Sometimes I get in a rut when making salads, and basically make the same lettuce salad almost daily. It was time to look for some “new” salads, so I started browsing through my hundred-year-old cookbooks and came across a recipe for Cheese and Tomato Salad, or to be more specific, Cottage Cheese and Tomato Salad.
Medium tomatoes are stuffed with a cottage cheese, paprika, and chopped almond mixture; and, served with a vinaigrette dressing. The salad was lovely, with the sweet, slightly acidic taste of the tomatoes balancing nicely with the mild, salty, tanginess of the cottage cheese. The chopped almonds added a nice, crunchy texture.
Here is the original recipe:
I decided to stuff three tomatoes, so, in the updated ingredients list, I included amounts needed to stuff that many tomatoes. A hundred-years-ago tomatoes were often peeled, but today they are seldom peeled, so I did not peel them when I made the recipe. Since cottage cheese (as well as the French Dressing) already contains salt, I did not add additional salt to the stuffing mixture.
The old recipe called for serving the salad with French Dressing. A hundred years ago, French Dressing was a vinaigrette dressing, and quite different from the commercial, orange-colored French dressing that is common today. There was no recipe for French Dressing in the cookbook that contained the salad recipe, so I found a French Dressing recipe in another cookbook:
This recipe makes more French dressing than needed for three stuffed tomatoes, so I halved the recipe.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Cottage Cheese and Tomato Salad
3 medium tomatoes (Select tomatoes that are nicely shaped and that will be level when placed on a plate.)
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/8 teaspoon paprika (plus additional paprika to garnish, if desired)
2 tablespoons almonds, chopped (plus additional chopped almonds to garnish, if desired)
lettuce leaves, if desired
Step 1. Cut the top of the tomatoes and then scoop out the pulp in the center. (Be sure to leave the shell of the tomato.) Turn tomato upside down on a plate to drain out any remaining liquid.
Step 2. Make the filling for the tomatoes by putting the cottage cheese, paprika, and almonds in a small bowl; stir until mixed.
Step 3. Stuff the tomatoes with the filling. If desired, sprinkle additional paprika and chopped almonds on top. The stuffed tomatoes may be served on lettuce leaves and with French Dressing (recipe below).
French Dressing (Vinaigrette Dressing)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
Step 1. Put the salt and paprika in a small bowl.
Step 2. Gradually add the olive oil while stirring constantly.
Step 3. Then slowly add the vinegar, a small amount at a time, while continuing to stir.
The stuffed tomatoes would make a nice lunch. Cottage cheese seems to be making a comeback.
You found the recipe in a 1926 Iowa cookbook, but I can guarantee that the same recipe was being used in Iowa in the late 1940s and early 1950s: at least, in our home. Mom used walnuts rather than almonds, and sometimes she’d add a few raisins. I remember it as being rather tasty.
As a cottage cheese lover this recipe looks scrumptious to me!
The recipe looks good, both the tomato and dressing.
Your photo is lovely. I will try to remember this when the farm stand is open. The tomatoes I see are not top notch.
I bet this will be a treat when the summer tomatoes come it. I enjoy cottage cheese with green onions and bacon bits sprinkled on it…. will have to try it with nuts I think.