This protein-packed Cottage Cheese Egg Bake with spinach and chicken sausage is filling and delicious. Enjoy for breakfast, lunch, or dinner with a salad and some crusty bread.
Cottage Cheese Egg and Sausage Frittata
As you may have heard me mention, I have been trying to get more protein in all my meals. Eggs are already high in protein, so cottage cheese and eggs combined add extra protein, perfect for people who don’t like the taste of cottage cheese. For more recipes that use cottage cheese, see my High Protein Bread, Savory Cottage Cheese Bowl, and Strawberry Protein Smoothie.
I love cottage cheese and have been experimenting with using it in recipes. I loved how this Egg Cottage Cheese and Sausage Frittata turned out. It’s a delicious high-protein breakfast and a great way to eat cottage cheese if you’re not a fan of eating it plain.
This sausage frittata almost reminds me of my Italian father-in-law’s, which uses ricotta. I also added Pecorino Romano cheese and Italian sausage for flavor, plus some baby spinach. The cottage cheese gives the frittata such a great texture and adds more protein to the eggs.
What is a good high-protein breakfast?
Breakfast is considered high protein if it has at least 15-20 grams of protein. Cottage cheese is obviously a great choice as a one-cup serving can have over 25 grams of protein. Below are some more high-protein breakfast ideas:
- Quiches: Crustless Quiche Lorraine, Ham and Swiss Crustless Quiche
- Omelets: Omelet Tortilla Breakfast Wrap, Goat Cheese Herb Omelet with Nova Lox
- Breakfast Bowls: Chorizo Breakfast Bowl, Breakfast Taco Scramble
- Sandwiches: BLT Breakfast Sandwich, Bacon, Egg, & Avocado Bagel Sandwich, PBJ on High Protein Bread
- Egg Casseroles: Tex Mex Breakfast Casserole, Sausage, Cheese, and Veggie Breakfast Casserole
- Eggs Benedict: Crab Cakes Benedict, Swiss Chard Eggs Benedict
- Greek Yogurt: Greek Yogurt with Berries, Nuts, and Honey
What pan do you use for a frittata?
You will need an oven-safe skillet to make a frittata. It starts on the stove but finishes cooking in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. Use a non-stick pan that can go in a 350-degree oven or a cast iron skillet.
How to Meal Prep a Frittata:
Frittatas can be made ahead and reheated, making them great for meal prep. Just put the baked frittata into four meal-prep containers, cover, and refrigerate for three to four days.
To eat, bring to room temperature, or reheat in the microwave in 30-second intervals until heated through.
What do you serve with a frittata?
Frittatas are excellent on their own as they are pretty filling since they’re so high in protein. If you’re looking to round out your meal, I have some suggestions for you:
- For breakfast, serve the Italian sausage frittata with hash browns, fruit or whole grain bread.
- For lunch or dinner, eat the frittata with a salad and bread or a vegetable side dish.
Variations:
- Sub the spinach for swiss chard or kale or try it with broccoli or bell pepper instead.
- Use Italian turkey sausage if you can’t find chicken.
- Instead of baking the frittata, scramble the eggs and eat it as a veggie sausage scramble.
- Make sausage frittata muffins by pouring the egg mixture into a muffin tin and baking at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
More Frittata Recipes You’ll Love:
- Caramelized Onion, Red Pepper and Zucchini Frittata
- Spinach and Feta Frittata
- Bell Pepper and Potato Frittata
- Light Swiss Chard Frittata
- Turkey and Sweet Potato Frittata
Cottage Cheese Egg Bake (Frittata)
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- 1 link Italian chicken sausage casings removed
- 8 large eggs
- 1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese I love Good Culture
- 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup chopped baby spinach
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Move oven rack to the second highest from the top.
- Lightly spray a 10-inch oven safe skillet with cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk eggs, cottage cheese, Pecorino, spinach, salt and pepper. Set aside.
- Add sausage to a skillet, breaking it up in small pieces with a wooden spoon over medium heat and cook, until browned and cooked through, about 4 minutes.
- Add the egg mixture to skillet and cook 1 minute to let the bottom set.
- Bake in the oven until the top is set, about 16 to 18 minutes.
- With a spatula, carefully slide frittata out of the skillet onto a cutting board and cut into 4 wedges.
- Serve with salad and whole grain bread, if desired.
This was so good!! We didn’t have all the ingredients to match the recipe but it was really close! Exchanged bacon for sausage and feta for cottage cheese. Super yummy!Â
How to sub frozen chopped spinach for the fresh in this recipe?
Just defrost? Not cook? Well drained, possibly “squeezed” a tad?
And can it be left out altogether? A family member has restrictions on renal diet for several veggies, spinach being one of them. Â If I leave out of “personal size frittata” will finished dish be affected in consistency, texture, cook time…?
Thank you in advance for addressing my questions😊.
—iris
Hi Iris! I’m not Gina, but I’ve made this frittata with frozen spinach and it worked just fine. Yes, you always thaw it first, and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. I let it drain in a collander while it defrosted, then squeezed it, then roughly chopped it.
If you leave it out, I’d suggest either adding something “fibrous” back in – chopped parsley, kale, or chopped green cabbage [sauté it first in a little garlic for extra “yummmmmmmm” – I did this, and it was amaaaaaazing!]. If it’s those types of veggies your family member is sensitive to, you can also do romaine or iceberg lettuce! I know that might sound very strange, but if you grill it/broil it first with a little salt and pepper and some dried/fresh thyme, you get some gorgeous charring texture and smoky flavour, and it’s really good! I’ve done that in this recipe, too! Trust me!
DELICIOUS! I subbed 4 egg whites for 4 whole eggs and reduced green points by 2. Excellent!
This was amazing! I used pork sausage and just cut down the amount to minimize calories. I also just used the jarred grated parmesan cheese because it’s what I had lol. It was DELICIOUS. It would need a few minutes more in the oven in my opinion but it was perfect. Thank you!
I swapped the sausage for leftover grilled mushrooms and red peppers, it came out perfect!!
OK to leave out the Pecorino/Romano/Parmesan? If so, anything that should be amended to account for the change? Assume it might impact texture but hope it wouldn’t be too big a deal 🙂Â
If it’s the dairy part you’re avoiding, throw in some nutritional yeast! If it’s the flavour you’re avoiding, I’d swap with chopped peppers or tomato [as long as you remove the fleshy seeds/cook a little longer]! I’ve done both, they worked out fine!
Loved this one! Filling, easy and paired with a side side was perfect. Make it if you haven’t yet.
So good! I only had a precooked chicken sausage (basil pesto), so pulsed it in the mini food processor and added it to the eggs. Very flavorful, and a BIG portion size. I baked it in a pie plate in the oven. It took a little longer to get the center to set, but the outside didn’t burn.
This was my first frittata. I bought a special oven-proof pan skillet for it. I am OBSESSED with it. My husband (who is not an egg fan) loves it too. Thanks again Gina! 🙂Â
My new favorite frittata recipe. I love the fluffiness. I too love good culture cottage cheese. I made mine with mushrooms, onion, and sun dried tomatoes. I didn’t have sausage. Its wonderful
Gina, I can’t thank you enough… not just for THIS recipe, but for every one i have tried…. the only time they weren’t great, was when one of my off-shoot experiments have gone awry! lol, but mostly, even when I stray from the recipe, it comes out great… I’m no great cook, but over the past year, consistently using your recipes, I have gotten better and better, and my healthy food journey has really become a lifestyle! Back to THIS recipe, though.. I DID go off track like some of the others, and i STILLLOVED it and it was a big success for my sorta last minute Easter Brunch… I told my family, if it’s not good we have a good salad! ha… well I made my Frittata with reduced fat Feta cheese along with the Romano, so about 1/4 cup each. Then i used spinach/feta chicken sausages – two links – from Lidl (120 each, so half per serving) the entire thing came out to 349 Calories per serving – and I’m on Noom, so 30 green, 57 red and the rest yellow! SOOO yummy, i couldnt even wait till lunch for leftovers 🙂
ps, i forgot to add salt, and it was salty enough without, presumably because of the Locatelli 🙂
Delicious! Â Good texture. Â Made some modifications based on ingredients I had. Â No one noticed it had cottage cheese.
Did not add the salt because my homemade turkey breakfast sausage had plenty.
Added mushrooms.
This is delicious! Love the creaminess that the cottage cheese added to the recipe! Twice this week I made this twice this. Thanks for another delicious Skinnytaste recipe!!
Super delicious recipe! I also loved that it contained healthy ingredients and cooked easily. Only thing I had to do was cover skillet with foil since the center needed additional time to bake.
I made this today for lunch and it was phenomenal! Â I was skeptical about the cottage cheese at first but it was delicious. Â I will definitely be making this again!
So good for make-ahead lunches! Keeps me full for so long!
This recipe is amazing! I made just two small changes, using 2 sausage links instead of 1, and I was out of parm so I used 1/2oz of freshly shredded Asiago. My points still game out as 7 (Green), which made me super happy. The flavor of this dish is really excellent, and is perfect for me (WW) and my son (Keto) to share. Thank you Gina!
This quiche recipe is the best afternoon delight.
This is an eggcelent fritatta! I used some broccoli instead of the spinach. (recipes like these are great for cleaning out the freezer:). I also added some mushrooms. For some reason, mine came out very salty. I will cut the salt in half next time.
Delicious, but mine was quite salty, too. I’ll cut it by at least half next time.
Hi! How many servings does this make?
4