I bought some Halloumi cheese the other day, and noticed that its sodium content is a whopping 1.3 grams per 100 grams! I'm really scared to serve this now. Surely your blood pressure would skyrocket through the roof after consuming it?
I've read somewhere that soaking Halloumi overnight in water and lemon juice can draw out the salt in it, but is this true? And more importantly, to what degree? Does it only make it slightly less salty? Have you experimented with it? Would chopping up the Halloumi and then soaking it overnight help draw out even more salt?
Best Answer
Soaking Halloumi might get rid of a bit of the salt in the cheese that's close to the outer surface, but it isn't going to do much for you. Chopping it up will increase the surface area and allow more salt to be drawn out, it's still not going to make it that much less salty. If you have concerns about salt intake then there is lower salt halloumi sold in places, however that doesn't taste like much.
A little halloumi goes a long way, you could just eat small amounts of it or pair it up with something else. I barbecued pineapple and halloumi skewers this past weekend with a 2:1 ratio of pineapple to halloumi and it was a very good balance. Everyone ended up eating one or two chunks of halloumi in the end, so really overall a moderate amount of salt.