How to make Halloumi cheese

Making halloumi at home

Knowing how to make halloumi at home is not as hard as you might think. When we eat food that we love when we are travelling, we always try where we can to make it back home. We love cooking and trying new things but we also love to keep sharing in the memories of those special travel moments.

We recommend starting off small when you are making halloumi for the first time, otherwise, you run the risk of wasting a lot of milk if you just don’t get it right.

The great thing about this though is that once you master the technique (which isn’t hard by the way), you can upscale it for any amount. The process and the time taken to make the halloumi doesn’t change at all.

Note: Homemade halloumi is beautiful but it will take time. For this halloumi recipe, there are a number of processes where you just need to wait, rest and cook. It is recommended that you make this recipe only when you have time to hang around the kitchen and watch over every move.

Recipe FAQS and expert tips

What goes into this recipe

Recipe ingredient notes

• For the best chance of success, non-homogenised milk should be used. Unlike many baking recipes where milk can be substituted for low fat, soy, almond, oat etc, this recipe is not one of them.
• If you don’t have distilled water at home, simply boil some tap water. Just make sure it is completely cooled before using it.
• Liquid rennet is very easy to use and can be found in many good stores, baking stores or online. Store it in the fridge once you have opened it.
• We use sea salt flakes but you can use any salt provided it is not iodised.

Why this recipe works

This recipe works because it has very few ingredients, and if you follow the steps correctly, and take the time to do each step well, there is no way of making a bad batch. There are some specific touchpoints where it could go wrong, but if you use the correct ingredients and take it slowly, you’ll have a great batch of halloumi before long.

This recipe also makes a good amount of cheese without being too much to get through quickly. Whilst it will store brilliantly in a vacuum-sealed bag, not everyone has access to such equipment. This amount will store nicely in your fridge for a few weeks if properly packaged.

Unlike commercial halloumi cheese which can be heavily salted, making your own means you can control how much salt you put on the finished product.

Utensils and equipment required

• Double boiler. If you don’t have a specific double boiler, just place one saucepan inside another. Unlike melting chocolate or making custard where you can use a glass dish over a saucepan, this won’t work for making halloumi. You need heavy-based saucepans for this to work properly.
• Thermometer
• Spoon
• Ladle
• Sharp knife
• Muslin
• Colander
• Bowl
• Baking tray and wire rack (or you can use a sushi mat)
• 2 heavy boards (eg cutting boards)
• Weights

How to make halloumi

Step 1

Put some water in the bottom of the double boiler and heat. Pour the milk into the top of the double boiler. Stir occasionally whilst bringing the temperature up to 32°C (89.6°F).

Whilst the milk is coming up to temperature, put the 1.0 ml of liquid rennet into 30 ml of distilled water.

Step 2

This step is about coagulating the milk and making curds.

When the milk reaches 32°C add the combined rennet and water into the milk. Start stirring the milk before adding the rennet and then stir it through thoroughly to distribute the rennet. Don’t stir ferociously and only stir for one minute.

Turn the heat off and put the lid on the saucepan. Leave to rest for 40 minutes. Do not stir the milk during this period. Once the 40 minutes is over, the milk should have set into curds. You can put a knife into it gently and raise it up to see if this has worked.

Note: This is a critical point in the process. If the milk has not set slightly at this stage. If your milk has not set perfectly, you will just need to give it some more time. Do not, under any circumstances, add more rennet as it will destroy the curds already made.

Step 3

It’s time to cut the curds. If the curd has set, cut it into 1″ cubes. Using a sharp knife, cut up and down, left to right and then diagonally under the surface of the curd.

Cover and rest for 5 minutes. Stir the curds gently then bring the heat back up to 40°C (104°F). This will take around 20 minutes.

Step 4

During this process, the curds will shrink. At around the 20-minute mark, leave it to rest with the lid on for about 10 minutes. During this time, the curds should sink to the bottom.

Step 5

Line a colander with muslin and place it over the top of another bowl that will be used to capture and retain the whey. Empty the curds and whey into the colander.

Let sit for several minutes to drain. Pull the muslin out of the colander

Step 6

Once the liquid whey has drained off the curds, the cheese will start to look more solid, and more of one piece, as opposed to all the small squishy curds.

Place the muslin with curds onto a board, lightly shape and flatten and wrap it up. Place another heavy board on top of the wrapped curd and then place weights on top, ensuring that the cheese underneath is kept flat at all times. For this amount of cheese, use about a 2kg (4.4lb) weight.

Press for 10 minutes and then take the board off and turn the curd over. Repeat weight process and leave for 20 minutes.

Step 7

Remove the muslin and cut the cheese. With this amount of cheese we simply cut it in half or thirds.

Place the cheese on top of a baking tray.

Step 8

Meanwhile, heat the whey back up to 90°C (194°F). Any remaining curd will rise to the surface. If it does, skim it all off and discard.

Step 9

This is a very important step. Even though it sounds a bit crazy to put the halloumi cheese back into the whey, this the the process that preserves the halloumi so that when it is cooked before eating, it doesn’t melt.

Bring the whey up to 97°C (206°F). Lower the halloumi gently into the hot whey. This process makes the halloumi heat-resistant.

Turn the heat off once again and leave the halloumi in the whey for 45 minutes, with the lid on. (The head of the whey at the end was approximately 60°C (140°F)

Step 10

Remove from whey and drain once again on wire rack.

Step 11

Mix together salt and mint leaves (chopped fresh or dried) and roll the halloumi in this mix on all sides. Fold in half (on top of itself) and press down.

Store in brine or vacuum seal and keep in the fridge.

This recipe produced approximately 250g of halloumi. Making a small amount also means that the halloumi is much thinner than you are probably used to seeing. Once it is folded in half however, it forms a good thickness.

How do you use halloumi?

The best way to eat halloumi cheese is grilled quickly and eaten immediately. Because the halloumi has already been heat-treated by placing it back in the hot whey, it now has an extremely high heating point. Unlike softer cheeses, it doesn’t melt on the outside, meaning the cooking process makes the inside softy, but the cheese keeps its overall shape.

Simply heat up a fry pan. You can use a little oil or if you have a good no-stick pan, there’s no need to add any oil at all. Grill on each side until it is golden brown. You can cut the cheese into pieces or in much larger sizes.

Serve with a squeeze of lemon or lime. For a little more decadence, drizzle some good quality honey over the top.

Halloumi can also be cut into smaller pieces or cubes, fried and added to a salad. We always like cooking the halloumi cheese a little before eating as it gives it a much better flavour.

Use the smaller pieces in a salad or as an addition to kebabs cooked on the barbeque.

Halloumi is a wonderful addition to breakfast as well, especially on a bacon and egg roll, or as an accompaniment to a burger as well.