Honey Lime Halloumi Tacos

Fried halloumi in a honey lime glaze makes a delicious and hearty vegetarian taco filling. Topped with pomegranate seeds, a quick and easy slaw, and creamy avocado, you’ll love the mix of flavors in these tacos and how surprisingly simple they are to prepare.

Well, I think these are the most colorful tacos I’ve ever seen! All the jewel tones going on in this plate are certain to spark a little joy.

There’s so much to love here! We’ve got the sweet/salty combo of fried halloumi cheese in a smoky honey lime glaze. There is a simple red cabbage and onion slaw for crunch and tang. There’s avocado for creaminess.

And then we’ve got… pomegranate seeds! Tacos with pomegranate aren’t something you see every day, and no it’s not authentic at all, but it’s really quite lovely. They are kind of standing in for a tomato based salsa when the good tomatoes are out of season (with the added benefit that they don’t need chopping).

So there’s lots of contrasting textures and different flavors to enjoy. No bite is the same, which is what you want from a taco.

But despite all the elements involved, you don’t have to work too hard. Tacos do require a trade off in how much effort you want to make versus how much “stuff” you want to pack in, and I think we strike a good balance here. All of the elements are fairly simple to put together. It can even come together in 30 minutes (though this is only realistic once you really know the recipe, either because you’ve read it a few times before you set out to make it, or because you’re making it on repeat.

Ingredient Notes

• Halloumi cheese is the superstar here, though do feel free to try it with paneer or tofu. We cube the halloumi, frying it in small pieces to maximise surface area for the glaze to stick to. If you’re in Europe where halloumi is abundant and inexpensive, note that this doesn’t require top tier halloumi – feel free to use the cheaper brands. If you’re somewhere further afield where halloumi is quite expensive and you want to cut costs, a lot of my readers are using locally made “bread cheese” in my halloumi recipes with success. More on sourcing halloumi can be found in this post.
• The glaze is made from honey, lime juice, lime zest, smoked paprika and ground cumin.
• The simple slaw is just red cabbage, red onion, cilantro (fresh coriander), lime juice, olive oil and salt.
• We have avocado slices as a topping, I don’t bother to mash this or make it a guac, I just like to put it in sliced.
• Pomegranate seeds! Straight from the container, no prep needed, so it’s really easy too. You can definitely use quartered cherry tomatoes if the season is right.
• When it comes to the tortillas, anything goes today. I always prefer corn and sometimes I really push you to use corn tortillas in my taco recipes, but it’s not a dealbreaker for these. Small flour tortillas work perfectly well in this recipe.

Recipes to use up your leftover ingredients:

• If you need an idea for the remainder of your pomegranate seeds, try this Paneer, Tomato & Pomegranate Salad or Vegetarian Christmas Salad (whether it’s Christmas or not!)
• If you want to make a bigger batch of the red cabbage slaw and keep some back, you could use it as a topping for Cheese & Caramelized Onion Enchiladas or just do another round of tacos! We use the same slaw in my Balsamic Portobello Mushroom Tacos as well as these Mashed Potato Tacos .
• Another way to use up your red cabbage would be in this pasta recipe (not my recipe and I haven’t tried it, but it looks great!)