Cottage Cheese Toast

One of my favorite lunches from my childhood, simple cottage cheese toast, topped with fresh, chopped veggies from the garden, is a deliciously light lunch that doesn’t skimp the least little bit on flavor.

SoupAddict was thumbing through the index of Dorie Greenspan’s new French cookbook, when “Dieters Tartine” caught her eye. Hmm. An open-faced sandwich for dieters. How odd.

She flipped to the recipe page, took one look at the accompanying photo and about swallowed her gum. (SoupAddict doesn’t actually chew gum — that was said strictly for dramatic effect — but if she did, she would’ve swallowed it whole like a 3rd grader trying to hide the evidence as the teacher marched down the row to confiscate it.)

What stopped SoupAddict in her tracks was the fact that she’s been eating this fancy “French” concoction her entire life. In fact, she learned this very thing from Mother of SoupAddict (MoSA).

Who is not the slightest bit French. She is, in fact, Austro-Hungarian. Home to some of the most delicious comfort foods ever invented. Like Hungarian goulash. And paprikash.

And this open-faced sandwich.

So, the French have some ‘splainin’ to do, claiming this as their own.

While SoupAddict holds her breath waiting for a French official to proffer an explanation, she will happily share MoSA’s sandwich with you. It doesn’t even require that you write anything down, as it’s wonderfully simple.

If you still have access to late summer produce, it will make the sandwich all the more delicious and gratifying: enjoying Summer’s last hurrah on a slice of artisan bread. SoupAddict had it for lunch yesterday and will be having it for lunch again today.

SoupAddict’s gardens are largely gardened out — we’re having a fairly serious drought here in the Midwest — but a few brave souls are still pumping out food.

Freshly picked tomatoes and cucumbers were there for taking (and take, SoupAddict did).

In case you were on the fence as to the weirdness of SoupAddict, this should tip you right over in the direction of “Oh, yes, that’s aye-firmative.”

SoupAddict loves to photograph her tomatoes. And this picture of a Black Krim turned out so well, it’s going to be framed and hung in her house with past years’ tomato portraits.

See?

Weird.

Dice up the veggies. Salt-and-pepper them ever-so-lightly.

Now here’s where the French influence inserts itself on MoSA’s recipe: the fussy French method takes non-fat cottage cheese and adds non-fat sour cream, whisking the two vigorously together until smooth and creamy. SoupAddict started to do this, and then stopped halfway through.

Unnecessary. Fussy. Add the sour cream if you want. Or don’t. Or use full-fat cottage cheese instead of non-fat. MoSA would use 2%. And because MoSA is always right, SoupAddict uses 2%, too. Not a fan of cottage cheese? Try a thin layer of Boursin.

Toast a slice of artisan bread (this slice is from a lovely pane toscano boule). Spread cottage cheese evenly across the top.

Add your diced veggies. Sprinkle with your favorite herbs (optional).

Done. MoSA is brillant. And she’ll be thrilled when I show her the picture of her sandwich in a French cookbook.

Karen xo

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Cottage Cheese Toast

Topped with fresh chopped veggies and a sprinkling of herbs, this simple open-faced sandwich is a light and refreshing lunch.

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time0 minutes mins

Total Time5 minutes mins

Course: Sandwich

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cottage cheese tartine, cottage cheese toast

Servings: 1

Calories: 210kcal

Author: Karen Gibson

Ingredients

• 1 slice bread lightly toasted, if desired
• 1/4 cup cottage cheese (use low-fat, if desired)
• 1/4 cup mixed chopped vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, celery, green onions
• 1/4 teaspoon Italian herb blend (or use your favorite herbs)
• finishing salt

Instructions

• Spread the cottage cheese on the slice of bread
• Top with the chopped vegetables
• Season lightly with salt and herbs. Serve immediately.

Nutrition

Calories: 210kcal

Nutritional information, if shown, is provided as a courtesy only, and is not to be taken as medical information or advice. The nutritional values of your preparation of this recipe are impacted by several factors, including, but not limited to, the ingredient brands you use, any substitutions or measurement changes you make, and measuring accuracy.