It’s official: cottage cheese has taken over TikTok.
The historically maligned food has had a sales boom in the last couple of years thanks to the app, the BBC says.
It makes sense; the high-protein, fermented food checks a lot of current food trend boxes, and its lower price point can’t hurt, either.
Personally, I’ve always loved the stuff. I have fond childhood memories of cottage cheese and dill pancakes (clatite) and developed a mid-marathon training addiction to a banana, cottage cheese, raspberry, and trail mix concoction in my early 20s. I’d have been ashamed to admit that until now.
Which brings me to my point: due in part to its slanderous rep, not all of us got familiar enough with the delicious dairy to develop our favourite recipes.
Thankfully, Redditors in r/EatCheapAndHealthy have shared some “great recipes that use cottage cheese as a base” ― here are just a few!
1) In lasagne
”My family has always subbed cottage cheese for ricotta in lasagna,” u/Aggravating_Dog7698 wrote. “You could also blend it and use it as like an alfredo sauce for pasta.”
In response, Redditor u/Kitty_Seriously said: “I mix cottage cheese with an egg and some breadcrumbs (you can use any kind you want), and use that mix in my cheese layers. It keeps the lasagna from getting watery.”
“This also works on toast, with basically anything you want a warm creamy cheese. You can even toss it in a pan and heat it up while you boil noodles, add a little butter to your noodles (not a lot), and throw it all together,” they added.
2) For salads
”Surprisingly, my oldest son likes to use it as a base for his salads,” a now-deleted account wrote. “He insists on piling on a HUGE ball of cottage cheese and mixing it all around, everywhere.”
Redditor u/still-on-my-path agreed, saying it’s “great on a salad” and adding “my grandpa liked tomatoes and cottage cheese with salt and pepper.”
And per u/RavenNymph90, “I’ve used it as a salad dressing. It’s good blended with mustard vinaigrette.“
3) As a sweet potato topping
I like my baked sweet potato with dark chocolate, dried goji berries, and Brazil nuts, so I can rock with u/Seawolfe665′s off-the-beaten-path recipe. “I like a big blob of cottage cheese on a cooked (roasted or steamed) and split sweet potato,” they wrote.
“Top with Everything But The Bagel seasoning, or Penzy’s seasoned salt or 4/S, or Old Bay, or Lawry’s seasoned salt, or whatever you like. That’s my usual breakfast at work.”
4) With bacon on pasta
I have distinct memories of my relatives mixing cottage cheese into pasta, and apparently u/r4d4Sh is right there with ’em.
“My favourite is cottage cheese with macaroni and crispy bacon,” they said, linking to a Hungarian recipe for túrós csusza.
5) As pancakes
Though the griddle cakes I grew up with featured dill, there are other, cheesier ways to enjoy them, u/tweedlefeed shared.
“Cottage cheese pancakes are the best,” they write. “1 cup of cheese, 1 cup of rolled oats, 2 eggs. A little salt and vanilla and put it in a blender. Best high-protein breakfast.”
Meanwhile, u/SinxHatesYou takes a sweeter path: their recipe for “crepes filled with cottage cheese and fruits” includes “1 1/2 cups of milk, 1 cup of flour, 3 eggs, and 2 tablespoons of sugar.”
Simply “Refrigerate for 30 minutes, pour into pan and turn the pan till the batter is evenly distributed. Use a non-stick pan with 1 tablespoon of oil or butter,” they write.
6) In queso
Both u/promiscuousparsley and u/Happy_News9378 swear by the addition for the perfect queso.
The latter shared their favourite five-starred recipe for the combo, while the former wrote that they “Blend 24 ounces of cottage cheese with one and a half cups of water and one 4-ounce can of green chillies. Add a little garlic powder, more salt than you think you need, and two tablespoons of nutritional yeast (optional, but make sure you blend it in).”
They continue, “Heat on the stove and add a cornstarch slurry. I am not sure how much; probably one to two tablespoons of cornstarch. This makes the texture closer to what you get at a restaurant. If you want to leave out the cornstarch, just use one cup of water or experiment with other thickeners. I am shocked by how well my first try turned out!”
I’m just glad my favourite cheap protein has gotten its time in the sun (not literally, of course). If you have a favourite cottage cheese recipe, feel free to share it below!