Dieter's delight

This oldfashioned menu choice is in tune with today’s low-carb diets.

By FAYE LEVY
Salad 521 (photo credit: YAKIR LEVY)
Salad 521
(photo credit: YAKIR LEVY)
As a teenager, I ate my fair share of cottage cheese and peaches for lunch.
Cottage cheese has kept its image as a diet food. On the menus of casual American restaurants like delis and diners, you can find an old-fashioned dish called Dieter’s Delight. What most dishes of this name have in common is that they generally include cottage cheese and salad greens and often canned peaches as well. Actually these dishes are in tune with today’s lowcarb diets.
In restaurants, these dishes are much more substantial than the diet lunch of my youth. For some reason, many restaurants add meat. Aside from issues of kashrut, the meat is not needed for this dish; the cottage cheese provides plenty of protein.
On one menu I found five kinds of Dieter’s Delight, all served with cottage cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers and carrot strips. To this you can add broiled cod or other protein elements.
An Italian eatery includes cottage cheese in its Italian-American Dieter’s Delight, with mozzarella cheese, American cheese, sliced egg, black olives, cucumbers, green peppers and tomatoes on a bed of lettuce. This undoubtedly tastes good, but for conscientious dieters, it’s best to omit the other cheeses.
In the US, canned tuna has also been considered a diet food for many years, and some restaurants combine it with cottage cheese in their Dieter’s Delight.
One restaurant featured a mixture of tuna, hard-boiled egg, tomato and lettuce, with cottage cheese and peaches, made into a sandwich. I would have served the peaches on the side.
YEARS AGO, dieters avoided oil, nuts, seeds and beans. Now these foods are considered healthful when used in moderation, and indeed they are key to enjoying such entree salads. A salad topped with cottage cheese, dressed modestly with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with a few toasted nuts, can be an appealing main course for a light lunch or supper; the cottage cheese, along with the oil, makes the greens moist and tasty.
Cottage cheese is high in protein; the low- or nonfat kinds can be quite healthful. Ricotta, farmers’ cheese or low-fat white cheese can play the same role. So can reduced-fat yogurt cheese or labaneh – thick strained yogurt.
Even chefs of top restaurants create healthy recipes using such cheeses. California chef Alice Waters uses baked ricotta as a topping for an arugula salad with an olive oil, red wine vinegar and shallot dressing.

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In many cuisines, especially in Eastern Europe, these cheeses are popular as light appetizers. In Poland, cottage cheese is made into a quick, easy salad with fresh radishes, cucumbers and chives, or with radishes and hard-boiled eggs. Russians make a salad of cottage cheese and cooked beets with caraway seeds, a little sugar and lemon juice. Anya von Bremzen and John Welchman, authors of the Russian cookbook Please to the Table, give an Armenian recipe for garlicky farmer’s cheese with walnuts and dill. Some recommend serving such salads with pumpernickel, rye bread or toasted pita, but I also like them served on lettuce.
Of course, Dieter’s Delight salads can be created with other low-fat protein foods instead of cottage cheese. Tuna, turkey or beans are some good examples, or a sprinkling of peanuts.
Barbara Rolls, author of The Volumetrics Eating Plan, a book on “feeling full on fewer calories,” gives rules for creating satisfying main-course salads: • Sticking to salads made primarily of vegetables is the easiest way to ensure you are eating a satisfying amount that will fill you up. Keep the proportion of vegetables high, and keep the fat down by reducing the amount of dressing, cheese and croutons.
• Use a variety of lettuces to add interesting flavors, textures and colors.
• The bigger the salad the better, so long as it is low in energy density (amount of calories for the food’s weight) and packed with your favorite vegetables.
• Don’t want to give up the oil? Use less oil, but choose one that has lots of flavor such as extra-virgin olive, walnut or sesame oil. Bump up the proportion of lemon juice or vinegar in your dressing.
• Experiment with fat-free flavorings such as mustard, fresh herbs or minced garlic.
• It is okay to use small amounts of avocado, nuts or olives as toppings – although these toppings are higher in energy density, they contain healthy fats.
• In a restaurant, order dressing on the side, then be careful about how much you use.
The writer is the author of The Lowfat Jewish Cookbook.
OUR DIETER’S DELIGHT SALAD
My husband and I particularly enjoy this salad as lunch on a hot summer day. We are careful with the amount of oil and nuts, and we add plenty of tomatoes to keep the salad moist.
For variety, we sometimes add intensely flavored bittersweet deep purple plums from our tree or other tart fruit, such as kiwis.
2 or 3 thin slices red onion 1 sweet red pepper, diced 2 cucumbers, cut in small dice 6 cups diced romaine or mixed baby greens 1 cup chopped Chinese cabbage (optional) 4 or 5 tsp. extra virgin olive oil 4 or 5 tsp. strained fresh lemon or lime juice salt and freshly ground pepper 2 large tomatoes 2 to 4 Tbsp. roasted peanuts, almonds or walnuts 11⁄3 to 2 cups low-fat cottage cheese 2 tsp. chopped chives or 2 Tbsp. chopped parsley (optional)
Cut red onion slices in very small dice.
Combine romaine and Chinese cabbage in a serving bowl or divide among four individual bowls.
Top with diced cucumbers and red pepper.
In a small bowl or cup, whisk olive oil and lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour over salad mixture in bowl, or divide among individual bowls, adding 2 to 21⁄2 tsp. dressing to each one.
Shortly before serving, dice tomatoes and add to salad. Mix part of tomatoes gently into salad, leaving some of tomato dice on top. Sprinkle tomatoes with diced red onion.
Serve each portion topped with 1⁄3 to 1⁄2 cup cottage cheese and sprinkled with chives and roasted nuts.
Makes 4 servings
ALICE WATERS’ ROCKET SALAD WITH BAKED RICOTTA
This recipe is from Heart Healthy Cooking for All Seasons. Author Marvin Moser writes: “Nothing could be simpler and lighter than a first course of bitter greens topped with baked herbed cheese.
Rocket greens are... commonly known as arugula, but also may be labeled ‘roquette.’” Regarding ricotta, “the fresher the better, especially for preparations such as this one.
To save on calories and fat, you could use part-skim ricotta, but its texture may be slightly watery after it’s baked.”
The salad is high in vitamins A, C and E and is a moderate source of fiber.
Baked Ricotta:
Nonsticky vegetable oil spray
225 gr. (8 oz.) ricotta 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil 1 Tbsp. finely chopped parsley 1⁄2 tsp. finely chopped thyme leaves 1⁄2 tsp. finely chopped summer savory or rosemary Kosher salt (optional) Few grinds fresh black pepper
Rocket Salad:
2 tsp. red wine vinegar 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar 1 shallot, peeled and chopped fine 1⁄4 cup extra virgin olive oil Kosher salt Few grinds fresh black pepper 4 handfuls arugula (rocket leaves)
To bake the cheese, preheat oven to 220ºC (425ºF). Lightly spray a small gratin dish with nonstick vegetable oil spray.
Mix together the cheese, 1 Tbsp. olive oil, the herbs and salt and pepper to taste. Spread mixture in gratin dish, using your fingers and a spatula to make it as even as possible. It will not be perfect. The irregular surface will turn a dappled brown in the oven.
Drizzle remaining tablespoon of olive oil over top of cheese.
Bake for about 25 minutes, until the top browns lightly.
Remove dish from oven and set aside in a warm place.
To make the salad, combine the vinegars and shallot in a small glass or ceramic bowl and let stand for about 30 minutes.
Add the olive oil and salt and pepper to taste; whisk until the dressing is emulsified. Set aside.
Toss the arugula with enough dressing to coat the leaves lightly and arrange the salad in high mounds in the center of each plate. Place small spoonfuls of baked cheese around and over the salad, taking care the attractive browned part shows.
Serve immediately.
Makes 4 appetizer servings.