Mediterranean cottage cheese bowls
Creamy cottage cheese piled with a lemony chopped salad of cucumber, tomato, olives and red onion, scooped up with pita, no cooking and 30 grams of protein a bowl.
- 15 min total
- 15 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 2
- About $4.05 a serving
- 620 calories
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 15 minutes.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 1 cucumber, diced
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- ¼ cup Kalamata olives, halved
- 2 tbsp red onions, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 2 cups cottage cheese
- 2 pita bread
From your pantry
- 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch black pepper
Each serving has about 620 calories, 33 g protein, 54 g carbs and 31 g fat, and costs about $4.05 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No cucumbers? English cucumbers or mini cucumbers work.
- No Kalamata olives? Black olives work.
- No red onions? White onions or yellow onions work.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No pita bread? Flour tortillas work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the cucumber, the tomatoes and olives, and the red onion and parsley.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Halve. Halving means cutting something into two equal pieces. Even halves cook at the same speed, so one doesn’t dry out while the other finishes.
How you’ll know: The two pieces look like mirror images of each other.
Finely chop. Finely chopping means cutting food into small pieces, a little bigger than minced, about the size of a lentil. Small pieces spread their flavor through the dish and cook quickly.
How you’ll know: Nothing is bigger than a lentil, and the pile looks like confetti rather than paste.
the vegetables with 1 tablespoon oil, the lemon juice, oregano and salt in a bowl.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Dolly’s tip: Let it sit 5 minutes. The salt pulls out tomato juice that becomes the dressing.Spoon the cottage cheese into two bowls and make a well in the middle of each.
Pile the salad into the wells, with the rest of the oil and add a crack of pepper.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Cut the pita into wedges and serve alongside for scooping.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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30-minute dinners ›High-protein dinners ›What to make with cucumber and tomatoes ›