Welcome to Kitchen Queries, where the nigella.com team will answer your cooking or food related questions.  We’d love you to submit some of your recipe problems, dilemmas or queries for us to get our teeth into!

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• Halloumi

  Hi Nigella Team, I live in Italy where I can't find hallomi cheese. What kind of Italian cheese can I use instead of halloumi? Thanks Monica.

  Posted by monicapb. Answered on 7th Jun 2012 at 12.00

  From the nigella team:

  Unfortunately it is difficult to find a good replacement for halloumi cheese as nothing quite matches its texture when cooked - which could be described as slightly "squeaky". Mozzarella is not a good substitute as it melts when heated, whereas halloumi keeps its shape.

  If you have any Middle Eastern or Cypriot stores in your area then these are quite likely to stock halloumi (and usefully has halloumi has quite a long shelf life). Otherwise you could try using ricotta salata instead. It has a slight salty tang but its taste and texture overall will be somewhat different to halloumi, so it may not always work with the other ingredients in the dish.

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