Fusion halloumi wraps with sweet chili satay sauce! These protein packed wraps are full of different flavors and textures for a satisfying vegetarian lunch, hot or cold.
Pairing halloumi with a satay sauce is an excellent, excellent idea. I have seen chicken satay wraps on some menus and I wanted to steal that concept for the vegetarian side, with halloumi being the perfect stand in.
The range of textures in this wrap is amazing. Squeaky halloumi, crunchy slaw, creamy satay sauce, juicy mushroom, melty pepper… lots of things which work surprisingly perfectly together, which is exactly what you want from fusion cuisine.
Wrap rolling isn’t my greatest skill, which is why these don’t have that perfect finish some wrap photos have (completely evenly stuffed with each individual ingredient cleanly on show, nothing contaminating anything else, the sauce dripping out only in the most controlled and deliberate fashion? You know the type? How do they do this?)
But you also kind of want these to be messy. The cooked peppers and mushrooms give off some juices which mix with the peanut sauce and make it all a little runnier and drippier. And unable to be controlled by my amateur self. But you better believe it tastes amazing.
The Components
Let’s walk through each of the components in these wraps and discuss your options. (If that sounds boring, you can of course scroll to the printable recipe card below!)
You’ve got your halloumi, pepper and mushroom as your hot part. The veg is optional but bulks out the portions nicely. If you want to ditch the ‘shroom, put the pepper into the slaw raw and only cook the halloumi, your finish would be a little lighter and more salad wrap-y.
You’ve got your slaw, which will be cooler and crunchy. I usually buy a bag of pre chopped coleslaw mix for this, discard the pack of sauce it comes with and add some coriander (cilantro). The week I came to photograph these wraps the coleslaw mix bags were sold out. Doh! So I’ve just put together some chopped cabbage, onions and carrots and called it a slaw mix. You can do whatever you want in this regard.
And finally you’ve got your sweet chilli satay sauce, which will tie it all together. We add it to both the hot and cold ingredients, for extra peanutty goodness, and to make sure the wraps aren’t too dry.
You can use a ready made satay sauce if you prefer, but I mix something up very quick with ingredients I usually have to hand: peanut butter, sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce, lime and honey. Easy.
How to Serve Your Wraps
This recipe makes four wraps, so if you’re looking for a nice lunch for four… bingo! Otherwise, you can roll up and then store them for the next day. While intended to be hot, they taste fine cold too, but I wouldn’t leave them in the fridge for too long.
I choose to roll these wraps burrito style, and then slice them to make two sides with a bottom to them. You could serve them with smaller wraps in more of a taco style, just folding the wrap over and not trying to seal it.
If you’re looking at these wondering if it’s too much effort for a lunch (I hear ya), I will point out that adding fries or potato wedges, or a cup of soup, would bulk this out to a good sized dinner.
Enjoy!
Satay Halloumi Wraps
Ingredients
- 225 g (8 oz) halloumi cheese
- 1 portobello mushroom, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced
- 4 tortilla wraps
Slaw*
- ¼ head red cabbage, thinly sliced
- ½ red onion, thinly sliced
- ¼ carrot, peeled and julienned
- A couple handfuls fresh coriander (cilantro)
Satay Sauce
- 4 Tbsp peanut butter
- 4 Tbsp Sweet Chilli Sauce
- 2 Tbsp Soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
- 1 Tbsp honey, optional**
- 2-4 Tbsp hot water
Instructions
- Prepare the satay sauce. Whisk all of the ingredients except for the honey and water together in a small bowl. Taste test before adding the honey – if your peanut butter is quite sweet you may not need it. Add the water one tablespoon at a time until the sauce is the desired thickness. You want it thick but pourable.
- Prepare the slaw by mixing all of the ingredients together and pouring around 2/3rds of the satay sauce in. Mix through and set aside.
- Heat a glug of olive oil in a saucepan and saute the mushroom and pepper slices on a high heat until the mushrooms are reduced and the peppers are browning. Put them in a bowl and set aside.
- In the same pan, heat a little fresh oil and add the halloumi, frying until golden on each side. Add the peppers and mushrooms back into the pan and fry for a moment to refresh them. Add the remaining satay sauce to the pan. Mix through until it’s coating all of the slices of halloumi, mushroom and pepper.
- Heat your tortillas in the microwave for 30 seconds to soften them and make them pliable.
- Roll your wraps! Scoop out the slaw + halloumi and veg filling onto the wrap, then bring the sides in and roll. Eat as one piece or slice in two.
Any substitute for sweet chili? Or can we omit it entirely? My son can’t take any spiciness … Thanks !!
In this recipe you can’t omit it completely because it brings the sweetness as well as the chili flavour and I am not totally sure how I’d swap things around. I think your best bet would be to try this satay sauce recipe from the BBC which uses coconut milk. It calls for curry powder, but I am sure you could leave that out and still get a good result.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/satay-sauce