I Can't Stop Eating Baked by Melissa's Cottage Cheese Toast Recipe

I look for three things in my breakfasts: protein (to keep me full), calcium (because I never feel like I'm getting enough), and taste (because if it doesn't taste good, I won't eat it). It's surprisingly hard to hit all three — my favorite type of avocado toast isn't that high in protein or calcium; the most nutritious egg scrambles start to get old after a day or two. But Melissa Ben-Ishay of Baked by Melissa delivered the perfect solution. And yes, it contains cottage cheese, TikTok's new favorite ingredient.

The recipe is for a cucumber salad, which is spooned on top of cottage cheese or avocado toast. It comes together quickly enough: cucumber, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Ben-Ishay — the creator of the uberviral Green Goddess Salad, which I'm also a huge fan of — adds "lots of dill," too, but to be honest, I always skip that step because I never have fresh dill on hand. I tried dried dill once, and it didn't add enough of anything for me to say that step is essential, so I go without.

One of the best things about this Baked by Melissa recipe is that it is very estimate- and substitution-friendly and requires no measuring at all. I stick a slice or two of bread in the toaster, then dice the cucumber into small squares and mince the garlic, mix them together on the same cutting board, then drizzle on a healthy glug of olive oil and a big squirt of lemon juice before topping with pepper and a little salt (most cottage cheese is pretty salty already, so I tend to shy away from adding too much more). By then, the toast is done, so I spread on a big dollop of cottage cheese and spoon the cucumber salad over that. I press the salad into the cottage cheese a little, but it's still a messy affair; I usually eat it standing up over my plate or the sink.

It may not sound like much, but there's something magic in this combination. I'm not exaggerating when I say I've eaten it nearly every day in the month since I first saw the post. The cucumber salad is fresh and bright against the creaminess of the cottage cheese, and it hits my protein-calcium desires squarely on the head. Plus, I only have a cutting board, a knife, and a plate to clean.

The recipe here is my take on the Baked by Melissa original (which you can see in the TikTok below), but the whole thing is pretty casual and customizable. Add as much garlic as you want, or try springing in some chili flakes. Swap out the cottage cheese for avocado, or do half and half like Baked by Melissa does in the video. Add all the dill in your house. Eat the cucumber salad sprinkled over a bowl of cottage cheese sans toast. Whatever brings you breakfast joy.