The Easiest Saag Halloumi Van Life Recipe
Indian cuisine is great for adapting for van life. It uses simple ingredients, lots of vegetables, and with the addition of a combination of spices can become something really special, really easily. Saag paneer is a curry made with leafy greens like spinach or silverbeet, spices, and paneer, an Indian cottage cheese.
Outside of India, traditional paneer cheese can be difficult to come by when you are on the road so we have adapted traditional saag paneer for this van life recipe to use halloumi. This dish could also be made with firm tofu in place of halloumi if you can’t find it or are looking for a vegan alternative.
A recent addition to our weekly dinner roster this saag halloumi is quickly becoming a staple in our go-to van life meals. And, we think this delicious, fresh, and healthy spinach dish inspired by the Indian dish saag paneer will be a tough one to knock off.
Looking at the handful of uncooked ingredients that go into this dish, it’s a bit hard to imagine how the whole thing is going to end up but this dish packs a surprising amount of flavor into an incredibly healthy and awesomely easy meal.
We can make this saag halloumi in about fifteen minutes if we are well organized. Cook the cheese before frying up ginger, garlic, onion, and chili with some spices, before adding lemon, stock, and some leafy greens. A couple of minutes to wilt the greens add the cheese back in and you are ready to go. Served over rice it’s remarkable that such a simple, healthy meal could be so satisfying!
This meal doesn’t keep so well and is so easy to make fresh that we usually just make enough for one meal at time rather than make extra for left overs as we usually try to do.
Give this recipe a try and I’m sure you’ll be surprised just how delicious this aromatic indian creation can be.
- Serves 2
- Prep Time: 5 – 10 minutes
- Cooking Time: 15 – 20 minutes
Saag Halloumi Ingredients
- 100 g of halloumi
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp of ginger, finely chopped
- 1 red chili, finely chopped (remove seeds to reduce heat)
- 250 g of spinach or silverbeet, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup of vegetable stock (or water in a pinch)
- Juice of 1/2 a lemon
- 1 tsp of ground cumin
- 1 tsp of tumeric
- 2 tsp of ground garam masala
- Lemon wedges to serve
Saag Halloumi Method
Step 1: Cut the halloumi into half-inch cubes and fry the halloumi on all sides until browned. Set aside for later.
Step 2: Saute the 1 medium onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp of ginger, 1 chili until soft or about 5 – 10 minutes.
Step 3: Add 1 tsp of ground cumin, 1 tsp of tumeric and 2 tsps of ground garam masala and squeeze the half lemon into the pan vegetables. Fry for another minute longer.
Step 4: Add the 1/2 cup of vegetable stock (or water in a pinch) and 250 g of chopped spinach to the pan. Cook the spinach until wilted and soft.
Step 5: Return the halloumi cubes to the pan to reheat and serve over rice with a wedge of lemon on the side.
A quick and easy van life meal, this saag halloumi is incredibly healthy as well as surprisingly tasty, and satisfying. We love this recipe as an easy weeknight dinner when we are a little short on time.
Have a questions about this saag halloumi recipe? Or perhaps your own ideas for improving this this saag halloumi recipe? Drop us a comment below!
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