Halloumi Is The Salty Bite Your Pasta Salad Is Missing

Pasta salad is a dish that you're likely quite familiar with. A simple but crowd-pleasing side dish that has become a staple at potlucks, barbecues, and family gatherings of all shapes and sizes, pasta salad has possibly become so ingrained into your culinary repertoire that it becomes somewhat of an afterthought. After all, once you avoid the common mistakes of making pasta salad, you may feel as though you've thoroughly conquered that recipe. But yet, there's still room to improve this dish beyond the everyday rigamarole that you've come to know.

Little tips and tricks to improve your pasta salad are certainly not rare — in fact it seems that just about everyone has given their own two cents on how to elevate pasta salad. But one way you can make both a taste and texture change is in rethinking what kind of cheese you use. Particularly, opt for a briny, durable Halloumi cheese instead of your traditional mozzarella. The salty bite of Halloumi will contribute nicely to your pasta salad, while it still provides enough of a creamy element to keep you from missing the mozzarella. So if you're looking for an easy way to upgrade your next pasta salad, look no further than your favorite grocer's cheese aisle.

Halloumi, by virtue of its saltier composition and harder texture, already provides a welcome change to your regular old pasta salad. But what if you're still looking for something more? Lucky for you, Halloumi's potential benefits don't just stop there. Say you're looking for something that gives your dish an herbal component, akin to how you could use pesto in pasta salad. Halloumi can satisfy this desire. Some Halloumi cheeses come already packed with traditional herbs from its native Mediterranean region. Others, meanwhile, can be grilled and seasoned with whatever herbs you see fit. You could even add cool mint to some fresh Halloumi for a light, refreshing taste. So if ample flavor is your modus operandi here, Halloumi is the cheese for you.

Once you start down the avenue of using Halloumi in pasta salad, more and more opportunities to use this remarkable cheese begin to appear. Perhaps you'll discover that pasta salad is not the only salad that can facilitate Halloumi, as the cheesy component in, say, a chef's salad can benefit greatly from the addition of some Cypriot dairy. A caprese salad, too, can use Halloumi for a really interesting change of pace as opposed to the standard mozzarella. Don't be surprised if Halloumi becomes a staple in your refrigerator once you start using it.