Vegetarian “BLT” Sandwich
Try this vegetarian riff on a BLT sandwich! Instead of bacon, this recipe uses pan-fried halloumi cheese, which is similarly chewy, salty, golden and tasty.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on September 5, 2024
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Here’s a vegetarian spin on a classic BLT sandwich! We should probably call it an “HLT” since we’re using halloumi cheese in place of bacon. Halloumi is a magical cheese from Cyprus that retains its shape when heated, rather than melting.
Pan-fried halloumi cheese turns deliciously crisp and golden on the outside, and leans more savory in flavor. It’s a little chewy and somewhat salty. In other words, pan-fried halloumi makes a fine bacon replacement, especially if you shower it with freshly ground black pepper while hot.
This sandwich is closer to an authentic BLT than my more abstract vegan BLT, which is made with coconut bacon and avocado instead of mayo. Make your preferred variation before tomato season ends!
Serve these sandwiches with a simple side salad—perhaps Gaby’s Cucumber Salad or a green salad with balsamic vinaigrette.
Where to Find Halloumi Cheese
You can buy halloumi at Whole Foods, near the goat cheese. I’ve even found it at the nearest grocery store in the gourmet cheese section.
Halloumi is a little pricy (about ten dollars for one-half pound), but it’s worth the splurge to me. I designed this recipe for six ounces of halloumi, since that’s the typical size of one package at Whole Foods.
More Recipes to Enjoy
If you fall in love with halloumi, be sure to try my Halloumi Tacos with Pineapple Salsa and Aji Verde.
Craving more simple sandwiches? Try one of these:
- Favorite Grilled Cheese Sandwich
- Green Goddess Hummus Sandwich
- Simple Greek Avocado Sandwich
- Tomato Jam and Mozzarella Panini
- Veggie Breakfast Sandwich
Please let me know how your sandwiches turn out in the comments! I love hearing from you.
Vegetarian “BLT” Sandwich
Try this vegetarian riff on a BLT sandwich! Instead of bacon, this recipe uses pan-fried halloumi cheese, which is similarly chewy, salty, golden and tasty. Recipe yields 2 large or 3 medium sandwiches, depending on the size of your bread.
Ingredients
- 4 large or 6 medium slices of sourdough bread
- 2 medium-to-large ripe red tomatoes
- Flaky sea salt or kosher salt
- 6 ounces halloumi cheese
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, for frying
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 6 tablespoons mayonnaise, or as needed
- 6 tender green lettuce leaves (I like butter lettuce)
Instructions
- Lightly toast each slice of bread, and set aside. Slice your tomatoes into thick rounds (a little over ¼″ thick) and sprinkle them lightly with flaky salt or kosher salt. Set aside.
- Slice the halloumi into ¼” wide strips no longer than your bread. Using a clean tea towel or paper towel, gently pat dry any pools of moisture on the cheese (less water means less splattering). Place the cheese near the stove.
- In a medium skillet (I love to use cast iron) over medium heat, warm the olive oil over medium heat. We want the oil warm enough that a slice of cheese, once added, quickly starts bubbling around the edges. Using kitchen tongs, carefully place slices of halloumi into the hot oil (be careful, the oil can splatter). Leave a little room around each piece of cheese so they don’t stick together (I usually cook the cheese in two batches). I recommend covering the skillet to contain any splatters.
- Cook the cheese until the undersides are deeply golden, about 2 to 4 minutes (if it’s taking forever to brown, raise the heat a bit; if it’s browning very quickly or you catch any whiff of smoke, turn down the heat). Carefully flip each piece of cheese with the tongs, recover the skillet, and cook until the other side is deeply golden, about 2 to 4 minutes.
- In the meantime, place a few paper towels on an empty plate or cutting board to absorb excess oil. Place each piece of cooked cheese onto the plate, sprinkle heavily with freshly ground black pepper, and let the cheese cool down a bit before handling.
- To assemble your sandwiches, first spread mayonnaise generously over two slices of bread (if making two sandwiches) or three (if making three sandwiches).
- Top each of the remaining plain slices of toast with two to three lettuce leaves. Top the lettuce with tomato slices, lightly overlapping them for full coverage. Top the tomatoes with slices of cheese, again overlapping them for full coverage. Top with the remaining slices of bread, mayo side down.
- Enjoy the sandwich whole, or use a sharp chef’s knife to slice them in half. These sandwiches are best served fresh, but will keep for about 24 hours in the refrigerator.
Notes
Make it gluten free: Use your favorite gluten-free bread. I bet these ingredients would also be good in a gluten-free tortilla/wrap, or you could even try wrapping up the ingredients in large lettuce leaves.
Make it egg free: Replace the mayonnaise with vegan sour cream.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
It’s easy to fry halloumi in a dry skillet. I’ve done that with your taco recipe using halloumi and pineapple salsa. Epic! We loved it.
Thank you for sharing, Diane!
This looks delicious! We love halloumi at our house so definitely going to give this a try. Our local Trader Joe’s carries halloumi in the summer months and it is significantly cheaper the Whole Foods or other grocery stores. We typically buy a box from them each summer.
I love Trader Joe’s! I’m happy you already have a source. I hope you love this recipe, Amee!
It looks good BUT… 1049 gms of sodium, 45 gms of fat and 56 gms cholestrol in ONE sandwich??? :O VERY unhealthy.
Hi Karen, You can find more on my nutritional information on the blog.
I can’t review this yet because I haven’t had a chance to make it, but I can say that my mouth is watering right now as I look at the pictures! We fell in love with halloumi when we lived in Germany, where it was often featured as a filling option in Turkish donor kebabs–yum! (My meat-loving husband is an especially huge fan of halloumi and tofu–go figure!) I have not yet looked for it in the U.S., but this inspires me to do so. Thank you for so many good recipes! My son and I have been enjoying your pineapple-mint popsicles as a refreshing treat on hot Texas afternoons, and several of your gluten-free breakfast recipes are in our regular rotation. Hoping to try out this latest recipe soon! :)
You’re welcome, Laura! Be sure to report back one you try it.
As a Cypriot-American, this made my day! I haven’t made it yet, but I know I’ll love the combination of ingredients. I hope that this is just the beginning of a long halloumi phase of yours!
I hope you love it! Let me know what you think once you try it.
K, haven’t made this yet, but I want to say EVERYTHING you make is so delicious! You haven’t ever let me down!! Thank you SO much!!
Thank you! I hope you love this one too, Connie.
Best thing ever. As good as the real deal.
Thank you!
Delicious!!! We made this for lunch today and the whole family enjoyed it. We added eggplant.
Thanks for another healthy, easy and most importantly tasty recipe.
Eggplant would be delicious with this! Thank you for sharing, Marisa.
Made this today for lunch and it was amazing! Used hummus instead of the mayo. This cheese is amazing when it is pan fried and pepper is added!
Thank you for trying it and giving me your thoughts, Vaishali.
I loved this! I added a little liquid smoke to give it some mesquite flavoring. Turned out sooooo well. What an amazing idea. Thank you!
Delicious, Aura! Thank you for sharing what you did.
We made this the day you posted it. We were trying to come up with a dinner plan and were a bit worn out.What a great idea to use haloumi, which adds so much flavor and saltiness. It was delicious. Next time we might add avocado.
That’s fantastic! Thank you for sharing. I’m excited you loved it!
I loved these. I didn’t have salad so I used baby spinach and I added avocado! Delish!
I’m excited you loved it! Thank you for taking the time to review, Jen.
I made this last night for dinner for the 2 of us. LOVED it. I’d never fried halloumi in oil before as I was always taught to fry it in a dry skillet, which is also works. But I rather liked it fried in a bit of olive oil. Very good, and I was able to us lettuce, beet greens and kale from the garden. Tomatoes also from garden. It was a big treat of a sandwich!
This was a hit at our house. Two items – I over toasted the sourdough, which meant they were a bit of a chore to chew – we persevered. And I didn’t have any greens so I used leftover cilantro pesto from your recent burrito bowl post. That was yummy!
What a brilliant use of Halloumi cheese and tomatoes from the garden. They say bacon is the gateway drug to laspsing vegetarian vows! No more lusting after a BLT.
I really enjoyed this. I added a little smartbalance butter to my bread before toasting but followed the rest of the recipe as instructed. I’ve been a pescatarian for 2 yrs and miss some of my former meat favs (like bacon…lol). This was a good substitute. My 13 yr old who still eats meat tasted my samdwich and made herself one. Thanks so much!
Hi Kate,
I love your blog and recipes. But since Halloumi cheese contains animal renet, can you suggest an alternative? Thank you.
Hi Helena, Not all Halloumi cheese does. There are lots made vegetarian. Just check the brand and label prior to buying it. If you can’t find any, you could use my coconut bacon instead.
Great vegetarian “BLT”! Our toddler devoured it and we loved it, too!
Soooo good. I love halloumi cheese but never thought to use it as a bacon replacement. My husband has been missing BLTs ever since we cut out red meat, and this really hit the spot.
Omg! This totally tasted like bacon! Even my husband liked it! A keeper for sure! I’m so grateful to have this recipe as I haven’t eaten pork in years and miss BLTs. Thank you!
LOVED this sandwich! I had tried Halloumi cheese in New Zealand last year so I was familiar with it. I know you shop at Trader Joes’s a lot and just want you to know I was able to purchase this cheese at the West Des Moines TJ’s. It is available there seasonally and I was told you can freeze it for when it is not available.
My vegetarian teenage daughter and son fell in love with halloumi after we found your recipe! My daughter likes to rub a clove of raw garlic on the toasted bread then add the mayo and other toppings. Avocado is great with it too.
We have so many Cookie + Kate recipes in our rotation and this has become a new favorite. Thanks so much Kate!
Made these last week and my husband nearly cried happy tears. These are his favourite BLTs now! Thank you!
Happy tears, that’s amazing! Thank you for sharing, Maggie.
This was fantastic! Thank you so much. Just wanted to mention that Veganiase is an excellent vegan mayo.
This was fabulous!!!!! So excited! Closest thing to a “real” BLT ever!!
I’ve tried tempeh bacon and other premade bacon substitutes from the store and halloumi blows them out of the water! I was really happy to find this recipe and we loved it! Added some avocado and ate waaay too much ;) healthy? Not really, but neither is bacon.
I’m excited you tried it and loved it, Stephanie! Thank you for sharing.
This sandwich is like the end of summer between two slices of bread! The halloumi works perfectly as a bacon substitute and my husband says he thinks it’s better than bacon. (He might be right!) Our Trader Joe’s had a big display of halloumi this week and I’m going to have to get back soon and pick up some more, while our tomato plants are still producing. Thank you for such a simple and brilliant idea!
Oh my god, so good! The only change I made was mixing up the mayo with some sriracha for a little heat. Never had halloumi before and now I have to add this to my regular grocery list
Thank you, Zach! I’m happy to hear you love this recipe!
This is one of the BEST sandwiches I’ve had in a long time! Usually I don’t like sandwiches unless someone makes them for me (weird), but this was so good!
Wonderful, Sara! I appreciate your review.
Chicago-area Aldi stores have halloumi and the price is great, pro tip for those in this area! :)
SO GOOD!! Tastes very much like a “real” BLT, which I used to love and miss a lot. Easy to make and absolutely delicious, especially with some good summer tomatoes. YUM!
Wonderful, Kristin! Thank you for your review.
Yum! We had some shitake mushrooms from the market, so I added sauteed mushrooms to this recipe. Perfectly delicious, thanks!
Chris
Oh so delicious! Didn’t change a thing other than using whole wheat bread. Next time I’ll try dry frying as others mentioned. The halloumi I used was in 1inch squares, but worked fine slicing each in 3 pieces.
I’m glad you loved it, Lindsay! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you! My wife has been missing BLT’s for the past 30 years, and this “HLT” totally hit the spot. Here’s a couple of small adjustments we made (we’re ‘senior’ age)
1 – Simply cut the Whole Foods Halloumi cheese ‘log’ in half so we’ll wind up making 2+2 = 4 sandwiches over two lunches. Half the log (3 oz) was easily cut into 4 pieces, so after slicing our sandwiches in half, each of cut two half-sandwiches containing a ‘full’ piece of the cheese. That’s the real change; the rest are simply first-time making do …
So 2) the olive oil pourer only had 1 tablespoon left, so started off with that in the cast iron skillet. Not enough! Even with medium heat, and 2 minutes, the cheese got a bit of a burn. Added a second TBLE when I flipped the cheese, lowered flame to low, and another 2 minutes and perfect yellow grilled cheese on 2nd side. No need to use a 1/4 cup of oil for us.
And
3) only had a clamshell of spring mix, not regular lettuce, but that worked out fine. Also split one tomato (cut into 4 slices) among the two sandwiches – again, fine. Nice thick whole grain baked-in-the-market bread about 2 days old.
Will make again, and no waiting another 30 years! Thank you!!
Joel, Laine, and dog Griffin (who didn’t get any).
I’ve made this many, many times and I love it! Never heard of halloumi cheese before this. Thank you for the introduction. I love BLTs, but rarely eat them due to the guilt. This sandwich satisfies the craving for me.
Fabulous recipe! As a vegetarian for many many years I’ve jonesed for a good bacon and tomato sandwich (used to be a favorite BV). This satisfies the craving. Also, love your chili and veggie lasagne. I’m a big fan.
Great to hear, Christine! Thank you for your review.
What cheese could be used in place of Hallolumi?
I don’t like goat or sheep anything. It tastes gamey to me, like the venison we had to eat as kids.
You could try any cheese you prefer. Fresh mozzarella would be delicious.
Hi Kate, Your recipes look fantastic!
Unfortunately, my previous attempts at cooking Eggplants have been less than stellar. Before another recipe fails, I could use some help.
Some of the issues with Eggplants’:
1) Oxidises immediately after cutting
2) Pre-Cooking Salt Bath or Lemon Soak Bath not working
3) Becomes a soggy, mushy, tasteless, terrible-looking recipe.
Hi Kat, which recipe are you referring to as this recipe doesn’t have eggplatnt.
IS this Halloumi Cheese Vegan?
It is cheese so it’s vegetarian, not vegan.
I love the idea of Halloumi as a bacon substitute. But when I tried browning the halloumi it melted! I managed to get it out of the pan fairly fast so it was still more flat than a ball, and the flavour was great, but after heating it wasn’t really a ‘slice’ any more.
Not a problem, but I’d been wondering if you could cut Halloumi into small pieces, fry them crisp and then use like bacon bits. Alas, that’s not going to work.
but the Halloumi flavour is a great bacon substitute so thank you!
Hi Kathy, I’m sorry to hear that. I have made this several times and didn’t have that issue. Did you cut it thin? How long did you brown it for?
is cheese vegetarian?
Isn’t there something else to use ?
Hi Randy, yes cheese is vegetarian. I hope you try this!