Halloumi, mung bean & slow roast tomato salad

I really love salads! 

And I love Lancasters Wednesday Street Market where I can buy 2 punnets (500g) of little plum tomatoes for £1.20. I bought the leek there too and the mung beans were from the Chinese supermarket, so all cheap except the Halloumi ~ (sorry about that) but very healthy!

Serves 6

Ingredients:

100g Mung beans                   24p 

500g little tomatoes             £1.20

2 x cloves garlic                      10p

1 x leek                                 50p

a few sprigs of thyme              FREE from my garden (which I bought from Wilkos)

1/2 lemon                              30p

1  packet of halloumi           £2.35

some olive oil                         20p

TOTAL                              £4.89

Soak the mung beans in water for half a day or so.

Half the tomatoes and put them in a roasting dish, along with 1/2 tsp salt and some pepper and 1/2 tsp of sugar and the garlic (which I forgot to do!) Roast in the oven, gas 3 / 160c for an hour then leave in the oven to cool.

Slice the leeks and gently fry in olive oil, until soft, avoid burning them!
Rinse the mung beans then bring to the boil in a pan of water and simmer for  20 ~ 25 minutes until soft but not soggy.

 Gently mix the beans, leek and tomatoes together, avoiding mushing the tomatoes along the way. Add the juice of half a lemon and sprinkle with the chopped thyme.

Slice and fry the Halloumi cheese in a large pan with a spoon of oil.  At first water appears to ooze out of the cheese, but this soon disappears and the cheese starts to get it's deliciously salty, crisp crust. You could try marinating it in a bit of lemon juice first - it's can improve to flavour.

Either tear or chop the Halloumi then mix in to the salad or plate up, and arrange fashionable on top before drizzling with olive oil.

And if you make too much salad, and get fed up with having it for lunch every day, you can do this to it!
Fry up 2 veggie sausages, slice and put to one side. Then in the same pan heat up the salad with a few Kalamata olives and 1/4 tin of tomatoes ~ whizzed or sliced. Add the sausages and stir over the heat till hot. Serve with toast and a spoon of Wild Garlic Tapenade!