Savory Cottage Cheese Bowl with Cucumber, Radish, and Chili Crisp

A cup of cottage cheese, sliced cucumber and radish, a drizzle of sesame oil and chili crisp, and a handful of crumbled gim. It takes five minutes, needs no cooking, and has about 26 grams of protein. The Korean pantry does most of the work here: toasted sesame oil, roasted seaweed, and a little heat turn a plain tub of cottage cheese into a lunch.

This is my weekday lunch when there is no time: quick, filling, and good. I top it with whatever sauces are in the house, usually a hot sauce like Tabasco or Cholula, or a spoon of gochujang. Nobody in our family dislikes it, though our baby is still too young for it.

Ingredient Notes

Cottage cheese, 4%. Full-fat holds up best against the sesame oil and chili. 2% is fine if you prefer it.

Persian or mini cucumbers. They have thin skins and few seeds, so they stay crisp and don’t water down the bowl.

Gim. Seasoned roasted seaweed snack sheets are the easiest. Gim-jaban (seasoned seaweed flakes) also works. Both are salty, so taste before adding any salt.

The heat. Chili crisp is the default. You can also use ½ tsp gochujang loosened with the sesame oil, or a few dashes of a vinegar hot sauce such as Cholula or Tabasco for a brighter, sharper heat.

Savory Cottage Cheese Bowl

Serves 1 · Prep 5 min · No cook · Lunch or breakfast · Korean-inspired

Ingredients

• 1 cup (225 g) cottage cheese, 4% milkfat
• 1 Persian cucumber, thinly sliced
• 3 radishes, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp chili crisp (or ½ tsp gochujang loosened with the sesame oil, or hot sauce to taste)
• 2 sheets seasoned gim (roasted seaweed), crumbled
• 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
• 1 scallion, sliced
• Flaky salt and black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Spoon the cottage cheese into a shallow bowl and spread it out.
2. Pile the cucumber and radish over one side.
3. Drizzle with sesame oil and chili crisp. Scatter the gim, sesame seeds, and scallion over the top. Taste before adding salt; the gim is already salty.

Per bowl (estimated from USDA FoodData Central values): about 300 kcal · 26 g protein · 12 g carbohydrate · 16 g fat · 2 g fiber · about 900 mg sodium with seasoned gim and chili crisp. That sodium is a real share of a day’s limit, roughly two-fifths of 2,300 mg, less if you use unseasoned seaweed.

Make It Yours

• Soft-boiled egg: add one for about 6 g more protein.
• Avocado: half a sliced avocado makes it more filling.
• Rice bowl: spoon it over ½ cup warm brown rice.
• Mediterranean: swap in cherry tomatoes, olive oil, and basil for the Korean toppings.

Storage

This bowl is best assembled right before eating. You can slice the cucumber and radish up to a day ahead and keep them in a sealed container; add the gim last so it stays crisp.

This bowl is lower in carbohydrate, but it isn’t a keto recipe, and we don’t label it that way. More from the week: how cottage cheese went from farmhouse leftover to protein icon and whether you need 30 g of protein at every meal. Everything else is on our cottage cheese hub.