This Savory Cottage Cheese Bowl topped with veggies and pistachios is a protein-packed breakfast that will keep you full all morning.
Savory Cottage Cheese Bowl
I love cottage cheese but don’t always want to top it with fruit. These Savory Cottage Cheese Bowls with cucumbers, bell pepper, and tomatoes are a great solution. Perfect for breakfast or snack, they are an easy way to get more protein in your day. If you’re not a fan of the taste of cottage cheese, you can use yogurt instead. For more high protein cottage cheese recipes see my whipped cottage cheese bowls, cottage cheese cheesecake and lasagna with cottage cheese.
Why This Works
Cottage cheese is having a moment and I am so here for it!! Here’s why I love these bowls:
- Healthy: Cottage cheese is a great, healthy breakfast. While low in carbs and sugar, it’s very high in protein.
- High Protein: A one-cup serving can have more than 25 grams of protein! Cottage cheese is also a good source of calcium, phosphorous, vitamin B12, and riboflavin.
- Savory: I like to start my morning on most days with a savory breakfast. This is such a great way to get a cup of veggies with your morning meal.
What You’ll Need
I start with cottage cheese as my base then top them with whatever colorful vegetables I have in my fridge and nuts for extra protein and crunch. Here’s how I made this (see recipe card below for exact measurements):
- Cottage Cheese (I love Good Culture, you can use whipped if you prefer)
- Persian cucumbers
- Bell pepper, use multi color
- Grape tomatoes
- Chives or scallion greens
How to Meal Prep Savory Cottage Cheese Bowls:
These savory cottage cheese bowls are super simple to prep ahead. Just cut your veggies and pistachios the night before and store in separate food containers. Wait on cutting the tomatoes until right before eating as they can get soggy if cut too soon. You could even cut extra vegetables, so you have enough to make bowls for the next few days.
When ready to eat, scoop cottage cheese into a bowl, cut your tomatoes, and top with vegetables, nuts, salt, and pepper.
Variations:
- Use regular cucumbers or English cucumbers if you can’t find Persian.
- Sub yellow or orange bell pepper instead of red.
- Leftover roasted veggies can be used instead.
- Swap grape tomatoes for cherry tomatoes.
- Replace pistachios with pine nuts or almonds if you prefer.
- Use Greek yogurt if you’re not a cottage-cheese fan.
- Top with everything bagel seasoning instead of salt.
More High-Protein Breakfast Recipes You’ll Love:
- Chorizo Breakfast Bowls
- Crustless Quiche Lorraine
- Meal Prep Breakfast Taco Scramble
- Strawberry Peanut Butter Swirl Smoothie Bowls
- Tex Mex Breakfast Casserole
Savory Cottage Cheese Bowl
Ingredients
- ¾ cup low fat cottage cheese, I like Good Culture
- 2 tablespoons minced chives or finely minced scallion greens, divided
- Freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup sliced Persian cucumbers
- ½ medium bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 10 halved grape tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon chopped, roasted shelled pistachios
- Kosher salt
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine cottage cheese with 1 tablespoon chives and pepper, to taste.
- Layer cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes on top then garnish with remaining 1 tablespoon chives and pistachios.
- Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper, to taste.
I would have never thought to combine any of these ingredients but after making over 10 of your recipes I had to at least try. It is absolutely amazing. I’ve been eating it daily. Thank you so very much Gina!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Recent convert to cottage cheese! I love it with the veggs and nuts. I also did a little squeeze of lemon juice over it. Gives it some zing!
Cottage cheese texture turns me off. I think I’ll try it with farmers cheese.
I added a couple teaspoons of feta cheese. Takes it to the next level!
Yum!
I’ve been doing this for a few years now with cherub tomatoes and cucumbers. I top mine with the bagel seasoning. I use 1/2 – 2/3 cup cottage cheese for mine, though. I usually enjoy this for lunch time, as I can’t eat that much at breakfast. Great idea adding pistachios, going to try adding some chopped.
Quick, healthy and delicious! I top it off with a little bit of chili crisp or a drizzle of balsamic!
This is delicious and so satisfying!
Scrumptious, quick and easy! This is a keeper for sure. An easy to customize nutritious breakfast that is savory, not sweet, and it was delicious and filling.
Thank you for sharing your recipes and knowledge. I’ve enjoyed your website for years.
Love this bowl! Especially in the summer with fresh from the garden veggies!
So easy and fresh. Great way to get protein and veggies in
This is a staple in my diet! I highly recommend adding a teaspoon (or more, haha) of chili crisp. It’s addictive!
I’ve never used chili crisp… what brand do you recommend?
Makes a good lunch. I use a light sprinkle of Cavendar’s Greek Seasoning. It is quite salty so start out with just a little.
This is one of the most delicious dishes I have ever eaten. Highly recommend
Great idea! I chop vegetables and olives and mix them into a carton of cottage cheese, then snack on it all week!
Very delicious! I added Everything Bagel seasoning and loved it!
I make this for dinner. Tasty. A nice way to recover if I’ve had too many calories earlier in the day.
I love this recipe but the veggies overwhelmed the cottage cheese. I love getting the veggies in the morning, but wanted more cottage cheese.
Used roasted red peppers instead of raw. Delicious and very filling.
Good idea Marcy. Roasted red peppers are one of my favs but I never would have thought to eat them with cottage cheese.
I’ve been eating this for a long time, but add a serving of smoked salmon. Ups the protein big time, and it’s so delicious!
This is a keeper! I could eat this every day for lunch! So good. I add a little finishing olive oil and balsamic glaze.
Excellent idea to get more veggies in! I used cottage cheese, a small cucumber, half a red bell pepper, some grape tomatoes, cashews, a squeeze of lime juice and everything but the bagel seasoning. Awesome flavor!
Wow, I am so surprised. I really thought I was not going to like this. But the flavor combo is really perfect! It bursts in your mouth! Thank you for a delicious new addition to my healthy meals recipe!
This has become one of my FAVORITE afternoon snacks. So delicious and filling.
So yummy! 😋 I will definitely be making this again.
Just had this for lunch and it was phenomenal!! I made it exactly as written but I love that I can change it up if I want to. Thank you, Gina, for all the work you put into creating healthy, protein-packed, delicious and easy recipes! I will put this on my lunch rotation for good.
Thanks Aimee! Glad you enjoyed it!
Absolutely delicious! I am following the 7 day meal plan and this came up as a breakfast. I never thought I’d like it, but it’s scrumptious, filling and fresh.
Eating this as part of this week’s high protein meal plan – so delicious and what a great way to get extra veggies in!
I cook from online recipes 90% of the time, and I don’t think I’ve ever left feedback. This time I felt compelled to say thank you for such a fresh and delicious option to get on the cottage cheese and high protein train. I love this savory version, the crunch of the pistachios is fantastic! Why have I never thought to add fresh veggies to CC I have no idea! I’m hooked!!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Ok, this is seriously delicious and takes minutes to make! I didn’t have pistachios so used pumpkin seeds and threw in leftover roasted green beans! So yummy!
Quick, easy and so tasty!
This was so easy and I honestly never thought of this combo before. Was surprised at how much I liked it. Was just perfect and filling and looking forward to making this again (and may try some variations)!
Such a great idea. I’ve also added smoked salmon, scallions, dill and chia seeds as a combo. So many ways to take it, depending on what you have that is going to die soon!
One of my very favorite breakfasts! I eat this honestly like 50% of the time in some variation. Very easy to change it up with other veggies, too, if you don’t have something. I always top with everything bagel seasoning now too.
I didn’t think I was going to like this, but it’s delicious!
Quick and easy to make. Great option for low calorie high protein breakfast.
I made this and it was very good!!
Something different for breakfast
So I hit the blue WW button and it was 3 points, but my 3/4 c of low-fat good culture cottage cheese was 4 points and then I had to add the 1 pt for the pistachios
So this whole bowl was 5points!!!🤔
I found the same to be true! I wish I knew what the difference is. Even in the recipe after you hit WW button, it shows 4 points for the cottage cheese and 1 for pistachios but the total says 3.
Love this recipe, especially the pistachios! When I get tired of the everything bagel seasoning, I sub a sprinkle of Montreal steak seasoning.
Love this especially during a hot summer but good anytime. I make the sauce from your Seattle Asian Salmon bowls and top it with that which I highly recommend trying! Delicious!!!!
Easy to make, protein packed and delicious!
One of my go-to summer lunches. I love it!
So good ! Easy and quick
I love this cottage cheese bowl I eat it for lunch at least once a week. Recently I started drizzling a little bit of Mike’s Hot Honey over top that little bit of sweetness and spice is fantastic.
I always keep ingredients on hand to make these. Good for breakfast or a high protein snack.
Do you have a regular cook book? This recipe was
Delicious Thank you
Yes 🙂 https://www.skinnytaste.com/cookbook/
Love these for lunch. One of my go-to’s every week!
Oh, my goodness! I think I’ve just found my “go to” lunch. This is sooooo good! I used the everything bagel seasoning and substituted pine nuts for the pistachios, just because I had it on hand.
I absolutely love this recipe. I struggle with trying to get 5 servings of fruits & vegetables in per day (especially since I’d rather lean on the majority of those being vegetables!) this is a great solution for me. I basically use whatever vegetables that I have sometimes I chop up extras and keep them in a little cup so I can just pop them out. I also sometimes substitute Greek yogurt when I’m out of cottage cheese. It seems to work just fine I don’t know why I had never really considered this type of recipe for breakfast! Thanks SO much.
This is insanely good. If I don’t have pistachios, I use cashews or almonds instead. Super savory and filling! Great lunch idea!
I am obsessed with this recipe. Literally EVERY time I make it I am like “no way I need more cottage cheese that THAT?!” but I stick to the recipe and its amazing how big it is when it all comes together! Each time I think it won’t be enough and each time I end up extremely full haha. I LOOOOOOVE this recipe
I love this bowl! So simple yet so delicious and filling!!
For anyone else with major cottage cheese texture problems: BLEND IT. It’s game changing.
I never thought about making a savory cottage cheese bowl for breakfast. It was so delicious and filling. I love all the different colors, textures and flavors in it and it was so quick and easy to make. I added Everything Bagel seasoning as you suggested. I will definitely be adding this to the regular rotation!
Went out of my comfort zone with this one! Added everything but the bagel seasoning as suggested. So many flavors and textures. Delicious, healthy, and filling. Will make again!
I’ve always been nervous to try cottage cheese because of the texture. I love veggies but am tired of salads. I tried this recipe with regular Wegmans-brand low fat small curd cottage cheese and loved it. I left out the pistachios and used cherry tomatoes instead since I prefer them + we always have them around. Loved it! This will be perfect for breakfast, especially on days I go into the office.
I added the Peruvian green sauce to this. Yummy
This is insanely good. I have always just done fruit with cottage cheese. My sister tried this and said it was good so I gave it a try. So good. What a great way to get more veggies too, which I admit, I struggle to do.
I never leave reviews on anything, but this…WOW! I don’t even like cottage cheese, but as a vegetable I’m always looking for ways to get more protein. This checks all the boxes—veggies, protein, flavor, and texture with the added bonus of being things I always have in hand. If you’re on the fence, try it!
This is so much better than you think it will be! I don’t care for sweet breakfasts like oatmeal and muffins, but get tired of eggs. This was a perfect switch up! I didn’t have scallions, but used some red onion and chives. I skipped the pistachios too. This is really flavorful & great on the go!
Fast, versatile and super tasty. I make this often now. I like to use Everything but the Bagel seasoning from Trader Joes.
I never leave reviews for anything, however, my love for this simple recipe needs to be shared! This is quite possibly the best cottage cheese I have ever had. I pluses it up with a drizzle of TJ’s chili crunch and WOW! This will be my go to breakfast from here on out.
Clever idea to get more protein throughout the day as well as more veggies. Tend to have those veggies on hand, but also improvise when needed. So it’s a nice clean the fridge at the end of the week if needed too.
My absolute favorite snack for any time of the day! 😋
Love this. I know it is a little unusual when you first see it but it is delicious and worth trying. I actually make the the sauce from your Seattle Asian Salmon bowls and add that to it to give it just a little extra something.
I very hesitantly tried this recipe (I typically like fruit with my cottage cheese). But this recipe was excellent. It’s become a regular breakfast for me. It’s fresh and satisfying. A great way to get a full serving of veggies and a low-fat burst of protein in the morning. I use whatever veggies I have on hand but the scallions and bell peppers are a must. Very good.
What if I’d like to swap the cottage cheese for a non dairy or different option, how to I change it on relish so that it appears on the shopping carts and also so I can count the macros?
Yum !
Thanks SO much for this beautiful and tasty recommendation. It seems so simple. I’ve made it several times this week and it’s delicious and beautiful. I’ve long thought that I need to somehow add veggies first thing in the morning in order to hit that 5 a day goal. I just couldn’t think of a quick, easy way. This is it.
This was delicious, fresh, and way more filling than I was expecting. I love trying your recipies!
So yummy! I would have never thought to make a savory cottage cheese bowl but this totally works. I just so happened to have everything on hand and threw this together in a matter of minutes. I’ll most definitely make this again!
This is my favorite breakfast now. It is so easy and delicious!
I finally got around to trying this and it is fabulous! So filling.
Scrumptious exactly as written.
Best savory breakfast ever!! I love cottage cheese and would never have thought about this combo but it is amazing! I usually do fruit with cottage cheese but this was a great switch up and love the high protein
Made this this morning. So chock full of good stuff, will be adding to my weekly rotation.
I had forgotten the beauty of CC. Like tofu, it is easy to elevate. Years ago, as a poor student in London, flatmates and I regularly ate cottage cheese and mixed it with whatever was on sale, sweet or savory.
Great!
Have just received your your SKINNYTASTE Ultimate Meal Planner and our plan is to follow it and use it to help us improve our lifestyle.
Hope you love it!
My new go-to breakfast! Love this!
Absolutely delicious! I made it as written and added some everything bagel seasoning on top. It’s a perfectly light, yet filling breakfast. I’ll definitely make it again.
Hmmmm…. I like cottage cheese so I’ll try this but it seems you can add anything to cottage cheese and it will taste good, ie., fruits, veggies and even meats!
I’ll add this recipe to my list. 🙂
This is so gooooooooooooooooooooooood
This is SO GOOD! I don’t like tomatoes and totally forgot to add the cucumbers, but I had red peppers, chives, slivered almonds, roasted garlic seasoning, salt, and pepper. YUM! It’s wonderful to have something new for breakfast that isn’t your standard eggs.
This is delicious! I am always trying to find something new for breakfast. This was a rainbow in a bowl and full of protein. I am definitely having this in the regular rotation.
I have accepted a challenge from a group of running friends to incorporate more produce into my meals to use up the bounty of garden goodness. This was my opportunity to try something savory for breakfast outside of my usual choice of eggs with veggies. I loved it! Will be making more often.
I was a cottage cheese skeptic but these bowls are really delicious. Thank you! My husband and I have been having them a lot. The everything bagel spice takes it over the top!
Really Good. I wasn’t sure I could do vegetables for breakfast, but it was fine!! The ratio of cheese to vegetable was a little off, heavy on vegetables.
This was delicious! The crunch factor, which makes it so satisfying was amazing. The possibilities are endless as to what you can include. I added a chopped hard boiled egg, my avocado was too hard and some very thin sliced baby carrots. Sliced black olives I think would also be yummy, also chick peas, kidneys or black beans. Tomorrow I think my Peach Truck peaches will be ready, so I’m doing a fruit version with almonds.
Delicious and satisfying!
Amazing recipe! I’ve always eaten cottage cheese with fruits or jam and the idea of eating it with veggies was completely foreign to me. However, this tastes so good!! I’ve already made these bowls several times. The pistachios add the perfect amount of flavor and crunch.
So good! Kind of surprisingly good for how simple it it. I didn’t have any chives but otherwise made as stated with lots of pepper. Will definitely make again and often. Thanks!
This isn’t something I would have normally been drawn to, but the reviews were so good I decided to try it and really liked it! After telling my husband about it last night, I made one for him to take to work today and he just texted me:
“Ok, that was weird. It IS tasty!! Thank you!”
Haha!! Thanks for the great lunch idea Gina!
Awesome!
Would have never guessed that this could be … that good! So satisfying
Such a great summertime meal! My new go to brunch. Followed the recipe exact and threw a few chic peas, kidney beans and green beans in, topped it with everything seasoning …. WOW
I’ve always eaten cottage cheese with fruit, even though my mom always ate it with Tobasco or any hot sauce we had on hand. I just ate this for breakfast and it was DEE-LISH!!! So satisfying and a good way to get more veggies in!!! Thanks again, Gina!
I remember my mom eating low fat cottage cheese with pepper and chives. It was unappetizing to look at and tasted awful. This is not my mother’s savory cottage cheese, this is delicious!
This is so good I like cottage cheese, but am not normally a fan of topping it with anything. THIS recipe is a total game changer! The flavour is amazing! Don’t skip the Pistachios….for such a tiny amount they really add to the dish. Delicious and packed with protein – what more could you ask for?
OH MY WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SOOOOOOOOOOOOO good!!!!!!
I love this cottage cheese bowl for breakfast. I’m not crazy about egg dishes and this is perfect for me. I eat cottage cheese or yogurt with fruit all the time, but the veggies really are a great change.
Thanks for including something so simple.
I drizzled honey over it. Tasted so good!
Good one, It was better then expected. I love cottage cheese and do like Good Culture a lot. The chives and pistachios are really good here. I like veggies at breakfast, so a winner with me. Thanks
Sooooo good and easy to make!
Sweet mother of god! I had no idea how much i would LOVE this and CRAVE this! I hate it took me 42 years to discover this bowl of yummy goodness!! The everything bagel seasoning sprinkled on top just adds to the perfection!!
I’ve been making a version of this recipe for years. We use whatever vegetables in the refrigerator plus add 3 Kalamata olives, sliced or chopped. For lunch I’ll add 1/2 can water packed tuna. It’s filling and delicious.
I am bloen away at your website. New member doing weight watchers, single mom, really can’t thank you enough for making it easy snd accessible! Finally feels possible!
Thank you!
Try it with some balsamic glaze drizzled over.
I absolutely cannot get enough of this recipe. I’ve shared it with several in my office. I’m even admitting that some days I’ve had it for lunch and dinner 🙂 I love that it fills me up without making me feel too full. It’s such a fresh and clean meal.
I really like adding red and yellow bell peppers and I’ve been using Everything Bagel seasoning sprinkled on top. It adds a nice mix of seasonings.
This is a definite winner for me. Thank you for the great recipe.
This has easily become one of my favourite breakfasts. Easy, tasty and satisfying.
Great!
This was so yummy! My husband didn’t care for it as breakfast so it will be more of a lunch thing in our house.
I just started following your meal plan, and have to say that I wasn’t entirely thrilled with the thought of cottage cheese. But! I told myself I’m going to try everything, no matter what, at least once. I need to make some drastic changes in my life, so I need to start somewhere.
I did buy the Good Culture cottage cheese as stated in the recipe, and it didn’t resemble the stuff I remember my mom eating with pickles and peaches. I was surprised I actually enjoyed it! All the veggies in it are super yummy.
This is SO good. I am NOT a cottage cheese person, but really needed to up my protein intake to even try to make my macros so I was willing to give this a try.
Well I have just had it twice in a row the last two days! There are so many delicious veggies that treat the cottage cheese as more like a dip than the main event – plus the chives – yum.
I made it a side with 2 leftover ST Italian Beef and Spinach Meatballs and I pretty much died and went to heaven.
Hi, I tracked this in my WW app just by using the nutritional information provided and came out with 7 points? I am hoping this is wrong but absolutely love the recipe!
The only accurate way to determine any recipe’s SmartPoints® value is to plug the ingredients into the recipe builder on the Weight Watchers website (Click on “My Foods,” select “Recipe,” and click “Create a recipe.”) which does not count fruits and vegetables in recipes in the calculations as they are now 0 points.
The SmartPoints® calculator isn’t meant for recipes and will often give you the wrong points (usually higher) because it’s counting the fruits and vegetables. So if you see a recipe with a SmartPoints® value that’s different from what the calculator tells you, now you know why.
This was so good. The everything bagel seasoning made this so tasty.
I modified the recipe and did cucumbers, tomatoes, 1/8 of an avocado and no peppers.
So tasty!
I made with what I had on hand this morning- cottage cheese, green onion, cucumbers, and everything bagel seasoning- delish!!
I have made a version of this recipe for years. But instead of pistachios I have always used 1/2 can tuna packed in water.
I use any raw veggie in the fridge ( Gina’s choices + broccoli, cauliflower, radishes etc). A few diced nice olives and a nice seasoning salt are a great addition.
Add avocado! I love this idea, I will definitely add the bagel seasoning. I may be the only one who adds avocado to cottage cheese, yummy~
I put the low-fat cottage cheese into the WW app and that is 3 points, the pistachios are 1 point on green — so it’s 4 points not 3 as stated. If you use non-fat cottage cheese then perhaps it would be 3, but that isn’t what the recipe states. Either way, it’s great and I added everything but the bagel seasoning!
Hi Jeanne- I did double check and it is 3 points. The only accurate way to determine any recipe’s SmartPoints® value is to plug the ingredients into the recipe builder on the Weight Watchers website (Click on “My Foods,” select “Recipe,” and click “Create a recipe.”) which does not count fruits and vegetables in recipes in the calculations as they are now 0 points.
The SmartPoints® calculator isn’t meant for recipes and will often give you the wrong points (usually higher) because it’s counting the fruits and vegetables. So if you see a recipe with a SmartPoints® value that’s different from what the calculator tells you, now you know why.
Hope this helps!
The cottage cheese and veggies dish was called Farmers Chop Suey when I was growing up back in the 40’s and 50’s. That was our Saturday night dinner sometimes.
I do something similar to this, including everything-but-the-bagel seasoning!
And I thought I was the only one who put nuts on my cottage cheese from time to time. 😉
I just made this for lunch, I used the veggies in the recipe and added radishes since I had some chopped up in the fridge. I used the everything bagel seasoning which was a complete game changer. Thanks for such a nice simple healthy lunch option.
I like to use half cottage cheese and 1/2 Greek yogurt to increase protein. I will play around with different seasonings. Great for weekly meal prep.
This was delicious, but I always eat Good Culture 2% cottage cheese and the 3/4 c size is always 4 points. I put this into the recipe builder and it came out as 5 points – four for the cottage cheese and 1 for the pistachios. But it is 2024 and most of these comments are from 2021. Could these points values be built on a different WW system? Ive recently gone back on WW and use your recipes extensively and very rarely check the points. It’s just because I eat so much Good Culture cottage cheese that this seemed off to me. (If 1/2 c had been used instead of 3/4, it would have been 3 points.) Thanks for any insight you can give me since I did use the WW recipe builder and got different points.
This was absolutely delicious!! Thank you for sharing, I love cottage cheese and finding new ways to enjoy it is great!
Thank you! I’d love to see more savory yogurt bowls!
Looks delish to me !
So gorgeous and what a great idea for breakfast.
Did you use non fat or 2% cottage cheese??
I have had many times for breakfast when I want something savory. I have never used pistachios and I used all the same vegetables as with the addition of radishes