This super simple vegetarian traybake is fast and flavoursome – take it from the oven to table in just 20 minutes.
Yes friends, Meatless Mondays are back! Given my recent recipe posts, you would be forgiven for thinking I live on cookies and cakes but I promise you that isn’t the case. I know it’s been a long time between savoury recipes, this is because a) I’ve been too lazy to take dinner pics and b) because I’ve been waiting for daylight savings AKA British summertime.
I had forgotten how much I loved British summertime, where the sun wakes up at around 5am and stays out until around 10pm – it’s just glorious. I love the long days not least because I can pretty much guarantee that there will always be good light for a dinner photo.
I like to fly by the seat of my pants when I blog so if you see a savoury dish on the blog, you can pretty much guarantee the photos were taken just before I served dinner. What you don’t see is a hungry (and very patient) husband in the background waiting to tuck in!
Anyhoo, I’ve been making this traybake since we got back to the UK. I love halloumi and hate washing up so this dinner is a dream and bonus points for almost no prep, you just chuck everything in and away you go.
Now I’m calling this a vegetarian traybake but check your pesto, as parmesan isn’t vegetarian. There are plenty of vegan pesto options at the supermarket or make your own and swap out the parmesan for nutritional yeast flakes as I do in my kale and basil pesto.
If you’re wondering why my halloumi looks whiter than my legs after a long English winter, it’s because my tray is too big for my grill so I just oven bake my halloumi, it’s no less tasty just not as aesthetically pleasing as if you finish it in the grill.
Don’t miss out the crusty bread because you’ll definitely be wanting to mop up those juices. If you are in the mood for something more meaty, this works really well as a side dish and In the unlikely event of left overs, they taste great the next day.
For a bunch of relatively simple ingredients, this traybake is bang on budget whole lot of yum!
What’s a winner dinner at your place? Are you a fan of pesto too?
Ingredients
1 red onion, sliced
2 x 400g tins of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
400g cherry tomatoes
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
225g halloumi, sliced
handful of pitted kalamata olives, optional
130g pesto
100g spinach
handful basil leaves
crusty bread, to serve
How to
- Preheat oven to 220C. Place the sliced red onion, chickpeas and tomatoes in a large baking dish. Drizzle with the vinegar and oil and toss to combine. Roast for about 10 minutes until the tomatoes are starting to soften. Remove from the oven.
- Add the olives if using and stir in with the onion, chickpeas and tomatoes. Top with the halloumi. If grilling, pop the tray under a preheated grill (to medium) and grill for 5-6 minutes until the halloumi is golden. Alternatively just pop the tray back into the oven for another 10 minutes.
- Remove from the grill/oven and stir through the spinach until it starts to wilt. Top with dollops of pesto, scatter over the basil and stir through. Serve with crusty bread.
