Portobello Mushroom and Halloumi Burger

I have a confession to make. I used to be a vegetarian.

For a whole 2 and a half years of my life, in fact. Now, I love all sorts of meat, things I would never have tried before, and yes, I do tend to feel slightly bad about that fact.

But the great thing about being a vegetarian was that it taught me that not every dish has to have meat in it. These portobello and halloumi burgers are my favourite example of this. I first came across them in Nando's, which is a chicken centric restaurant. Chicken is its USP... and yet they provided some of the best vegetarian options of any restaurant I have come across. Well, actually, I only ever tried this one because once I'd tried it once I started finding excuses to go to Nando's more often than I ever did as an omnivore. It seemed a shame to try anything else, knowing how much I liked this (I try not to do this in restaurants, but this is an exception. It is THAT good).

Um, anyway. I finally got around to recreating it at home for my Mum, for Mother's day, as she is still a vegetarian. The 'boys' got standard, boring old Aberdeen Angus beefburgers (funny how I'd never even heard of it a few years ago, now it seems incredibly common...) and Mum and I wolfed down portobello and halloumi burgers that were easily as good as the ones from Nando's (just goes to show that there are some recipes that don't need fancy prep, the ingredients just work so well they practically cook themselves), aided by my first ever home-made bread rolls and tomato salsa, plus potato wedges and sugar snap peas.

I was pretty chuffed, actually. It was all ready at the same time, it was all cooked through, and every scrap got eaten, despite the fact people had been sneaking fudge all afternoon. That's a success, in my books.

Portobello Mushroom and Halloumi Burger


I used the cooking technique from this recipe on FoodFrom4, but kept the garnish to cool tomato salsa, which was nice and simple and let the mushroom and halloumi combination really shine. I know some people take this 'burger' to a whole new level and dispense with the bread entirely, replacing it with the mushrooms! Personally, I prefer it with the bread, because I think the textures are a nice contrast to each other and the texture and feel you get is much like that of a meat burger, though I understand that not all vegetarians want this (I was an ethical vegetarian, not a taste/texture/ethical/health one like my Mum). 

1 bread roll 
1 large portobello mushroom
~30g halloumi
Tomato Salsa
Salt and pepper


1. Heat the oven to 200C (fan).

2. Peel the mushrooms and de-stalk.

3. Place on a baking tray, drizzle (liberally) with olive oil, then season with salt and pepper.

4. Place in oven for about 15-20 minutes - closer to the latter, in my case. My brother was very concerned that they appeared very black when they came out but I pointed out that a) that was how they were meant to be and b) he wasn't eating them anyway. They tasted great, so I stand by my argument.

5. Brush the halloumi slice with olive oil and grill on each side. The original recipe says until browned but I didn't leave it that long, just until it was developing a sort of hardish crust and threatening to fall through the grill bars...