Roasted asparagus with cherry tomatoes halloumi and balsamic dressing
An easy, colourful Mediterranean side dish, a perfect accompaniment to go with fish, meat or other vegetable main meals.
Pine nuts are great to scatter over any Mediterranean menopause meal as they increase energy levels due to their protein, iron, and magnesium. Regularly eating pine nuts or other seeds and nuts may help reduce the risk of diabetes and heart disease.
This recipe also works well with if you replace the halloumi with crumbled feta, even simpler as it doesn’t require cooking!
Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
350g asparagus spear, woody ends snapped off and discarded
330g cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
225g halloumi sliced into 2cm thickness
15 large basil leaves, torn
handful of pine nuts toasted
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Method
Heat the oven to 180C fan. Put the asparagus and cherry tomatoes on a baking sheet. Drizzle over the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Season, then toss everything together. Bake for 15 minutes until the asparagus is cooked through.
Meanwhile, in a large non-stick frying pan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil on a medium heat. Pat the halloumi squares dry and fry them in batches for 1-2 minutes, turning over once with a spatula. When the cheese turns golden brown, remove from the heat and set aside.
Once the asparagus is cooked combine all the ingredients together, and top with the pine nuts and torn basil leaves.