Expand your choice of easy summer appetizers with these Halloumi Cucumber Kebabs with Peanut Sauce. Add a warm peanut sauce and you’ll have a delicious and safe way to serve cheese, on a hot summer day. No worries of it melting in front of your eyes and no health risks.
For this recipe, I was exploring some appetizers for the upcoming summer period, where we would spend more time outdoor than indoor and enjoying lighter meals. With this Halloumi Cucumber Kebabs with Peanut Sauce, I created an alternative way to serve cheese, because cheese and heat don’t go together very well. Cheese will start to sweat, may even melt and may become unhealthy to eat.
Halloumi is s safe choice; it does not really melt, but it grills just fine. Halloumi is a delicious choice and grilling it will only add flavor. The addition of the cucumber makes this kebab just a tad ‘fresher’, but the icing on the cake, I mean the sauce on the kebab pulls it all together. The combination of cucumber and peanut sauce is a match made in heaven. The halloumi is the meat alternative in the kebab. In my opinion, it tastes best when you serve the peanut sauce warm.
These are the simple steps to make the Halloumi Cucumber Kebabs. Buy a package of halloumi, this is usually around 8 oz. and cut it in small cubes. Cut with caution, because the halloumi has a tendency to fall apart, especially at the edges. Cut the cucumber is similar sized cubes and alternate them on a wooden skewer. A metal skewer will also work, but they are usually a little thicker, so a little trickier. Alternate, threading the cheese and cucumber onto skewers and set aside. When you spike the cucumber, make sure you do this in the solid part of the vegetable, not in the seedy part.
How big should the cubes be? I could make 6 skewers out of 8.8 oz. of halloumi and I believe that you need at least 4 pieces of cheese and cucumber to make the skewers look nice, so that is 1 cube less than shown in my pictures and that can bring your total to 8 skewers. You can serve 1 skewer per person as an appetizer or 3 per person as a meat alternative. You can cut larger pieces, but much smaller than 32 cubes out of an 8 oz. piece of halloumi will be hard to keep on the skewer without falling apart.
Place the skewers on the grill or your grill pan and cook a few minutes on each side. Please, now you’ll need to stay with your creation. Because here it can go wrong quickly and your skewers will fall apart. The only thing you want is your cheese to show some nice grilling marks, the longer you grill, the more chance you’ll have that the cucumber will fall off the skewer and then the effect is gone. The visual and the flavor effect. You want to see grill marks on the halloumi, but keep the cucumber as cool as possible. That means you’ll be as cool as a cucumber and grill fast on high heat. By the way, when you start grilling make sure you’ll have your peanut sauce ready.
Let me tell you how. A few drops of sesame oil in a saucepan, heat up and add minced garlic and ginger and cook for a minute. Don’t let is burn. Add peanut butter, soy sauce and brown sugar and mix until smooth. Add lemon juice and warm water until the sauce has reached the thickness you prefer. How much depends on the type and brand of peanut butter you use. There are so many brands, that you’ll have to play it by ear.
Place the skewers on a plate, poor some of the sauce over it, serve the rest in a bowl and sprinkle with sliced spring onion. You will love these Halloumi Cucumber Kebabs with Peanut Sauce.
Halloumi Cucumber Kebabs with Peanut Sauce
Ingredients
- 8 ounces halloumi cheese
- 1/2 cucumber
Peanut Sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 garlic minced
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger minced
- 4 tablespoons peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 4 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Cut the halloumi cheese in small cubes. How large, depends on how many skewers you like to have. Small cubes, more skewers. For a nice effect, have at least 4-5 cubes of cheese and cucumber per skewer.
- Wash the cucumber and cut in half. The cut the cucumber in slices, about the same thickness of the halloumi and cut the slices in 4 pieces. Leave the skin on.
- Alternate threading the cheese and cucumber onto skewers and set aside. Make sure you spike the cucumbers in the solid part, not in the seedy part.
Peanut Sauce
- Add the sesame oil to a saucepan and warm up. Add minced garlic and ginger and cook for a minute. Add peanut butter, soy sauce and brown sugar and mix until smooth. Add warm water until the sauce has reached the thickness you prefer. How much depends on the type of brand of peanut butter you use. Keep warm.
- Grill the skewers a few minutes per side. Don’t walk away, as it will go fast. You just want the halloumi to show some grill marks. Don’t cook longer than absolutely necessary, the cucumber will become soft.
- Place the skewers on a plate, drizzle with peanut sauce and serve the rest of the sauce in a bowl.
- Wash the spring onions, cut in small rings and sprinkle over the Halloumi Cucumber Kebabs with Peanut Sauce
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