What Is Halloumi Cheese? (2024)

FAQs

What Is Halloumi Cheese? ›

What is halloumi? Originating from Cyprus, halloumi is a semi-hard, un-ripened, brined cheese that can be made from cow, sheep or goat's milk. It can be eaten raw but is truly delicious cooked, having a high melting point, makes it an excellent choice for grilling or frying.

Halloumi is a semi-hard cheese made principally in Cyprus from sheep or goat milk or mixture of the two. The raw milk is coagulated as for Feta cheese. The blocks of the cheese (10 × 10 × 3 cm) are heated at 92–95°C in the whey extracted during draining.

Halloumi has a very appealing flavor that's unlike any other cheese: mellow, but not in the least boring, mildly feta-like, notably tangy, and never too strong. It can be enjoyed almost any of the ways you'd eat other cheeses: sliced, for a simple snack, cubed in salads or melted it in or on casseroles.

Many Halloumi-style cheeses are prepared by dairy and goat farmers in Canada and the United States. For legal proprietary reasons, these cheeses are usually called Halloumi-style or grillable cheeses. Sometimes they are called grilling cheese or frying cheese, or queso de freír in Spanish.

When eaten regularly in large quantities halloumi can be considered unhealthy, as this fried cheese is pretty high in saturated fat and salt. However, when eaten sporadically as part of a balanced diet, halloumi has a range of health benefits, as it's high in calcium and protein.

Halloumi (also sometimes spelled Haloumi or Hallomi) is a semisoft cheese with a stretchy, rubbery texture similar to balls of fresh mozzarella on your pizza Margherita or Indian paneer cheese.

Instead of the former, substitute halloumi: another Mediterranean cheese similar to the Greek classic, but with a more mild taste and firmer texture. Halloumi works as a perfect feta substitute because it's more neutral in taste and smell than feta, but not different enough to fully change any given dish.

And while Trader Joe's does require one to be fully clothed to shop, it's worth putting on a cover-up to grab my favorite summer grilling staple: Atalanta halloumi cheese.

What's more, halloumi is made from sheep's milk, which is more expensive than cow's milk or goat's milk due to a lower milking yield from sheep. And halloumi is often aged, which can also amplify the price.

What is halloumi? Originating from Cyprus, halloumi is a semi-hard, un-ripened, brined cheese that can be made from cow, sheep or goat's milk. It can be eaten raw but is truly delicious cooked, having a high melting point, makes it an excellent choice for grilling or frying.

Which is healthier halloumi or cheddar? ›

Nutritionally haloumi cheese contains slightly less fat (26 per cent) than regular cheddar cheese but more than double the sodium content thanks to the brine used to preserve it. Haloumi is delicious, and as such one of the biggest issues it poses is the risk of overeating.

Halloumi will keep in the refrigerator for as long as a year, if it's unopened. Once opened, store it in the refrigerator in salt water in an airtight container for up to two weeks. Or wrap it tightly in waxed paper, parchment paper or cheese wrap.

Halloumi is made by coagulating sheep or goat milk, then leaving the curds to drain in moulds (the collected whey is used to make a cheese called anari). The curds are then cooked at a high temperature, around 90°C. Finally, the cheese is folded while still hot and salt is then added to the surface.

1. Feta. While the texture of feta is more dry and crumbly than halloumi, they are both salty and cheesey. Feta won't squeak or melt in the same way but it's the closest option.

However, it's understandable when considering the real reasons halloumi can be so expensive. These range from residual effects of the Cypriot financial crisis of the 2010s to the strict control and regulations that, while they ensure quality in ingredients and production, also limit the supply.

Although it is categorized as “brined cheese,” the heating process provides a different texture, and the functional properties including sliceability, meltability, and shreddability, are different from regular brined cheese.