Cottage Cheese Spinach Pasta is quick, simple, healthy and perfect for lunch box recipe ideas. It can be prepared a day ahead and refrigerated for next day’s use. It has good amount of protein, calcium, potassium and many more minerals and vitamins along with the right amount of fiber.
Pasta again!!!! Its mine and Yashvi’s favorite cuisine. We can eat it in any form and at any time of the day.
Yes, sometimes we do indulge in pasta dishes for our breakfast. It’s our comfort food and I know it’s the same for many of you. Yet sometimes we control ourselves to keep a check on our healthy eating.
This recipe is quite regular for Yashvi’s lunch box. whenever I pack this pasta recipe for her, the lunch box definitely comes back empty. I can’t stop smiling to myself.
Since we all are gearing ourselves for ‘back to school’ regime I thought of sharing this 15 minutes pasta recipe for school lunch box meal idea.
Ingredients for Cottage Cheese Spinach Pasta
Olive oil
Dried garlic
Dried basil
Baby spinach
Low fat cottage cheese
Mozzarella cheese (shredded)
Julienned carrots
Salt
Crushed black pepper
Whole wheat elbow pasta (cooked)
Difference between American and Indian cottage cheese
There is a slight difference between American cottage cheese and paneer (Indian cottage cheese). The American cottage cheese and paneer may be quite similar in taste but American cottage cheese is more liquid and greasy as compared to paneer. We drain excess water from paneer and make it firm. On the other side American cottage is mushy and extra soft which does not harden even after draining excess water. American Cottage Cheese is a great source of protein and calcium and easy to cook. I used American Cottage Cheese for this recipe because of its taste and texture along with health benefits and its super easy nature of getting cooked.
Easy cooking steps for Cottage Cheese Spinach Pasta
In the first step, I flavored the warm oil with garlic and basil.
Then, immediate sauteed spinach until it became soft.
Thereafter, I added cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese to the pan and sauteed it well.
Afterwards, I added carrots to it.
Lastly, I tossed in pasta and seasoned it with salt and pepper.
To enhance the fiber and nutrition content of this recipe I used 100% whole wheat macaroni pasta. It took a few simple steps to cook this scrumptious recipe.
Tips for flavoring
When cooking for kids top this dish with some melted butter. As for adults we can keep it to olive oil to maintain our healthy weight. 🙂
Cottage Cheese Spinach Pasta is quick, simple, healthy and perfect for lunch box recipe ideas. It can be prepared a day ahead and refrigerated for next day’s use. It has good amount of protein, calcium, potassium and many more minerals and vitamins along with the right amount of fiber.
- 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp dried garlic
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 1/2 cups baby spinach (finely chopped)
- 1 cup low fat American cottage cheese
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 cup julienned carrots
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp crushed black pepper
- 2 cups whole wheat elbow pasta (cooked)
Heat oil in a nonstick pan and add garlic and basil.
Immediately add spinach and saute for a minute or till spinach starts to release its water.
Add cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese to the pan and mix very well so that the spinach is well coated.
Just when the cottage cheese releases its liquid add carrots and mix well.
Add salt, pepper and pasta and mix very well.
Cook open for 2 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.
- Use American Cottage Cheese for this recipe.Â
- For kids just top this recipe with melted butter and for adults keep it as is so as to avoid saturated fats in your diet.
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I’ve never really tried cottage cheese, but it looks like a great complement for the pasta. I may have to experiment and try it!
We eat pasta all the time in our house! Love this variation! Can’t wait to try it!
Thank you. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did it.
Fabulous lunch box idea! The fact that this pasta can be refrigerated makes it a perfect recipe for me, And I love how healthy it is, too.
Totally. Make ahead recipes are my favorites too.
I am so curious about this recipe because I have not tried cottage cheese with pasta before. We are big cottage cheese lovers, and i’d love to try it like this!
I would highly recommend you to give it a try. Its delicious and increases the nutrition content of pasta recipe.
Such simple flavors but absolutely delicious! Love the spinach and paneer combo here.
Thank you Jo for appreciating my recipe and enjoying it.