Savoury Cottage Cheese Bowl
Cottage cheese with tomato, cucumber, olive oil and plenty of black pepper — eight minutes, no cooking.
Photograph credit: Liat Portal for Foodie Disorder - Cottage cheese and vegetables on rice cakes by HaJunkiyada · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Storing and Planning Ahead
Best assembled to order. The dressed vegetables keep a day in the fridge, but spooned onto the cottage cheese in advance they turn it watery within a couple of hours.
Making Savoury Cottage Cheese Bowl
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Toss the tomatoes and cucumber with the vinegar and half the salt and leave them 5 minutes, so they release a little liquid and season themselves.
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Spoon the cottage cheese into two shallow bowls and spread it out rather than mounding it — more surface takes more dressing.
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Season the cottage cheese itself with the remaining salt and most of the pepper. This is the step that matters.
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Spoon the dressed vegetables over with their liquid.
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Scatter the spring onions, dill and parsley, add the chilli flakes and pour the olive oil over in a slow stream.
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Finish with the last of the pepper and serve with toast (optional) alongside.
Related guide: Ingredient substitutions.
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Tips for Success
- Season the cottage cheese, not just the topping. Unsalted curds under a salted salad is why this dish has a reputation.
- Full-fat cottage cheese. The low-fat version is watery and there is nothing here to hide behind.
- Let the vegetables sit in the vinegar for the full five minutes — the liquid they give up becomes part of the dressing.
Behind the Recipe
Cottage cheese is usually treated as something to endure with fruit on top. Handled as a savoury base — salted properly, dressed with good oil, given acid and crunch — it behaves like a soft cheese rather than a diet food. The trick is seasoning it as you would a burrata, which nobody does and which changes it entirely.
What to Put Next to It
Strong coffee · A soft-boiled egg for more protein · Radishes and butter on the side
Swaps and Variations
- Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
What's in a Serving
Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: part of the energy comes from foods, or weights per item, with no recorded source. How the figures are worked out.
Gluten-free when served without the rye or sourdough toast.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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