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Friday, May 1, 2015

Cottage Cheese Loaf





This is a half recipe - I used a bread loaf pan.

Okay every potluck chef's got one of these published in their church's recipe book. Everybody's version is just a bit different - cottage cheese loaf offers a lot of room for individualization. So I'm picking out the one my Sweet Baboo contributed to the Tyler Adventist Church's "Bountiful Blessings" cookbook.  As I said, this is a high protein vegetarian casserole and works with a variety of ingredients, so experiment with it a little and come up with a recipe that works for you. It's not vegan, so you may have to warn the vegans in your group that there are some eggs and dairy in it. If you use a larger box of Special K, use a larger carton of cottage cheese.

This is a full recipe with a little extra Special K,
cottage cheese and eggs to make a potluck size dish.


This is one of my top three vegetarian dishes.  You already know my number one. This one's probably number two.  Enjoy.....

Ingredients:

  1. 1 16-18 oz Box Kellogg's Special K Cereal
  2. 1/2 cup pecan meal*
  3. 1 large 24-32 oz container of cottage cheese
  4. 4 eggs
  5. 1/4 cup oil
  6. 1/2 stick butter/margarine
  7. 1 pkg. Lipton Onion Soup Mix
  8. 1 cup water
  9. 2-3 tbsp George Washington Golden Broth (Chicken soup base which doesn't have any chicken in it works too)
  10. Cooking oil spray
Directions:
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
    Alternative baking method - muffin pans
    Gets nice single servings with crisp edges
    all around like people like - Emily Erasmus
     

  2. In a mixing bowl, crush the Special K Cereal into a meal-like consistency
  3. Melt the butter/margarine in a small skillet, then pour into the mixing bowl.
  4. Add all the remaining ingredients and mix well. Walnuts can be substituted for pecans in a pinch and it's quite good.*
  5. Once everything is mixed up, spray the inside of a 9 x 12 casserole dish with Pam or a cooking oil spray. I like olive oil spray for this recipe.  I used a loaf pan in the picture below because I made up a half recipe for the Missus and I.
  6. Press the mixture evenly into the casserole dish.
  7. Place the casserole dish in the hot oven on a middle rack. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes until the top is brown as shown. The loaf should be firm throughout when it cools. Don't be afraid to let the top get good and dark.  
  8. To serve, slice the loaf into slices. If you make it in loaf pans, cut it up like thick slices of bread.
Serving Suggestion:

Serve with vegetables, a salad and mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes or potato salad - some nice starch to go with your veggies. Throw in wheat rolls and you have a perfect meal. Take a big old casserole dish of this stuff to potluck and you will certainly take home a nice clean dish. 


Cottage Cheese Loaf, Brussels Sprouts, Mashed Potatoes and Salad

Do not forget to make an extra cottage cheese loaf to leave at home in case you're like me and always let everyone else go first at potluck. Your cottage cheese loaf will likely be gone before you get there, so to avoid being unhappy at potluck, you have to have a spare one back at home. I have to have cottage cheese loaf leftovers, because they make such wonderful sandwiches. If you like meat loaf sandwiches, I promise you're gonna love cottage cheese loaf sandwiches!

Bonny Appetite!
Tom King
(c) 2015


* Pecan and walnut meal can be made by simply pitching some pecans into an ordinary blender. Blend the nuts till it is the consistency of corn meal, although pecan and walnut meal are a little more moist than corn meal.

37 comments:

  1. If you are a Costco shopper you are aware that there are big cartons of cottage cheese - and then there are VERY LARGE size cartons of cottage cheese. Tom, could you perhaps give us a weight size for the carton of cottage cheese, and also for the box of Special K since it comes in a variety of sizes as well. Much appreciated! Thanks

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    Replies
    1. When I make it. I use whatever size of cottage cheese, then add that same amount of special K cereal one large onion, 2-3 little envelopes of George Washington broth the brown, 5 eggs. Miss it all up put in a baking pan and bake for about an hour on 375. Oh wait I forgot the chopped walnuts about 1 cup or a little bit more of you used more cottage cheese and special k. It's really had to mess it up really. Spray your Pan with cooking spray so it won't stick. I use the spray olive oil

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    2. I usually use between 16oz and 24oz cartons - whichever I have and balance it with crushed Special K to get the consistency I want.

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    3. I go up to a 32 oz carton if it's going to potluck and a bigger box of Special K and just increase everything to get the right consistency.

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  2. Thanks Dorothy. I added some sizes. to the recipe. Fortunately, the cottage cheese loaf is pretty flexible. The trick is getting it to a firm enough consistency to hold together, but not so thick it bakes out dry. Takes a few runs at it to get it right, but even slightly overdone, it's still delicious.

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  3. If the 45-60 min. baking time is scaring you from making this recipe, try nuking the 9 x 12" casserole in the microwave for 5-7 minutes, then baking in the 350 degree oven until nice and dark as Tom suggests. In my oven, it was another 15 minutes or so. I like a little more texture in my casserole, so I coarsely chopped the walnuts and didn't crush the Special K--just left it whole. I also put in about 1/2 t. sage. I've had many cottage cheese/Special K loaves in my long lifetime, and this is one of the best! Love your blog, Tom! Keep it up!

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  4. My trick for Cottage Cheese Loaf is one I learned from my aunt. Use crispy rice cereal (in the bags is so cheap), and it won't cost nearly as much as buying Special K. Once it's baked, you really can't tell the difference. They're both rice cereals.

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    Replies
    1. Just be sure that the crispy rice cereral snap, crackles, and pops when added to the rest of the ingredients. Some of the really cheap brands don't and your roast will turn out too moist and dark colored and doesn't taste as good. I speak from experience.

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  5. I like cream cheese in mine.

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  6. Glad I found this site. (well Pastor posted a recipe) Will be trying many of these as I finally just DO IT--and go completely vegetarian. (With my eggs intact---you know God did not intend that many chickens to roam the earth--those eggs are for something! ;)

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  7. I am a life-long vegetarian and have made this for years. Here's my easy version.

    1 large carton cottage cheese (3-4 cup size)
    5 eggs
    1/2 cup chopped pecans or pecan pieces
    1/4 cup oil
    1 packet Lipton's onion soup mix
    4 cups Special K cereal

    Just stir together, place in a baking dish sprayed with Pam (9 x 12 works fine). Bake 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

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  8. Since "vegetarian" really comes from "vegetable" or "vegetation", how are cottage cheese, butter, and eggs "vegetarian"? And I'll bet that the onion-soup mix has beef flavor in it. Cheese, butter, and eggs do not grow in my garden. As a vegetarian, I do not eat animal products. Call this recipe "meatless" or something similar; but it is not vegetarian.

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    1. Dear whoever you are:

      Vegetarians are of several stripes. Most of my readers are lacto-ovo vegetarians. It's nice for you that you are a Vegan, but you do your cause no service by sniping at others who have chosen to limit their intake of products made from the bodies of dead animals. Dairy products like milk, cheese, and unfertilized eggs do not require the death of the creatures that produce them. The lacto-ovo vegetarian lifestyle gives the average Adventist six to seven years longer lives than most Americans according to studies. Not being a hypercritical holier-than-thou diet Nazi probably helps, if it does not extend your life, at the least to improve the quality of it. I very clearly have said that if you are looking for hyper-healthy Vegan recipes, you should go elsewhere. This blog is about celebration food and my Bible often mentions things like milk and honey and cheese and delighting thyself in fatness and wine, so there's apparently room for celebratory food in the human diet. I included your comment this time, but there's really no place for it here. And you'd be wrong about the Onion Soup Mix. It's easy enough to check for beef fat on the boxes of soup mix. I did. No cows died for my cottage cheese loaf. And, as someone who has hand milked dairy cows, I can assure you that the bovine nation is quite proud of its many delicious cheese products. Just sayin'. You are welcome to check out Vegan recipes elsewhere. There are thousands of them out there and most are just as huffy about lacto-ovo vegetarians and think we are heretical for calling us vegetarians. You guys can all get together and talk bad about you. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my cottage cheese loaf.

      Yours in Christ,

      Tom King

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    2. I am late to the party on this one, but I give you 2 thumbs up and a hearty AMEN Tom.

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    3. Yay, Tom. BRAVO! So over this kind of "helpful" comment. SDAs have been eating this type of "vegetarian" diet for well over a century since the days of EG WHITE. As the early adopters of this way of eating, I about roll my eyes out of their sockets when these JohnnyComeLately Vegans try to spank hands as if they INVENTED the meat free way of eating just in the past decade. To their credit - there have been some EXCELLENT and imaginative vegan foods added to menus that make the vegan diet far more appealing than in the past, but c'mon.... love your answer.

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  9. A cup of water??? Does it really need that much water?

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  10. It needs a cup of water unless you want to bake a Special K brick suitable for building the tombs of the pharoahs.

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  11. I remember that good old cottage cheese loaf with great fondness. Having been a meatless person all of my life and a vegan for the last 10 years, I haven't had so much as a bite. There are lots of good vegan cheeses out there but no vegan cottage cheese. I'm waiting for the day I can make a decent approximation of that potluck standby. I'd sneak a bite or two of my daughter-in-law's casserole except I do feel so much better without even a little bit of dairy.

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    Replies
    1. Tommie, I use tofu instead of cottage cheese.
      1-2 blocks 12oz. each.
      For the eggs,I use flax seed
      (4T. Of flax to 12 T.water)
      soaked in water to make a gel. Strain the seeds,
      and only use the gel. For the G.Wash.broth,
      sinse it has MSG in it,
      I use McKays vegan beef broth & chicken mixed.
      I also use Earth Balance butter. Hope that helps.
      Make sure you saute'your onions in earth balance,
      till slightly brown,
      it adds a lot of good flavor. ��

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  12. There are several variations of this. My mom didn't use any lipton soup, but vegex or marmite and no nuts or water. I was just talking to my neighbor about my mom's (actually my grandmother's) cottage roast. I always preface with, I know you will think this sounds weird, but it is soooo good!!
    In fact, think I will have to make some. Our local paper, SACBEE, has a mailbox column in the food section where people request a recipes from a restaurant or the past. I had to laugh when I was reading one day and someone had been to a potluck where they ate cottage cheese roast and would like to "find" the recipe.

    I also loved grandma's cottage cheese patties and another family recipe was peanut butter roast.

    Love your web site! Just discovered it today. I will be back.
    KJ

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  13. My grandmother had a peanut butter loaf. My dad, who was not a vegetarian by any mans would drive from Houston to Keene, TX every few months for his mama's peanut butter loaf. Thanks for posting your grandmother's version. I have a couple of versions of this odd dish and will try them out and post one here (with proper credit to whoever's grandmother's recipe I use.

    Welcome aboard. If you have a good recipe (especially if you have one with pictures, I'd love to post them here for everybody. I'll be sure and give you credit. Atlantic Foods (makers of Worthington and Loma Linda canned vege-meat sometimes swipes them and posts them on its website (with your permission of course). you can post the recipe in the comments section and I'll give you an email address where you can send the photos. - Tom

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    1. Peanutbutter loaf recipe pls! Love your site!
      Nanci
      dpnme247@gmail.com

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  14. Hello, I am a born and raised SDA and I have been looking for this recipe for a very long time, so thank you for posting it on here! I remember this at the church potlucks and at the school cafeteria. I can't wait to make it.

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  15. Tom King, I think I love you. Thanks for this wonderful website and your delightful humor!

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  16. Tom King, I think I love you. Thanks for this wonderful website and your delightful humor!

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  17. Here is my mom's version of Special K Loaf:

    1 bx of Special K cereal
    1 large cottage cheese
    1 large chopped onion
    5 beaten eggs
    5 packets of G. Washington brown & rich broth
    1/2 pecan meal
    1 stick of real butter

    melt butter, G. Washington broth, and onions together until onions are tender.
    Mix all ingredients together and put in a greased bakimg pan. Bake at 350 for 30-35 min.

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  18. This looks Awesome, Tom! Thanks so much for sharing yours and others recipes on your site. It is amazing to me how cantankerous some people get when one person doesn't agree with their definition of a word or idea. Thank you for your kind attitude with those who diatribe against whatever doesn't fit their definition of "whatever".
    I find it interesting, too, that many of those negative thinkers are "anonymous" as well!

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  19. If you have friends or family who have nut allergies, what would be a great substitute for the nut meats? Are they necessary to the package or just up the protein? Also I saw someplace and I need to search where the Special K was made into patties and used cream of mushroom soup as a binder. Thank you for the answering my question.

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  20. Kimi, the nuts are extra. You can make it without them. They just, as you said, "up the protein". They also give the dish a nice texture as well. I think I'm going to make some tomorrow. Made me hungry thinking about it. - Tom

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  21. I normally substitute chopped green (or tri-color) peppers and onions instead of the nuts, as some people might be allergic to nuts. I also substitute liquid egg whites for the eggs. It works out really well.

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  22. My mom makes the best cottage cheese loaf with no nuts, no special k (uses cooked oatmeal instead) and panko bread crumbs along with the cottage cheese and Lipton onion soup mix. I like it so much better then the Special K loaf (but I’ll eat that at potlucks)

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  23. Love this recipe, and the "non_dairy" note! My husband is lactose intolerant, and ZI have do !issed having cottage cheese board!

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  24. All I know is, is it after reading this recipe and all the recipes in the comments, I'm hungry! Thank you for all the love that went into making this post.

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  25. I read with great interests about the different versions of cottage cheese loaf the recipe is in an old cookbook called 52 sabbath meals and if I am not mistaking so is haystack SDA style
    The cottage cheese loaf I grew upon used mushrooms soup, there was never cheesed used only cheese was cottage cheese when we had a spot luck at work cottage loaf is what I’d take and everyone love it
    Thank for letting me put my two cents in

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  26. This is special K loaf not cottage cheese loaf there is a difference

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