Cruel Summer? Chill Out With This Hot Smashed Cucumber Salad
Presenting my new favourite hot summer’s lunch – Smashed cucumber salad and grilled halloumi mishmosh
London’s temperature is touching 30 degrees each day, the Met Office has issued an ‘unprecedented’ heatwave warning and I am trying to find any excuse that I can to not enter the kitchen. Who knew a girl born and brought up in Delhi would start finding the temperature above 25 too hot to handle?
Seriously though, recently, I have been avoiding going into the kitchen. I fret roasting anything in the oven and my sweet dreams are made of cheesecake (straight out of the refrigerator, please).
Add to that the struggle that is preparing lunch while working from home. Yes, food and I are not best friends at the moment.
UNLESS, IF the food is cold.
I’m alright if I have to take stuff out of the refrigerator, chop it/whizz it, plate it and devour while it is still cold. And that’s why I’ve been mostly making cold and almost no-cook meals for lunch. My go-to almost no-cook cold meals are Tabbouleh Pasta salad and cream cheese sandwich with Chicago-style Giardiniera.
I am especially in love with this ‘hot smashed cucumber salad and grilled halloumi mishmosh’ that I prepared a couple of days back. It was easy to make, just required chopping and dumping.
Let the mercury rise, I can deal with it as long as I have this refreshing bowl of coolness next to me.
Hot Smashed Cucumber Salad and Halloumi Mishmosh Recipe
Serving size – 3
There are three parts to this meal – the hot smashed cucumber salad, grilled halloumi chips/fries and the mishmosh. I prepare the smashed cucumber salad and grilled halloumi separately and then combine them with some other ingredients to bring this mishmosh meal together.
Hot Smashed Cucumber Salad
Oh, what should I say about this! It is everything you want on a hot summer’s day and more, especially if you enjoy a kick of heat in your salads.
You Will Need
1 Cucumber (duh!)
Red (or yellow) bell pepper
1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon honey (or white/brown sugar)
2 tablespoon cider vinegar (or rice vinegar)
1 ½ tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon sesame seeds
How To Go About It
Mix honey, vinegar, soy sauce, pepper flakes and salt together and make the vinaigrette.
Finely chop garlic and add it to the above vinaigrette.
Dice/slice the cucumber into big chunks and smash them like Miss B did in this video. As you smash the cucumber, cucumber juice will splutter around, though not too much. If you do not appreciate that, cover the cucumber chunks with cling wrap before you smash them.
Roughly chop red bell pepper into small pieces. Remember – ROUGHLY, we want them to go with the whole ‘smashed’ appeal of this salad.
Mix the sesame seeds, smashed cucumber pieces and roughly chopped bell pepper pieces with the vinaigrette. Cover and let it chill in the refrigerator for about an hour.
After an hour, have a taste check. If required, add more soy sauce/vinegar/flakes.
Grilled Halloumi
You Will Need
225g Halloumi Cheese (or any other cheese that can be grilled)
How to Go About It
Cut the halloumi cheese into chips/fries.
Take a shallow non-stick pan and heat it on medium heat. Dry grill one side of the halloumi chips/fries on the pan for about 3 minutes till golden colour develops.
Flip the cheese and grill the other side as well.
You do not, I repeat DO NOT need oil to grill/fry halloumi!
Mishmosh
You Will Need
Hot smashed cucumber salad
Grilled halloumi
Roughly chopped 150g mixed salad leaves (I took romaine lettuce, rocket and watercress. Other salad leaves such as spinach or beetroot will just as fine)
200g hummus/houmous (Need help with hummus? Have a look at this simplest hummus recipe where all you need to do is pulse in the blender!)
A handful of nuts (almonds/walnuts/pecans work best)
A handful of raisins
3 tablespoon pumpkin seeds
How to Go About It
Take 3 pasta bowls or plates.
Layer each bowl with mixed salad leaves in a nest sort of way.
Serve a third of smashed cucumber salad on each bowl/plate.
Place a third of grilled halloumi on the salad leaves as well.
Top each plate with a good scoop of hummus/houmous on the salad leaves. Sprinkle over a tablespoon of pumpkin seeds.
Arrange a few nuts and raisins in the middle.
Drizzle any leftover vinaigrette from smashed cucumber salad on top.
Find a cool shady spot in the house, better yet in a garden and feast on the crunch, the crisp and the chill.
Craving for more almost no-cook cool food ideas for summers, have a look at some of our favourites –
Is summer making you miserable at cooking too? What are your favourite things to eat when summer gets cruel? Let me know in the comments below!
