This five-ingredient warm Marinated Butter Beans and Halloumi recipe makes very regular appearances in the MKL house, and I think you guys are going to love this one. Beans for the table! It’s the best, honestly. Just set this plate of warm, garlic-slicked butter beans on literally any table (they go with all the things) and watch them garner all sorts of “ooohs!” and “ahhhhs.”
I actually made it for Christmas dinner, for New Year’s dinner, and I snack on these things almost daily now. THAT’S how much I love them. Read on for a little breakdown on these butter beans or just jump ahead and grab the recipe itself.
What is Halloumi?
Halloumi is a salty, firm sheep’s milk cheese that hails from Cyprus. But also, it’s my favorite cheese of all time. Honestly it’s just amazing stuff. It’s pricey, yes. This is why I only use it some of the time. Halloumi isn’t what I would call an everyday cheese. No, not so much. Unless you happen to live in Cyprus. In that case, I would probably try my hardest to find ways to enjoy it every single day.
It’s the salt, for me.
How to prepare Halloumi
The cool thing about this cheese is how firm it is. You can literally toast it in a pan, creating an addictive, golden brown crunchy crust all over the outsides. It’s just stupid how good this stuff is. You can essentially grill the cheese itself. Neat!
For our purposes today, we’re going to cut the block of halloumi into slices that are about 1/4-inch thick. You want them as thin as you can get them with them falling apart or breaking on you when you’re working with them. You’d just need to get as many slices as you can, so as to maximize enjoyment upon the recipe’s completion.
This cheese will stick to the pan if you’re not careful. When I tested this recipe, I did it in both a nonstick pan, and then a stainless pan, and the nonstick was by FAR the better option. That brown crust you develop on the halloumi slices (almost an ingredient in and of itself) runs the risk of tearing off if you don’t use a good nonstick pan.
Anyway. You’ll want to place the cheese slices in a lightly oiled, nonstick pan and let them do their thing. And by that, I mean get all brown and toasty and golden. This happens really fast – maybe two minutes tops? So, just don’t walk away to do your laundry or calisthenics or what have you. You can toast both sides, but I actually like to just do one sometimes, leaving the second side soft and un-toasted. Textural interest y’all.
What You’ll Need
Again with the five-ingredient recipes! They’re the absolute best, aren’t they? Life savers when you need great food with no headaches involved. This ingredient list reads really well, little. Because that’s what we do here.
INGREDIENTS
A delicious warm bean and cheese plate that works in nearly every situation, from lunch or drinks/appetizers to a side dish to a hearty main. At only 5 core ingredients, this one packs a lot of punch into a small package.
8 to 9-ounce block Halloumi cheese, sliced into thin planks
¾ cup olive oil, or more as needed (see note)
Two 14.5-ounce cans butter beans, drained and rinsed
¼ cup pickled jalapenos
3 garlic cloves, smashed
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper, to taste
Optional: chopped scallions or chives
How to make my favorite Marinated Butter Beans
This is a super simple recipe. It’s like, I dunno … three steps or something crazy-easy like that? Not only is the ingredient list small, there is also minimal chopping required of you as well. If you want to use the optional scallion/chives component, then yes, you will have to chop those. But no biggie, right?
Other than that, we’re literally just cutting the cheese.
DIRECTIONS
Add about a tablespoon of olive oil to a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. When it’s hot, cook the halloumi slices until gorgeously golden brown on both sides; about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to your serving plate/platter and don’t wipe out the pan.
Add the rest of the oil along with the beans, jalapeños, garlic, and lemon zest + juice. Season with salt and pepper and simmer over medium-low heat for 5 minutes, just to let the flavors marry. Turn off the heat and transfer everything (oil included) to the serving plate with the halloumi. Alternatively, you can put the halloumi back in the pan and serve right from there.Â
If desired, scatter some chopped scallions or chives over top and enjoy warm.
NOTE: If you want to avoid using so much olive oil, feel free to go half olive oil, half other neutral cooking oil. Grapeseed and/or canola oil work great as supplemental varieties here.Â
If you like the looks of these Garlicky Marinated Butter Beans, you might also enjoy:
Parmesan Baked Zucchini (two-ingredients)
Lemon Pepper Roasted Asparagus
Marinated Butter Beans & Halloumi
A delicious warm bean and cheese plate that works in nearly every situation, from lunch or drinks/appetizers to a side dish. At only 5 core ingredients, this one packs a lot of punch into a small package. NOTE: you can halve the amount of beans if you want to use it as more of an app/snack.
- Yield: Serves as many as you need it to
Ingredients
- 8 to 9-ounce block Halloumi cheese, sliced into thin planks
- 3/4 cup olive oil, or more as needed (see note)
- Two 14.5-ounce cans butter beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/4 cup pickled jalapenos
- 3 garlic cloves, smashed
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Optional: chopped scallions or chives
Instructions
- Add about a tablespoon of olive oil to a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. When it’s hot, cook the halloumi slices until gorgeously golden brown on both sides; about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to your serving plate/platter and don’t wipe out the pan.
- Add the rest of the oil along with the beans, jalapeños, garlic, and lemon zest + juice. You really want the beans and things mostly submerged in that oil (see note), so you can add a little more if you want to. Season with salt and pepper and simmer over medium-low heat for 5 minutes, just to let the flavors marry. Stir very gently so as to not bust up the beans.
- Turn off the heat and transfer everything (oil included) to the serving plate with the halloumi. Alternatively, you can put the halloumi back in the pan and serve right from there.
- TO SERVE: If desired, scatter some chopped scallions or chives over top. If you’re serving as a side dish, a slotted spoon works well, allowing some of the oil to drain as you plate them up. When strained, the extra oil will save for you in a lidded container for a couple of weeks (use in salad dressings, to finish dishes, etc). As an appetizer, I like to serve these with toothpicks. Â
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Notes
NOTE: If you want to avoid using so much olive oil, feel free to go half olive oil, half other neutral cooking oil. Grapeseed and/or canola oil work great as supplemental varieties here.
