Hot Honey Halloumi With Herby Pepper Couscous

Ingredients

• 250 g halloumi, cut into 1cm slices
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 200 g instant couscous
• 240 ml hot vegetable stock
• 2 roasted red peppers, jarred, roughly sliced
• 150 g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 20 g fresh mint, roughly torn
• 20 g fresh parsley, roughly chopped
• 30 g pomegranate seeds
• Crusty bread, to serve

Method

1. Pour the hot vegetable stock over the couscous in a bowl, stir once, cover with a plate and leave for 5 minutes. Fluff thoroughly with a fork until light and separate — any clumps now stay clumps later.
2. Warm the honey and chilli flakes in a small pan over low heat for about 1 minute, until the chilli blooms into the honey and the kitchen smells sweet and warm. Bloomed chilli tastes round and fruity; raw chilli flakes taste dusty. Pull off the heat and set aside.
3. Stir the roasted peppers, cherry tomatoes, lemon zest and lemon juice through the couscous. Season generously with salt and plenty of black pepper, then fold through half the mint and parsley. Taste — the couscous should taste bright and properly seasoned, not flat. Adjust now.
4. Pat the halloumi slices dry with kitchen paper. Water means steam, and steam means no crust. Season the slices lightly with black pepper (the cheese brings its own salt).
5. Heat the olive oil in a heavy frying pan over high heat until shimmering and just starting to smoke. Lay the halloumi in a single layer with space between each slice — crowd the pan and they steam instead of crisping. Work in two batches if needed.
6. Cook for 1–2 minutes each side, without moving, until deeply golden and crisp at the edges. Resist the urge to nudge them early — the crust only comes from uninterrupted contact. Flip once, brown the second side, then lift onto a warm plate.
7. Taste the couscous one more time before plating — a final pinch of salt or squeeze of lemon if it needs lifting.
8. Divide the herby couscous between bowls, lay the hot halloumi slices on top slightly overlapping, drizzle the chilli-bloomed honey generously over the cheese while it's still sizzling, then scatter with the remaining mint and parsley, the pomegranate seeds, and tuck a lemon wedge alongside each bowl.