Cottage Cheese Salad With Cucumber, Tomatoes And Fresh Herbs

On a hot summer’s day, when you don’t want to cook, cottage cheese salad is refreshing and needs minimal fuss. This recipe is ready in less than ten minutes. Simple, yes, but also tasty. It’s high in protein, cheap and vegetarian. Ideal in fact for healthy lunches at any time.

If you’ve arrived here expecting a cottage cheese loaf recipe, here’s the actual link for cottage cheese loaf.

Just in case you hadn’t noticed, cottage cheese is all the rage when it comes to social media these days. Recipes on how to use this simple curd cheese abound. Not to be left out, I’m giving you a rather old fashioned, but nevertheless delicious cottage cheese salad recipe.

Dive Right In

• What Is Cottage Cheese?
• Why Make Cottage Cheese Salad?
• Cottage Cheese Salad
• Ingredients And Substitutions
• How To Make Cottage Cheese Salad
• What To Serve With Cottage Cheese Salad
• FAQs
• Other Healthy Lunch Recipes You Might Like
• Keep In Touch
• The Recipe

What Is Cottage Cheese?

Cottage cheese is a basic fresh curd cheese made with skimmed milk rather than whole milk. It has a mild flavour with creamy, but slightly chewy curds. It’s not a smooth cheese like ricotta. In fact, ricotta is made with whey, rather than skimmed milk, so although it’s also a low fat cheese, it’s quite different.

Higher in protein than many cheeses, cottage cheese keeps you fuller for longer. It’s also a dieter’s dream as it’s low in carbohydrates and calories.

Cottage cheese comes in three versions: full fat, low fat and fat-free. Personally, I find full fat cottage cheese much tastier than either the low fat or fat-free versions. And it has a nicer texture too. The difference in calories is minimal.

• Full fat = 4% fat. 100g = 98 calories. Compare this to cheddar cheese, which is around 30% fat.
• Low fat = 1-2 % fat. 100g = 84 calories.
• Fat-free = 0 fat. 100g = 58 calories.

But there’s more. Cottage cheese is also particularly high in Vitamin B12, selenium, phosphorus, riboflavin and calcium. (Ref Healthline)

Why Make Cottage Cheese Salad?

If you like a cheese salad, this cottage cheese version has to be one of the healthiest out there. It’s also surprisingly tasty.

• Budget Friendly – Cottage cheese is possibly the cheapest cheese you can buy, which makes it really good value for money.
• Flavoursome – Creamy cheese packed with summer veg, fresh herbs and zippy, zesty lemon.
• Healthy & Nutritious – Rich in protein, essential vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre. It’s also low in fat as well as carbohydrates.
• Quick & Easy – Ready in minutes and thus perfect for busy days or just when it’s too hot to cook.
• Refreshing – Light and hydrating, which is just what you need when the weather is warm.
• Versatile – Works as a lunch dish, main course or part of a buffet spread.

Cottage Cheese Salad

Cottage cheese salad was big in the 1970s when I was growing up. It’s basically a mix of cottage cheese, tomatoes and cucumber. To be honest, I’d pretty much forgotten about it until the recent upsurge in cottage cheese interest. I’ve updated it to give it a bit more va-va-voom.

It just shows that even the British have a version of a chopped salad, favoured so much in the Middle East and surrounds. We can do it too.

With it’s low calorie count, it’s great for anyone on the 5:2 diet. If you eat it on its own, there’s only around 120 calories for a decent portion. Enough to fill you up and keep you going for a few hours. There’s plenty of fibre, vitamins and mineral too.

If you’re after something a little more substantial, it makes a great topping for baked potatoes. It also goes with pretty much any type of bread.

It may not be the prettiest of salads, but it has advantages that more than make up for this. As already stated, it’s super healthy and also very tasty. If you grow your own veg, or even herbs it’s also incredibly thrifty.

If left any length of time, the cottage cheese and salad vegetables can go a bit watery, so it’s best made not long before you want to eat it. Having said that, I’ve taken it as a packed lunch to work on more than one occasion. You just have to drink the juice at the bottom.

Ingredients And Substitutions

Although this is a very simple salad, you can make it as complicated as you like. I have several suggestions for additional ingredients you can use, instead of, or as well as, the ones listed in the recipe card.

Cottage Cheese

Cottage cheese is at the heart of this salad. Go for full fat, it’s much creamier than the others but still has relatively few calories. To find out more, head to the section what is cottage cheese?

Herbs

Fresh green herbs are the star of this show, so be generous with them. Use any soft leaved ones that you have to hand. A mix is nice, but not essential.

I used basil, mint, chives and garlic chives as that’s what I had in the garden. Other options include parsley and coriander leaves (cilantro).

Whilst black pepper is a herb rather than a spice, it’s a must for this recipe. Freshly ground is the way to go and plenty of it.

Lemon

Lemon juice brings much needed zing to this cottage cheese salad. It also brings out the flavour of the herbs. Without it, the salad is just a little bit pedestrian.

I also use the lemon zest, which adds to the freshness and flavour of the salad.

Instead of lemon juice, you could use lime juice or a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.

Salad Veg

Tomatoes and cucumber are the foot soldiers in this salad. They’re the epitome of refreshing summer veg after all. I’ve also added spring onion (scallion). Swap the latter for finely diced red onion if you prefer.

However, you can substitute or add all sorts of other veg too. Sweet peppers work well, as do radishes, celery or grated carrot.

Cottage cheese with pineapple was a good 1970s staple. So you could try adding a little chopped pineapple. Chunks of sweet crunchy apple, certainly work.

Use a mini cucumber, sometimes referred to as Persian cucumbers, if you can get one. If not, use a quarter of an English cucumber and remove the seeds before using.

Small and sweet cherry tomatoes are best for this salad. They’re generally tastier and less watery than larger ones. But by all means use what you’ve got.

Optional Extras

As well as additional fruit and veg options, you could also try adding olives, capers, hot sauce or minced garlic. Or why not try it with a sprinkling of sumac on top. This spice complements the salad nicely.

How To Make Cottage Cheese Salad

To be honest, this is one of the easiest salads to make. Some chopping and a bit of mixing is all that’s required. However, despite this, there are a few things to note.

Please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full instructions, timings and quantities of ingredients used.

Step 1. Pickle Onion

Slice the spring onion fairly thinly, then transfer to a medium sized mixing bowl. Use the green parts as well as the white.

Finely grate in the lemon zest, then squeeze the juice over the top of the onions.

Top Tip

Acid helps to mellow the onion, so it’s a good idea to do this bit first. Even if it only gets a few minutes to pickle, it makes a difference.

Step 2. Prepare Tomatoes & Cucumbers

If using cherry tomatoes, quarter them. Cherry tomatoes are best for this recipe as they’re generally not as watery as larger ones. However, if you have larger ones, dice them into roughly one centimetre (half inch) chunks.

Add the chopped tomatoes to the onion bowl, but don’t stir. Allow those onions to pickle for as long as possible.

Halve the mini cucumber lengthways and slice it, but not too thinly. Add the slices to the bowl, but again, don’t stir.

Top Tip

If using a chunk of a large English cucumber instead, it’s a good idea to remove the seeds or the salad may become too wet. To do this half the cucumber lengthways and scrape the seeds out with a teaspoon. Halve the cucumber lengthways again, then slice – again not too thinly.

Step 3. Chop Herbs

Wash the herbs well, especially if they’ve come from the garden or windowsill. Give them a good shake to dry them.

Remove the leaves from any tough stems and discard said stems. Then finely chop with a sharp knife along with any tender stems that remain. Transfer to the bowl.

I find scissors are the best tool to use for chives and garlic chives. Just bunch them all together and snip them into the bowl.

Step 4. Mix & Serve

Grind in a goodly amount of black pepper, then add the cottage cheese to the bowl.

Finally, mix everything carefully together with a large metal spoon. You want to stir, rather than squash.

Transfer the salad to a serving platter or spoon onto individual plates. Eat straight away.

Top Tips

Because the cheese is already quite salty, I don’t add any extra salt. However, test taste before serving and if you think it needs some, add it.

It will store in the fridge for a couple of days, but the juice will drain from the cucumbers, tomatoes and cheese, so it will be quite wet.

What To Serve With Cottage Cheese Salad

Serve cottage cheese salad on its own, as a main course with some carbs or as a side dish.

For a main course serve alongside a leafy green salad and a potato salad. Or use it as a jacket potato topping. In fact potatoes in pretty much any form are good to go.

If you’re not worried about the carbs, bread always makes for a good accompaniment. Try it with fresh crusty bread, toasted pitta or whole wheat focaccia. Tortilla chips for scooping it up work really well too.

Protein seekers are already on to a good thing with this salad. However, serve it alongside an omelette and you get a double whammy.

For a more chic presentation, spread the cottage cheese on a platter, then pile the rest of the salad ingredients on top rather than mixing everything together.

Or mix the salad then spoon it onto individual crisp salad leaves. Excellent finger food for a party.

FAQs

Other Healthy Lunch Recipes You Might Like

• Beetroot miso soup (vegan)
• Cucumber & celery summer soup (no-cook)
• Ful medames (vegan)
• Nectarine salad with mozzarella & tomatoes
• Pea & leek soup (vegan)
• Tempeh on toast (vegan)

And if none of these do it for you, I have a post featuring 31 healthy vegan lunch recipes. They’re not all mine. I also have a post for an easy-to-make cottage cheese loaf, which is not only healthy, but tasty too.

Keep in Touch

Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this cottage cheese salad, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or tips for using cottage cheese?

Please rate the recipe. If you post pictures of your creations on social media, tag me @choclette8 so I can see them.

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If you’d like more salad recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.

Choclette x

Cottage Cheese Salad. PIN IT.