How To Easily Transform Cottage Cheese Into A Delicious Flatbread

Seeing cottage cheese on a menu is unlikely to get too many people excited unless you're ordering palak paneer at an Indian restaurant. However, this moist cheese with its subtly milky curds becomes an unlikely star when baked into a flatbread. The texture of raw cottage cheese, notorious for putting people off, actually works to its advantage and gives the bread a delicate texture while the fat content provides some gorgeous browning. It's easy to see why cottage cheese flatbread recipes have gone viral.

Turning cottage cheese into bread has several advantages — it's packed with protein, versatile, and comes together in just about 40 minutes. Eggs are added to help bind the bread together, making it flourless and, therefore, gluten-free. You can add herbs, seeds, or even sugar and dried fruits depending on how you want to flavor the bread. In fact, you've probably got all the ingredients you need to make this flatbread, and it may just become your favorite way of using cottage cheese in the kitchen.

To make cottage cheese flatbread, all you need is a cup of cottage cheese (strained, with the liquid removed), two eggs, salt, herbs, and seasoning of your choice. Garlic and onion powder add a nice flavor base to the bread, but you can add dried or fresh herbs of your choosing as well. For best results, squeeze out as much of the liquid from the cottage cheese as you can. Both full-fat and low-fat varieties of cottage cheese work for this recipe.

Once you have your ingredients in place, simply blend them together to form a thick batter and pour it into a shallow baking dish lined with parchment paper. Bake for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, or until you can insert a toothpick into the bread and it comes out clean. If the top begins to brown too quickly, cover the tray with aluminum foil for about 15 minutes, and then bake uncovered for the rest of the cooking time. Since this is a non-rising flatbread, it bakes quickly and evenly.

While it's best eaten fresh, you can also refrigerate cottage cheese flatbread in a sealed container for up to seven days or freeze it for up to three months. Once thawed, you can even reheat it in the microwave without worrying about ruining its texture since it is sturdier than regular bread.

Because of how easy it is to make, you can try variations of cottage cheese flatbread to boost its health quotient and flavor. To pack even more protein into each serving, add some rolled oats or high-protein flour to the batter. A tablespoon of baking powder per cup of additional flour or oats ensures the bread stays soft. A sprinkling of roasted seeds also adds a nice crunchy texture. For a vegan version of the viral flatbread, substitute the cottage cheese with a firm or extra-firm variety of tofu. Simply crumble the tofu, mix it with the other ingredients, and blend to make a homogenous batter before baking.

When making a sandwich using flatbread, cover half the bread with your toppings of choice and fold the other half over so it resembles a soft taco. As you'll see, this flatbread can be used to make delicious deli-level sandwiches at home. If it's thin enough, you can even use it to make a wrap.

Cottage cheese gives the bread a slightly creamy taste which pairs well with most sandwich fixings. For a healthy Mediterranean-inspired snack, spread cream cheese, Greek yogurt, or Tzatziki on the bread and top it with fresh tomato, cucumber, and olive slices. If you're leaning toward Italian flavors, try a combination of thinly sliced prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, and spicy arugula. For dessert, a sweet version of the bread can be topped with fresh fruits and honey.