Gazpacho with chickpeas & halloumi

A 10 minute no cook summer meal

There’s no better recipe on a hot summer day than gazpacho: 5 minutes to make, no cooking, cool and refreshing. But you know what makes it better? Adding chickpeas and halloumi cheese.

The additions make it filling and satisfying enough to enjoy as a main meal. The chickpeas add a nice texture as well as fibre and protein, and the cheese adds more flavour and means this meal has 30g+ of protein.

If you want to make this a completely no cook meal, don’t cook the halloumi - it can be eaten as it is too!

You’ll need (serves 2):

• 75g bread (I used sourdough)

• 400g cherry tomatoes, ideally vine ripened/premium quality

• 2/3 cucumber, cut into large chunks

• 1 red pepper, stalk & seeds removed, cut into a few pieces

• 1/4 red onion, cut into chunks

• 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped

• Extra virgin olive oil

• Red wine vinegar

• 1 block halloumi, cut into small cubes

• 1 tin/250g jarred chickpeas, drained

• Few mint leaves

• Few parsley leaves

Tear the bread into a few pieces and add them to a bowl. Cover with water to soak.

To a food processor, add the tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, red onion and garlic. Drain the bread and add that too. Add a glug (about 3 tbsp) red wine vinegar and a glug of olive oil. Season with salt and paper and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust vinegar/seasoning to suit your taste.

Heat a frying pan and cook the halloumi on a medium-high heat until brown on all sides.

Add some chickpeas to the middle of a bowl and pour the soup over the top. Finish with the halloumi chunks on top and a garnish of basil and mint and an extra drizzle of olive oil.