-high heat. Place the rest of the olive oil (1 ½ tablespoons) in the fry pan and cook the halloumi, turning once, until nice and golden brown.
5. To assemble the salad, divide the greens and quinoa mix into four bowls or one large platter. Top each salad with the halloumi, asparagus and an egg (cut in half), slice up the avocado and scatter over. Grind over lots of fresh pepper, scatter the chia seeds if using and serve with some lemon on the side.
Garlic and honey mustard salad dressing
50ml of lemon juice
80ml of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of honey*
1 tablespoon of American style mustard
1 teaspoon of salt
1 clove of garlic
First cream the garlic for the salad dressing.The reason I use creamed garlic instead of chopped up or minced garlic, when a recipe calls for raw garlic is that this method reduces the heat and intensity of raw garlic. This means I can use more garlic and get more garlic flavor into it without it being quite as full on. To cream the garlic place the peeled garlic in a mortar. Add 1 very generous teaspoon of nice quality salt and grind up with the pestle. It might sound like a lot of salt but the garlic helps to retard its saltiness. Once its pretty smooshed up and like a rough paste, add two teaspoons of the olive oil and continue grinding and mixing until you have a nice nearly smooth paste. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can do this on a chopping board using the back of a metal spoon. It works the same, but will just test you patience a bit more!
Now make the salad dressing. Make sure the honey is runny – I like to gently warm the honey jar in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes before I measure out a spoon. Place all the ingredients in a jar including the creamed garlic and shake well. Taste and adjust to your liking.
Vegan variation: Omit the haloumi and egg replacing it with a soft vegan cheese or my recipe for truffle cashew cream. Replace the honey in the dressing with maple syrup. I would also suggest adding a handful of toasted pine nuts and papitas to give the salad some extra substance and richness.
FODMAP friendly variation: Use the green part of the spring onion only and use broccoli (remove most of the stalk) or green beans instead of asparagus. Limit the avocado to ¼ or less per peron depending on what you can tolerate. Replace the creamed garlic in the dressing with 1 teaspoon of garlic oil. The honey per serve is likely within the recommended safe guidelines but replace it with sugar if you don’t tolerate honey well.
