Roasted Beetroot and Haloumi Salad – A warm salad for chilly days

The chill is beginning to set in Bangalore and as days get cooler, I find myself hating any task that involves leaving the comforts of a blanket. The problem is that, in Bangalore, indoors become pretty chilly while the outdoors stay bearable and yet its not cold enough for any form of heating (atleast not for the husband). So, my clothes get more mismatched than those of a scarecrow, PJs, with hoodie and a kashmri shawl, socks and fur slip ons and my plans to get a headstart on the new year’s resolution a few months in advance, derail.

Eating healthy during the fall/winter is challenging, you crave some deep fried snack with hot chai or a warm brownie on a cold night but, should be eating a cold cucumber salad. 

I saw a picture of roasted beets on some blog a few days back, and one evening when I craved a snack and had neither a brownie nor a cold cucumber, I heated my oven and savored this amazingly simple salad.

3 small sized beetroots

2 medium sized red/white onions

1 large red bell pepper

About 30-40 gms of haloumi cheese

5-6 large mint leaves

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Preheat the oven to about 200⁰C. Set it on roast setting (uniform heat on all sides)

Wash and dry the beets, bell pepper and mint leaves

Lightly coat the beetroots with olive oil and tightly cover with aluminium foil. Each beetroot must be individually covered.

Place the onion (unpeeled), beetroot and bell pepper on the wire rack inside the oven

Let the veggies roast for about 15 mins or so. The bell pepper will need turning around 2-3 times and the beets and onions once.

Check the done-ness by sliding a thin knife through the beets and onion, there should be no resistance. The skin of the bell pepper would have shriveled and there would be a few ‘burnt’ patches on the surface.

Remove the veggies from oven and allow them to cool

Next peel them one by one and chop the heads off.

Cut the peppers in strips, beetroot in rough cubes or thick slices and the onions as long slicess

Chop the haloumi in to cubes

In a salad bowl mix in all veggies and cheese, add mint , drizzle some olive oil and finish off with salt and pepper

Serve at room temperature