Chargrilled Halloumi with Chilli Pesto

A little taste of summer to keep me going through the winter. I am a great one for collecting magazines and not reading them for months. Therefore this recipe from the Summer Waitrose magazine was waiting in a stack to be read and when I eventually got around to cooking it we were in winter rather than summer but who cares?  The recipe may be intended for summer barbecues but all of the ingredients can be found at any time and it worked perfectly as a starter for us.

Supposedly served 4-6 but I halved the pesto mix and we had a generous amount for two of us. For the halloumi I just bought the pack size in the supermarket and sliced it evenly for the two of us. I have a very gung ho approach to cooking that used to worry me and now I embrace it!

Ingredients: 

• 750g halloumi, thickly sliced lengthways
• 2-3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 lemon, juice

For the Pesto:

• 150ml light olive oil
• 75g pine nuts
• 2 red chillies, roughly chopped
• 1 small garlic clove, crushed (I didn't bother halving this ingredient)
• 50g mint leaves
• 50g basil leaves

Method:

• First, make the pesto. Put the oil, pine nuts, chillies, garlic and a pinch of sea salt in a food processor, then blend to a coarse paste. Alternatively use a pestle and mortar and a fair amount of effort.
• Set a dry frying or griddle pan over a high heat (or prepare your barbecue so that the coals are at a medium-high heat). Brush the halloumi slices on both sides with olive oil, grill for 2 minutes on each side, until golden and lightly charred. Lay them on a warmed serving plate, spoon over the pesto, squeeze over the lemon juice and serve at once.