Halloumi Sabich Bowl with Amba, Pomegranate, and Walnut Crunch

Sabich reimagined as a composed bowl — air-fried halloumi instead of aubergine, crispy ras el hanout chickpeas, soft-boiled egg, sharp chopped salad, smoked hummus base, and amba doing the heavy flavour-lifting — DASH-friendly, serves 1, 25 minutes

Ingredients

Fresh

• 80g halloumi, sliced 1cm thick
• 1 egg
• 1 baby cucumber, finely diced
• 5 baby plum tomatoes, quartered
• 1 tbsp red onion, very finely diced
• ¼ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp fresh mint, leaves torn
• ½ fresh lemon, juiced
• 1 tbsp fresh pomegranate seeds

Storecupboard

• ½ tin chickpeas, drained and patted very dry
• ½ tbsp olive oil (for chickpeas)
• ¼ tsp ras el hanout
• Pinch Aleppo pepper (for halloumi)
• ½ tsp olive oil (for salad)
• 1 tsp sumac (split: ½ tsp salad, ½ tsp finish)
• 2 tbsp smoked hummus
• 1 tbsp 0% fat Greek yoghurt (to loosen the hummus)
• 1½ tbsp Amba sauce — the hero
• 12g walnut halves, roughly crushed
• Black pepper

Method

1. Start the egg. Bring a small pan of water to a rolling boil. Lower the egg in carefully. Set a timer for 6 minutes 30 seconds.
2. Dry the chickpeas thoroughly. Drain and tip onto a clean tea towel. Cover with another tea towel and roll gently — they should look matte and dry, not glossy. Discard any loose skins. Toss in a bowl with ½ tbsp olive oil, ras el hanout, and a pinch of black pepper.
3. Air-fry the chickpeas. Tip into the air fryer basket in a single layer. Cook at 200°C / 400°F for 15 minutes, shaking the basket twice. They should rattle at the end — that’s the sound of proper crisp.
4. Stop and peel the egg. When the timer goes, transfer the egg straight to a bowl of cold water. Leave 2 minutes. Peel under running water, halve lengthways.
5. Make the chopped salad. In a bowl, combine cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, parsley, and mint. Add ½ tsp olive oil, lemon juice, and ½ tsp sumac. Toss gently. Should be sharp, herby, lively.
6. Loosen the hummus. Whisk smoked hummus and Greek yoghurt together with a fork until smooth and spreadable.
7. Air-fry the halloumi alongside the chickpeas. When the chickpeas have 7 minutes left: pause the air fryer, push them to one side, add the halloumi slices dusted with Aleppo pepper. Resume. Flip halloumi at the halfway mark. Both should be done together — halloumi deep golden, chickpeas rattling.
8. Crush the walnuts. Squeeze the halves in a clean tea towel or crush with the side of a knife — chunks, not powder.
9. Assemble the bowl. Take a wide shallow bowl. Smear the loosened hummus across the base with the back of a spoon — cover most of the bowl bottom. Pile salad in one quadrant. Fan halloumi slices alongside. Scatter chickpeas across. Place egg halves yolk-up.
10. Finish with amba, pomegranate, walnut crunch. Spoon the amba sauce generously in zigzags across the entire bowl — not just one corner. Scatter pomegranate seeds and crushed walnuts. Dust everything with the remaining ½ tsp sumac. Crack black pepper. Eat immediately while halloumi is still warm.

Variations

• No mint: double the parsley. The dish has plenty going on without it.
• No pomegranate seeds: a drizzle of pomegranate molasses across the finished bowl does the same flavour work, different texture.
• Add crispbread: crumble one Swedish crispbread roll across the top for extra crunch (~+40 kcal)
• Plant-based version: swap halloumi for sweet chilli tempeh pieces — different flavour direction but the structure holds
• Lower-effort version: skip the chickpea crisping — just rinse and scatter cold. Saves 15 minutes; loses the textural contrast.
• Make-ahead trick: do the chickpeas and egg the night before. Both hold for a day or two. Day-of becomes 10 minutes: halloumi + salad + assemble.

DASH Notes

• Three protein sources (halloumi, egg, chickpeas) give ~34g protein with varied amino acid profiles
• Chickpeas add ~6g fibre
• Halloumi is the calorie heavy-hitter; 80g is the right dose for a substantial portion
• Walnut halves contribute omega-3 ALA
• Amba is sodium-moderate — most of the flavour is fenugreek and turmeric, not salt
• One of the higher-calorie recipes in the library — substantial main meal rather than a light dinner

Notes

• Amba is the dish — fenugreek, turmeric, pickled green mango, tangy-bitter-savoury all at once. The instinct is to use it timidly; don’t. It’s meant to be assertive. The amba should be visible on the plate, not a hint somewhere underneath.
• Dry chickpeas matter. Wet chickpeas steam in the air fryer and never crisp. The tea towel step is essential.
• Halloumi air fryer technique. Spray-oil very lightly. 200°C for 6-7 minutes total. Past 8 minutes it starts to get rubbery.

Dinner — approximately 720 calories, ~34g protein, ~12g fibre