Over the last two decades, halloumi - a cypriot grilling cheese - has taken the UK by storm, so much so that by the early 2010s the only country consuming more halloumi than Britain was Cyprus and in 2024 Britain remained the world's largest importer of the cheese. But why is halloumi so popular in the UK of all places? From supermarket sandwiches and family barbecues, to food stalls and restaurants, we just can't get enough of it. So I thought it would be fun to do a deep dive.
A Holiday Treat
One commonly proposed reason for why halloumi is so popular in the UK is our frequent holidays to the mediterranean. Britain's love for Greece and its islands in particular exposed us to the cheese enough for demand to grow naturally from there...
However, this theory isn't all that convincing. Greece and Cyprus are popular holiday destinations among Italians too, for example. And yet, halloumi isn't popular in Italy at all.
My Italian father in law - who loves to holiday in Greece, where halloumi is commonly eaten - and my Italian mother in law were both unfamiliar with the cheese until I introduced them to it. And they were surprised to learn how ubiquitous it is here in the UK.
Simply put, most European countries are too busy eating and promoting their own native produce to nerd out about cheeses from other countries. Even the cheese market in Bulgaria, directly above Greece, is simply dominated by Bulgarian cheeses - a rather interesting legal battle over a Bulgarian copycat product notwithstanding.
The UK, meanwhile, does things differently. We love our own cheeses, sure, but we dip into other cultures as much as possible.
The UK's Love For Speciality Ingredients
Being an island, and one with poor weather conditions at that, we're used to having to import many of our ingredients.
Combine this with an inclusionary attitude to other countries and a history of prolific immigration, and you've got a whole nation with an appreciation for dishes and ingredients not native to their own country.
Importing cypriot cheese in such great amounts makes even more sense when one considers the fact that Cyprus is a former British colony. And the UK takes culinary inspiration from former colonies, India for example, to this day.
So unsurprisingly, in the UK, being "cultured" in the kitchen doesn't necessarily mean knowing about British cuisine. It's more often about being knowledgeable about ingredients from other countries.
And supermarkets know this...
Brits no longer have to visit a speciality shop or deli to get exotic ingredients. Our large supermarkets - and even smaller vendors - stock things from all around the world.
Often, these special ingredients don't even come at a higher price.
There might be an expensive version (marketed as more authentic), next to an own brand version - a cheap "halloumi" perhaps just called 'grilling cheese', for example - at a lower price. This is true for many cheeses from outside the UK including halloumi, parmigiano, French brie, feta and gorgonzola.
Cheap "feta" is amusingly named 'salad cheese' at times, and customers are aware straight away that it's a feta clone in the same way we see 'grilling cheese' and are knowledgeable enough to know it's halloumi.
Halloumi's Customisability
A big part of why halloumi is so popular in the UK is its customisability. And there's a lot a supermarket can do with halloumi to market it to different parts of their customer base.
Halloumi can be simply packaged in see-through plastic and sold at a low price. Alternatively, it can be put in a carefully designed outer box made of card, as is the case with Asda's 'Exceptional' Traditional halloumi - one of the UK's best supermarket halloumis if you ask me!
It can be flavoured with different aromatics too.
UK supermarkets often flavour their low to mid range halloumi with chilli or mint flakes. More expensive halloumis might alternatively have a single fresh mint leaf placed in the centre.
Another, often exploited aspect of halloumi's customisability is the fact that it's delicious when coated in batter and fried... So frozen sections in UK supermarkets stock halloumi-based oven snacks like halloumi bites or halloumi fries.
These are particularly popular around Christmastime, when Brits stock their freezers with quick, multinational snacks.
The UK's Love For Fast Food
Halloumi cooks quickly and is easier from a food safety standpoint than meat. This makes it perfect for the fast food industry.
In Cyprus, halloumi is traditionally grilled, or even eaten fresh. However, it can be fried and is absolutely delicious this way, so of course the UK latched onto this. After all, we absolutely love fried food.
It wasn't long before we discovered it can be cut into batons, coated in flour and deep fried to make "halloumi fries" too. These days, Brits can buy halloumi fries in food vans and fancy Greek restaurants alike.
Halloumi works conveniently well in a burger bun too. And so it's become a popular vegetarian alternative to meat patties in home kitchens and barbecues, and even restaurants.
I personally make halloumi burgers at home on a regular basis. And halloumi and sweet chilli wraps were a favourite snack among me and my friends during my student years in the 2010s.
Halloumi is also often used to give chicken dishes an extra umami hit. Many burger establishments in Scotland, like the chain Bread Meats Bread for example, do wonderful chicken and halloumi burgers which prove popular with customers.
The UK's Love For Dieting
With a national love for fast food, comes a tendency towards diet culture too.
Mediterranean food in particular plays a huge part in UK diet culture because we associate it so strongly with overall health. After all, mediterranean food has been shown to reduce risk of cancer, overall mortality and heart disease.
Cheese isn't generally considered a health food, true. Nevertheless, halloumi has become a favourite among Brits interested in healthy eating due to its calcium, magnesium, zinc and vitamin A content. Not to mention it's a good source of protein.
Healthier options in UK supermarket meal deals often include at least one halloumi option - a wrap or a salad for example. In this context, the cheese is usually accompanied by diet-friendly dressings and ingredients.
Vegetarian eateries and health conscious cafes in the UK regularly stock halloumi too, and so it's gained a reputation as a not just a cultured and indulgent choice, but a sensible one. A pretty impressive set of qualities for a cheese to balance.
Halloumi Salad
Especially for dieters unaccustomed to eating salads or going low carb for the first time, halloumi is the perfect way to fill out an otherwise fibre-based meal. It provides some much needed satisfaction and a feeling of fullness thanks to its protein and fat content.
This dish is so popular in the UK that the keywords 'halloumi salad' fetch over two and a half thousand results on BBC Good Food alone. The results, an array of salads containing other ingredients associated with wholefood diets and good gut microbiome management, clearly reflect the UK's use of halloumi as a health food.
A Tasty Meat Alternative
If you're among the 11% of people in the UK planning to follow a veggie diet in the new year and are afraid you'll miss the salty satisfying chew of meat, you're in luck.
Due to it's springy, chewy texture, halloumi provides the bite resistance vegetarian diets can sometimes lack. But the potential reasons for halloumi's popularity don't stop there.
Maybe the UK Loves Halloumi Because it's Easy
Sadly, the stereotype of Brits not being able to cook isn't astronomically far from the truth, with half of the average adult Brit's diet consisting of ultra-processed foods. This figure jumps to 65% for children. Halloumi is minimally processed yet tasty and can easily be garnished with a simple salad, making it an easy way to transition away from unhealthy eating habits.
For those uncomfortable with cooking, or new to it, halloumi is a great starter ingredient. It doesn't need to be cooked for a long time or manipulated in order to produce a delicious flavour.
And so even for those who only cook occasionally, halloumi is a popular treat.
Thanks to this speed and ease of preparation, restaurants can make halloumi the centre of a dish and have loads of extra time left over to spend on garnishes, presentation, and attention to detail.
The Key To Why Halloumi is So Popular in the UK
As we've seen, halloumi is a unique kind of ingredient which works well in junk food dishes and healthy dishes alike. This versatility lies at the heart of it's sustained popularity in the UK.
Together with the British population's love for exploring cultures outside of its own - specifically mediteranean cultures due to their association with good health - this is a true recipe for success.
And so I feel it would be reductive to say there's just one, or even just a couple, of reason's for halloumi's popularity in Britain. Its set of unique qualities just fit with UK eating habits in a surprisingly seamless way. If there ever was a culinary equivalent to lightning in a bottle, this would be it.
