Each month in Well Stocked, our staff shares unfussy recipe ideas that you can call upon any day of the week. Because yes, our editors love to cook, but sometimes we need to get dinner on the table 12 minutes ago. That’s when we look to pantry and fridge staples that can quickly morph into delicious meals. This month, it’s all about cottage cheese.
In Book IX of The Odyssey, Homer describes something strikingly similar to modern-day cottage cheese. When Odysseus and his men enter the Cyclops Polyphemus’s cave, they find it stocked with cheese and dairy supplies. Later, they watch Polyphemus “curdle half the milk and set it aside in wicker strainers,” creating curds that separate from the whey. This ancient coagulation technique is instantly recognizable today: the same basic method used to create cottage cheese. An epic tale with a side of dairy history.
Fast-forward from the lair of a mythical creature to the feeds of Gen-Z influencers and tangy, curd-y cheese is still having a moment. It has outlasted empires, survived diet fads, and reinvented itself time and time again. These days, people can’t get enough of the protein source. Layered into lasagna, stuffed into pierogies, and swiped onto toast, there are so many ways to revel in the curds. (Just not scooped into cantaloupe halves, okay? You can do better.) Read on for how our editors cook with cottage cheese at home.
Cottage cheese caramelized onion dip
I am no recent convert to the glory of cottage cheese. My after-school snack from preschool through high school was Knudsen 4% spooned directly from (my own personal) tub and topped with generous shakes of Mrs. Dash Salt-Free Original Seasoning. While I still endorse that combo wholeheartedly, our deputy food editor Hana Asbrink’s Cottage Cheese Caramelized Onion Dip has leveled up my game. It’s got all the best bits of the classic dip: rich flavor from well-cooked onions that skirt the line between sweet and savory, plus a moreish lactic tang. It’s also pleasantly satiating from the protein-packed dairy swap. And after a quick blitz in the blender, it’s got a whipped, airy texture ideal for scooping up with wavy-cut potato chips, and my personal fave, wavy-cut carrots. —Kelsey Jane Youngman, senior cooking editor
Add a bag of potato chips and you’ve got yourself a party.
Herbaceous pasta plus dessert
Cottage cheese holds a permanent spot on my weekly grocery list. Not only does it make a great impromptu snack, but a craveable dip, silky mousse, filling smoothie, etc., etc. Because it’s so mild, you can work it into countless dishes. My favorite use is blending it with whatever herbs I have in my fridge and tossing the verdant sauce with warm pasta. But I’ve even blended it with melted chocolate for a quick sweet treat. —Jesse Szewczyk, senior Test Kitchen editor
Colorful baby food
Though my baby has graduated to solid foods, my freezer is still overflowing with purée cubes from months ago. Sweet potato, beet, broccoli, pea, mango. (Anyone who knows me will understand how this happened.) So now, at the end of mealtime, if he still seems hungry, I’ll microwave a few cubes, swirl them into a spoonable dairy, and call it a second course. Think: sweet potato plus Greek yogurt, broccoli plus ricotta, or most recently, beet plus cottage cheese. He happily gobbled it up, staining his lips fuschia and destroying his outfit in the process. As is the fate for all children’s clothes. —Emma Laperruque, cooking director
Elote salad
I often double or even quadruple recipes for a party, so I can have leftovers the next day. Meal prep but make it…fun! But after setting out a batch of charred elote salad (flame-kissed corn, mayo, chipotles in adobo, lime, red onion, cilantro) at a recent grillout, it was gone within seconds and my guilty conscience took over. I set more out. I couldn’t resist! My friends were begging. The next day, I found a meager deli container of what was leftover in the back of my fridge, needing a little sprucing. I spooned in some cottage cheese, more seasoning, and voila. —Nina Moskowitz, associate editor, cooking
A mind-blowing smoothie
I’ll be honest: I used to hate cottage cheese. The flavor was fine—good, actually!—but it was the texture I couldn’t quite stomach (lumpy curds, ugh). But one day I found myself with a hankering for a smoothie, and all I had in the fridge was a tub of cottage cheese that was accidentally picked up instead of Greek yogurt. How bad could it be? Reader, it was in fact so good, I knew I had to develop a formal recipe for the smoothie for my column Good for You. Blending cottage cheese provides all the rich creaminess of yogurt or frozen banana (important for thickening a smoothie), with seasoning built right in. It offers a subtle tang that offsets but doesn’t overpower the other flavors in the drink; and best of all, the curds totally disappear in the blender. —Rebecca Firkser, Test Kitchen editor
With cottage cheese blended right in—yes—this smoothie will keep you full until lunch.
