Halloumi

Why halloumi is rated low

Halloumi is low FODMAP, and it is fair to say plainly that this rating is estimated from what the cheese is made of rather than from a weighed, measured serving. It is a firm brined cheese, high in protein and fat with very little fermentable carbohydrate left in it, and no FODMAP subgroup is recorded against it. The portion data carries a single rung, and it is a broad one: Any typical portion reads LOW, which covers halloumi browned in a grill pan as easily as halloumi tossed through a salad. Halloumi's real risk is not the block. It is the marinade, the wrap and the grain bowl it usually lands in.

What changes your risk

• Serving size Low applies at Any typical portion. Halloumi fries into something very easy to keep eating straight from the pan, and a helping well past a normal serving is outside the range this rating covers.
• Marinated and flavoured blocks Plain halloumi and halloumi packed with herbs, chilli or a garlic marinade are different products. Garlic and onion in a marinade are the things to read for, since the cheese itself brings nothing to the picture.
• What it is served in A halloumi wrap on wheat flatbread, a couscous salad or a bowl finished with a yoghurt and garlic sauce puts the FODMAP load somewhere other than the cheese. Swapping the base does more for the meal than adjusting the cheese.
• Grilling and frying change nothing Browning halloumi in a pan does not raise or lower its FODMAP content, because cooking does not destroy FODMAPs and nothing leaves the cheese when it crisps. Rinsing the brine off is about salt, not FODMAPs.
• Stacking across the meal A low rating is per serving, not per meal. Halloumi alongside hummus, a wheat pita and a handful of dried fruit is a high load plate even though the cheese contributed almost none of it.

What else works

For a similar savoury, salty role there is no need to move away from cheese at all: cheddar, swiss and parmesan are low FODMAP and work in the same salads and bowls, and firm tofu grills into a comparable golden slab if you want a change. The lookalikes that are not low are the fresh and soft cheeses often used in the same Mediterranean dishes, including ricotta, cottage cheese and cream cheese, along with ordinary yoghurt, which is what most of those garlicky white sauces are built on. If the dish needs that sauce, lactose free yoghurt is ordinary dairy with the lactase enzyme added, so it is genuinely low in lactose without being a dairy free product.

How to keep it low

Buy plain halloumi rather than a marinated block, and read the ingredient list on anything sold as herbed or spiced, since that is where garlic tends to hide. Keep the block in its brine in the fridge until you open it, then use it within a few days. Pat the surface dry before it goes in the pan so it browns rather than steams. Cook it in a hot dry pan, since halloumi gives up enough of its own fat to colour, or reach for garlic-infused oil when you want more savoury depth, and build the plate on rice, quinoa or potato rather than a wheat wrap or couscous. Eating out, halloumi skewers or a grilled halloumi salad are usually a safer order than a halloumi wrap.

Common questions

how much halloumi can i have on a low fodmap diet

The data lists one rung for halloumi and it is low at Any typical portion. Nothing larger has a rating attached, so a very big helping is untested rather than cleared.

is halloumi ok on the elimination phase

Plain halloumi is rated low and does not need to come out during elimination. Marinated blocks are a separate product, and a garlic marinade is the part worth checking.

does frying halloumi change the fodmaps

No. Frying or grilling it does not break FODMAPs down, and nothing leaves the cheese as it browns, so browned halloumi is rated exactly the same as raw halloumi.

what can i eat instead of halloumi

Cheddar, swiss and parmesan are low FODMAP cheeses that cover the same salty savoury role, and firm tofu grills into a similar slab if you want something that is not cheese.