Cottage cheese is making a well-deserved comeback

When I was young a popular “diet food” was cottage cheese and half a canned cling peach. I don’t remember any talk about the heavy syrup the peach was living in before it joined forces with the cottage cheese. And it certainly wasn’t a trendy item. That was then. Cottage cheese is now active on social media in breads, pancakes and puddings. And it deserves the recognition.

Cottage cheese is made by combining milk with an acidic ingredient. The acid could be vinegar or a bacterial culture that will form lactic acid. This process separates the curds from the whey. The curds are cut into either small or large chunks. Cottage cheese comes in full fat, which is 4% fat, low fat and non fat. There are brands that have added live cultures and many with added fruits or flavorings. The fat content and added extras affect the calories per serving.

I’m glad cottage cheese is back. It is an excellent source of protein. A half cup serving of low fat cottage cheese has 14 grams of protein and that same half cup of fat free cottage cheese has 17 grams of protein. A half cup of cottage cheese has more protein than 2 eggs. Add to that the calcium, riboflavin and B12 in the cottage cheese. A cautionary note. That same half cup of cottage cheese could have 300mg or more of sodium. Read the label, and if you are on a sodium restriction factor this amount into your daily intake.

Cottage cheese is versatile. My go to this week is 1.5% cottage cheese with big plump blueberries. My friend Susan mixes cottage cheese with Greek yogurt for a high protein snack with active cultures. Norma May says it is the best topping for Japanese sweet potatoes. A few other ways to enjoy cottage cheese is in a smoothie, spread on whole wheat toast and topped with berries, with added herbs and spices and used as a dip or topping a bowl of oatmeal. Poor little Miss Muffet was enjoying cottage cheese when the pesky spider scared her away.