15 Mouth-Watering Cottage Cheese Recipes You Should Try At Home

Bored of the same vegetables and curries at home? Well, here’s a versatile ingredient that we all grew up loving – cottage cheese. Popularly known as paneer, this mild and fresh dairy product never fails to make your taste buds happy. Adding cottage cheese to your diet is easy and highly beneficial, too. It is an excellent source of calcium, protein and is rich in vitamins A and B.

There are many varieties of paneer available in the market — full fat, low fat, non-fat, hard and soft. You can even get herbed varieties in speciality stores. You can easily make it fresh at home. That way, you have a product with no commercial additives. All you need is milk, lemon juice or vinegar. To make paneer, bring milk to a boil and add lemon juice. The acidity causes the curds and whey to separate. Strain the curds with a muslin cloth and hang it up until the whey water drains out.

You can eat cottage cheese fried, tossed, smoked, spiced and in a million other ways. Sure, we make curries and bhurjis and pakoras with it. But there are other dishes with cottage cheese that you can easily make at home. Here are some mouth- watering cottage cheese recipes. Try them out.

1. Cottage cheese bread rolls

Ingredients: Bread slices, 250g cottage cheese, green chillies, ginger and coriander (all finely chopped), half tsp. each of garam masala, chaat masala, coriander and red chilli powder.

Method: Crumble the cottage cheese and mix with the green chillies, ginger, coriander leaves and spice powders. Cut the edges of the bread and place the filling on one edge of a slice. The quantity of the filling should not be too much, otherwise, it may spill out. Wrap the bread over the filling to form a roll. Moisten the edges with water to seal them. Heat some oil on a tawa and toast the bread rolls until they turn golden and crispy. Serve them hot with sauce or chutney.

2. Potatoes stuffed with cottage cheese Ingredients: Potatoes – boiled, peeled and cut in half, cottage cheese, finely chopped coriander and green chillies, raisins and cashew nuts (broken), salt, sugar and milk (optional)

Method: Scoop out the centre from the halved potatoes to make potato shells. Grease a non-stick tawa with oil and lightly fry the potatoes sprinkled with some salt till they turn golden brown in colour. Keep aside. For the stuffing, mix the cottage cheese with coriander leaves, green chillies, dry fruits, milk, and sugar. Now, put some stuffing in each potato case and press it down well, so that the stuffing does not pop out. Rub some oil on a non-stick tawa, place the potato cases with the stuffing facing upwards and cover to cook on medium flame for 1 minute. Repeat the process after turning them over. Serve hot with sauce or chutney.

3. Cottage cheese lassi

Ingredients: Bananas (not too ripe), grated cottage cheese, three tbsp. whole sago, one tbsp. powdered sago, curd – one cup, cumin powder, sugar, and salt to taste, ice cubes and mint leaves for garnish

Method: Boil the sago with water and keep aside. Blend the curd, cumin powder, cottage cheese, and boiled sago with 2 ice cubes. Add a little water, powdered sago, banana and sugar. Blend them again until smooth. You can leave it a little grainy if preferred. Garnish with mint leaves and serve chilled.

4. Cottage cheese fruit bowl

Ingredients: Cottage cheese, fruits of your choice (here we will be using black grapes, green grapes and ripe mango), dry fruits (almonds, pistachios, cashew nuts), sesame seeds, salt and pepper to taste, lemon juice, honey

Method: Mix the crumbled or cubed cottage cheese with salt, pepper and lemon juice and keep aside for fifteen minutes. Chop the fruits and dry fruits. Mix them both in a bowl. Add honey and sprinkle sesame seeds on top for a healthy breakfast.

5. Cottage cheese pancake

Ingredients: Cottage cheese, oats, eggs, (honey, banana, maple syrup, dry fruits are optional)

Method: Mix all three—crumbled cottage cheese, egg yolk and rolled oats in a mixer. Blend them until they are smooth, add water if necessary. Ensure that the batter is thick. Spread the batter thinly on a hot non-stick pan with a little oil or butter. Fry both sides until it is light brown in colour. Use honey, bananas or maple syrup as toppings. Make it tastier by adding dry fruits or peanut butter to the batter. A protein-rich, healthy breakfast is as simple as this.

6. Cottage cheese in almond-based gravy

Ingredients: 250g cottage cheese (cubed), two tomatoes (blended into a paste), half tbsp. each of turmeric, chilli, cumin, coriander and garam masala, sugar and salt to taste, 1 cup milk, whole dried red chillies, 1 onion, ginger-garlic paste, skinned almonds (the skin can be removed easily by soaking them in water)

Method: Marinate the cottage cheese with turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt. Keep aside for a while. Blend the almonds, onion, red chillies and ginger garlic paste into a fine paste. Heat some oil in the pan and fry the marinated cottage cheese cubes for a minute or two. Remove them from the pan and filter the oil with a paper towel. Heat the oil and sauté the almond paste until the raw smell goes off. Add the spice powders and tomato puree. Stir until the oil separates. Add the fried cottage cheese, milk, salt and sugar. Cook and stir until gravy becomes thick. Serve with hot rotis.  

7. Cottage cheese fritters (pakora)

Ingredients: 150g of cottage cheese (small cubes), 1 cup gram flour, 1 tbsp. of spice powders – garam masala, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, chat masala, hing (asafoetida), half tbsp. of carom seeds (ajwain), mustard oil, salt to taste

Method: Mix everything, except cottage cheese and mustard oil, with water to form a batter. Ensure there are no lumps. Heat the mustard oil in a pan. Dip the cubes in the batter and drop them into medium hot oil. Fry until they turn golden brown. Drain the fritters with a paper towel to absorb the oil. Serve with tomato sauce or coriander chutney for a delicious evening snack.

8. Appe (popularly known as paniyaram in South India)

Ingredients: Cottage cheese, 1 cup of soaked semolina, 2 tbsp. of grated coconut, one-fourth tbsp. of melted jaggery, 1 mashed banana, cardamom powder, crushed cashew nuts, salt

Method: Mix all these ingredients into a thick batter and keep aside for thirty minutes. Heat the pan with moulds, especially made for appe. Coat moulds with ghee and pour appe batter in each of the moulds. Cover the pan with a plate until the bottom turns a rich golden brown. Repeat the process for the other side, too. Serve them hot with tomato chutney or coconut chutney for a Sunday breakfast. For spicing it up add green chopped chillies in the batter.

Click on the next page for 7 more easy and sumptuous recipes you can try with cottage cheese!

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