Shawarma-Spiced Grilling Cheese
with Pistachio Rice, Garlicky White Sauce & Israeli Salad
- Milk
- Tree Nuts
Shawarma spice is not just for meat on a stick—and this veg-ified meal is proof. Our chefs took halloumi (a sturdy grilling cheese that crisps up on the outside and gets melty on the inside as it's heated) and seasoned it all over with shawarma spice. The seared cheese is paired with other Middle Eastern–inspired favorites: pistachio-flecked rice, Israeli cucumber-tomato salad, and a drizzle of garlicky white sauce. This meal is equal parts crispy, creamy, and refreshing.
Ingredients
6 ounce
Grilling Cheese
(Contains: Milk)
½ cup
Basmati Rice
1 tablespoon
Shawarma Spice Blend
1 unit
Veggie Stock Concentrate
½ ounce
Pistachios
(Contains: Tree Nuts)
1 unit
Lemon
1.5 tablespoon
Sour Cream
(Contains: Milk)
1 clove
Garlic
1 unit
Shallot
4 ounce
Grape Tomatoes
1 unit
Mini Cucumber
1 teaspoon
Hot Sauce
Not included in your delivery
1 teaspoon
Olive Oil
1 teaspoon
Cooking Oil
2 tablespoon
Butter
(Contains: Milk)
Salt
Pepper
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Wash and dry produce. • Halve, peel, and thinly slice shallot; mince a few slices until you have 2 TBSP (4 TBSP for 4 servings). Peel and mince or grate garlic. Roughly chop pistachios. Trim and halve cucumber lengthwise; thinly slice crosswise into half-moons. Halve tomatoes lengthwise. Zest and quarter lemon.
• Melt 1 TBSP butter in a small pot over medium-high heat (use 2 TBSP butter and a medium pot for 4 servings). Add minced shallot, half the garlic, half the pistachios (save the rest for serving), half the Shawarma Spice Blend (you’ll use the rest later), and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring, 1 minute. • Stir in rice, stock concentrate, ¾ cup water (1½ cups for 4), and a big pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to low. Cook until rice is tender, 15-18 minutes. • Keep covered off heat until ready to serve.
• In a medium bowl, combine cucumber, tomatoes, and as much sliced shallot as you like. Toss with a drizzle of olive oil, a big squeeze of lemon juice, a pinch of lemon zest, salt, and pepper. • In a small bowl, combine sour cream with remaining garlic to taste. Season with salt. Add water 1 tsp at a time until mixture reaches a drizzling consistency.
• Cut grilling cheese into four large slices (eight slices for 4 servings). Place on a plate; season all over with remaining Shawarma Spice Blend, salt, and pepper. (It’s OK if not all the spice sticks.) Shake off any excess spice blend.
• Heat a drizzle of oil in a large, preferably nonstick, pan over medium-high heat. Add seasoned grilling cheese and cook until browned, 1-2 minutes per side.
• Fluff rice with a fork; stir in 1 TBSP butter. Season with salt and pepper. • Divide rice between shallow bowls. Top with salad and grilling cheese. Drizzle cheese with garlicky white sauce and hot sauce to taste. Sprinkle with remaining pistachios. Serve with remaining lemon wedges on the side.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Feb 2026- Flavor: Many loved the shawarma spice blend and diverse flavors, though some found it too salty or overwhelming.
- Ease of prep: Quick and simple to prepare, though a few had trouble with the rice or cheese cooking properly.
- Suggestions: Consider adding more vegetables, especially cucumber; some preferred less raw shallot in the salad 🍲.
- Portions: Several felt the portions were small, particularly the rice and cheese; adding protein made it more filling.
- Texture: The grilling cheese texture was divisive - some loved it, others found it rubbery or squeaky.
Reviews from our home cooks
Everything about this dish was delicious! The rice turned out fluffy and well seasoned, the cheese was crispy and salty, and the salad was a fresh complement to both. Drizzled with the tangy sauce and crunchy pistachios, this was one of our favorites. The only thing I did differently was to skip the extra salt at the end of cooking the rice and in the sauce-it didn't need it. I did adjust the water in the rice for high altitude-I used one cup-and added two minutes to the cooking time.
I love ALL the grilling cheese meals and this one did not disappoint! The shawarma seasoning was excellent. The pistachio rice perfect and the salad was wonderfully fresh. All so fast and easy too. This meal now joins our Favorites category.
It was my first time trying grilling cheese, I really enjoyed the flavor mixed with the shawarma spice, and the different flavors (and temperatures) of the veggies worked well with the entire dish as a whole. I would have this again.
This was so delicious and pretty easy to make! Grilling cheese meals are my favorites. I accidentally put all the garlic in the rice so just used plain sour cream on top.
This was delicious. I have never used grilling cheese before but now I will look for it in the store. The shawarma spice blend is excellent too. I'd like to buy a jar of it.
WOW I was skeptical but this was delicious! Loved the depth of flavors when the shawarma and the salad combine. Had never tried grilling cheese and was glad we did.
This has been maybe our favorite meal, we just wish our grilling cheese had been a little larger with a little more rice and white sauce. Our garlic clove was also really little so the white sauce lacked much garlic flavor. But overall, the grilling cheese dishes are a hit. The Israeli salad was also a great compliment to the rich cheese.
I really loved the Grillies Original Grilling Cheese! Much better than a previous grilling cheese recipe I have tried. The other did not soften. Grillies softened and got crispy on the outside. I'd give it one minute more on each side for perfection. The flavors were very interesting. The crunchy cucumber mixed well with the Shwarma rice mix.
Shawarma rice is awesome. The spice blend is so good! I didn't love the actual cheese. I normally love all cheese. But the texture of the cheese was kind of gross and it didn't have much flavor. The garlic sauce, rice and salad together was awesome. But the cheese kind of threw the whole thing off the rails
This is one of the few vegetarian Hello Fresh meals I've had that has enough protein to be satisfying. The shawarma-spiced flavor is great. The only down side is that Hello Fresh puts sour cream in everything. In this dish yogurt would be SO much better than sour cream.
