Cottage Cheese & Mixed Vegetable – Panini

Cottage cheese & mixed veg panini is nutritious, high protein, high fiber, and extremely scrumptious sandwich. Cottage cheese is a very good source of protein and quite decent source of Vitamins and Calcium. For this Panini, you can use either store bought cottage cheese or can make it at home from any kind of milk that you use in daily life. You can use low fat or whole milk to make the cottage cheese at home.

Growing up in India, I thought cottage cheese is English word for an Indian cheese called paneer. But when I moved to the U.S.A. like 15 years back, I understood that the difference between the U.S. store bought cottage cheese and the Indian cottage cheese (paneer) that we make at home or we get from Indian stores. The method of making both kinds of cottage cheese is almost same. The only difference between the two is that the cottage cheese that we get in U.S.A. stores is more liquid in texture and comes with small curds or big curds whereas the one that we call Paneer and we get in Indian stores is solid in texture.

How to make Cottage cheese at home (the one like sold in the U.S.A. stores)

• Bring the milk to boil.
• Let it cool a bit say for 5 minutes.
• Add lemon juice of about two lemons / limes per half gallon of milk.
• Let the milk curdle completely.
• Once the milk turns acidic, the milk protein coagulates and forms clumps called curds. These curds will get separated from the watery portion of the milk.
• Take a big deep vessel.
• Cover it with white cheese cloth or clean white cotton cloth.
• Transfer the curdled milk to the cloth and strain the milk curds and separate them from the watery part of the curdled milk.
• All milk curds will be separated and be there on the cheese cloth or white cotton cloth. Rest of the watery portion will be collected in the deep vessel underneath the cloth.
• These curds are little liquid in the texture and similar to the cottage cheese we get in the U.S. store.

How to make Cottage cheese at home (The Indian Kind also Known as Paneer)

• Bring the milk to boil.
• Let it cool a bit say for 5 minutes.
• Add lemon juice of about two lemons / limes per half gallon of milk.
• Let the milk curdle completely.
• Once the milk turns acidic, the milk protein coagulates and forms clumps called curds. These curds will get separated from the watery portion of the milk.
• Take a big deep vessel.
• Cover it with white cheese cloth or clean white cotton cloth.
• Transfer the curdled milk to the cloth and strain the milk curds and separate them from the watery part of the curdled milk.
• All milk curds will be separated and be there on the cheese cloth or white cotton cloth. Rest of the watery portion will be collected in the deep vessel underneath the cloth.
• With a spoon bring all the milk curds to the center of the cloth.
• Bring all the ends of the cloth in the middle and tie it really tight.
• Now hang this cheese / paneer in the cloth for about 2 hours.
• If your cheese has not solidified enough put a heavy weight on the tied cloth for another few hours.
• Put this setting in the refrigerator over night.
• Solid cottage cheese / Paneer is ready.

To make the cottage cheese & mixed veg panini, if you are using store bought cottage cheese from the U.S. stores, you can use the ones with small curds or big curds. If you are using paneer (Indian cottage cheese), shred it properly to make this panini. With either kind of cottage cheese, this panini tastes very delicious. This panini is easy to make. You do not need any sophisticated kitchen equipment to make it.

This Recipe makes – for 2 – 3 people

Preparation Time – 5 minutes

Cooking Time – 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 5 – 6 tablespoons of Cottage cheese (Any kind you like small curd or big curd cottage cheese) or about 1 and 1/2 cups of shredded Paneer (Indian cottage cheese).
• ¼th cup of Shredded or minutely cut red onions
• ¼ th cup of shredded or minutely cut cabbage
• ¼ th cup of minutely cut greens (baby spinach, kale, collard greens, or any salad greens you have at home)
• ¼ th cup of shredded carrots
• 1 tablespoon of each minutely chopped green bell pepper, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, and / or orange bell pepper (all or any of these that you have at home).
• Salt and Pepper to your taste.
• 1 teaspoon of grated ginger (optional).
• 2 tablespoons of shredded cheese (of your choice, I have used mixed cheddar and mozzarella shredded cheese)
• Mint Cilantro Chutney / dip (optional)
• Butter (of your choice)
• Bread (of your choice)
• Panini maker / Sandwich maker / Flat pan

Click below to see how to make Mint Cilantro dip / Chutney

Mint Cilantro Chutney / dip

How to make Cottage Cheese and Mixed Veg Panini

• Take a deep bowl.

• Add cottage cheese, chopped / minced vegetables (mentioned in the list of ingredients), add ginger paste or shredded ginger, shredded cheese, salt and Pepper to the bowl and mix everything really well with a spoon.

• Take slices of bread apply butter on one of the slices and mint cilantro dip / chutney on another slice.

• Scoop the mixed vegetables and cottage cheese mixture and place them on the bread slice.
• Spread it evenly.
• Put another slice of the bread on it.

• Grease the outside of the bread with butter and place it in panini maker or a sandwich maker.
• If you do not have panini maker or sandwich maker, grill the sandwich on a flat pan with the help of butter on both sides.

• Grill the sandwich on both sides until golden brown in color. If you are grilling on flat pan, flip it with the help of flat spatula so it is grilled on both sides.

• Once grilled on both sides, panini is ready to eat.

Tips

• To make it spicier, you can add green chili paste or shredded jalapenos.
• If you want your sandwich to be tangier, add chaat masala (easily available in Indian store).
• If you do not have all the vegetables mentioned in the list of ingredients, you can add whatever salad vegetables you have at home.
• If your kid or any family member is a fussy eater, grind the whole mixture (cottage cheese and mixed vegetables) and use it as a spread for your sandwich.

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