I once had a 1970’s era bias against cottage cheese. It started young. I kept thinking it looked really lumpy gross when I was a kid, and it was something my mom only kept around because it was classified as diet food. I love pretty much all other cheese without reservation, and fortunately I’ve gotten over my earlier bias.
Why? I learned it could be baked with!
Gay Lea did one better and released Nordica Smooth Cottage Cheese, which does not have the big curds. They’re packaged in 100g /110 calorie snack-sized cups (a really good post-workout snack option as it has 25% more protein than many leading brands of Greek yogurt) and they are available in Vanilla Bean, Salted Caramel and Lemon flavours. For now, you can find Nordica Smooth in Ontario only, at most major grocery stores.
You can see how fine and smooth it is… like a slightly thicker yogurt, and with a pretty bold flavour. You can top it as you like, but it was flavoured enough to be perfect on its own.
Fingers crossed that they also introduce plain smooth cottage cheese in the big tubs! I like using cheese in all kinds of baking, and I heard you can actually substitute cottage cheese for ricotta in pasta dishes. But even so, don’t feel like you can’t use these flavoured cups in smoothies or in baking!
Some of my dearest friends are celiac, and I always feel like I don’t futz with gluten-free recipes enough, even though I love to experiment. So I whipped up a batch of gluten-free Vanilla Bean Cottage Cheese pancakes this past weekend using the Vanilla Bean Nordica Smooth Cottage Cheese. This high-protein breakfast uses gluten-free rolled oats, pulverized into flour with the aid of a coffee grinder or food processor. Oat flour rocks!
They’re very delicate compared to normal pancakes, so make sure that your griddle is well greased. Those skinny metal spatulas are perfect for the job here.
- 1/2 cup oat flour
- 3 eggs
- 200g (2 snack containers) Nordica Smooth Vanilla Bean Cottage cheese*
- 2 tbsp apple sauce or light olive oil
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- a pinch of salt
- a pinch of cinnamon
- Set your griddle to heat, medium high
- Combine the oat flour, baking powder, and cinnamon
- Blend in the cottage cheese, eggs, and apple sauce
- Once hot, grease the griddle and a thin spatula with cooking spray or a light coat of olive oil, and pour the batter by 1/4 cups on to your griddle.
- Carefully lift the edge of one pancake to check for brownness after about one minute, then lift and flip, cooking the other side till brown.
- Serve and eat while hot!
- Use care! The cottage cheese pancakes are more delicate than traditional ones, more like a quiche in texture. If you're having trouble with lifting, add a couple more tablespoons of oat flour.
- *If you don't have access to Nordica Smooth, you can substitute by blending 200g regular cottage cheese in a food processor with 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract
For more Gay Lea recipes, check out their Pinterest board.
Disclosure: I am part of the Gay Lea Ambassador Campaign and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.
These really do sound yummy.
Forwarded to a friend.