I’ve long followed Great British Bake-Of winner Nadiya on twitter as I find her personality really engaging and find her candour on her struggles with mental health really interesting and inspirational.

Despite that, oddly, until recently I’d never really watched any of her shows or cooked any of her recipes! This was one of the first that I tried but have made many more since. She is great at making recognisable family favourites, but giving them a twist or making them more interesting. 

This recipe, for example, is a curry made with halloumi, which is a bit of indian/cypriot fusion, but it really works

• 4 tsbp olive oil
• 2 x 250g blocks of halloumi cheese (cut into 1cm cubes)
• 6 cloves of garlic (chopped)
• 2 red onions (diced)
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 lemon (zest and juice)
• 300 ml water
• a large bunch of fresh coriander (chopped)

1. To make the curry, put a large non-stick saucepan on a high heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the cubes of cheese and fry them, making sure to toss them around so they get a good browning all over. You may need to do this in 2 batches.
2. Spoon out the cheese and set aside on a plate. Add another 2 tablespoons of oil to the pan, then add the garlic and let it brown for a few minutes. Add the onions, red peppers and salt and cook until they are soft – this will take about 10 minutes. Add the turmeric, cumin seeds, lemon zest and juice. Stir and cook for a few minutes, then pour in the water and cook for 10 minutes.
3. Take off the heat and use a stick blender to purée the mixture to a smooth paste.
4. Put the pan back on the heat and add the fried halloumi. Heat the cheese through and add the chopped coriander.
5. Serve the curry with hot basmati rice, or bread

The original recipe also calls for 2 sliced red peppers, but I omitted these as Kieran isn’t a fan.