Spinach and cottage cheese triangles and vol au vents

And this is what I bought the cottage cheese for. I was supposed to use ricotta cheese, but then I bought cottage cheese instead. It looked like it had practically the same texture anyway. Didn't really make a difference. So here it is. Spinach and cottage cheese triangles and vol au vents. The vol au vents were purchased from the supermarket and all I did was fill them in. Vol au vents are small cases of puff pastry that are filled with something savoury and served as canapé/finger food.


Spinach and cottage cheese triangles and vol au vents
Makes 27 small triangles, 4 large triangles and 6 vol au vents

150gm baby spinach leaves, chopped roughly
600gm cottage cheese
1/2 red onion, diced (I used the leftover onion from yesterday)

salt and pepper, to suit taste

6 vol au vent casings
4 sheets of frozen puff pastry, thawed (I used Borgs 30% reduced fat puff pastry sheets)

In a large mixing bowl, combine spinach, onion and cottage cheese. Add salt and pepper to suit taste.


Cut the puff pastry sheets to however you like. I cut 3 sheets into 9 squares per sheet (to get 27 small squares) and 1 sheet into 4 squares (to get 4 large squares). Do not be greedy with the filling as it will ooze out and not close properly (I had a problem with this. I think the small triangles are too small and there's so little filling..)

(Use the tip of a fork to make indents to ensure closure of the pastry)

Fill the vol au vents with spoonfuls of the mixture.


Bake at 165C in a preheated oven for about 30-40mins or until golden brown.


Serve immediately.

See how the small triangle barely has any filling?

... whereas the vol au vent has plenty!

As you can see, I actually prepared more than was baked. The rest are put back into the freezer so that when someone wants to eat them, they can just thaw and bake them. :)

Chicken and cottage cheese quiche

Quiche is quick and easy to make. Last time I used sliced bread as a base and found out that it was healthier and still delicious rather than the usual puff pastry base. Therefore I'm doing that again, but making quiche with a twist. The twist being the fact that I was just throwing whatever ingredients I had on hand. Haha (Oh. But I do admit that I actually bought the cottage cheese yesterday to make spinach and cottage cheese pastries which I'll leave for tomorrow). I have yet to try the quiche and I'm not sure I ever will (because I have an appetite problem at the moment).:( Anywho, it smells nice though!

(I didn't take a bite out of this one. Someone else did because I wanted to take a photo)

Chicken and cottage cheese quiche
Makes 12 texan muffin sized quiche

12 slices of wholemeal bread
1 cooked chicken breast, chopped (I used chicken breast off a roast chicken)
1 capsicum, diced
1 1/2 red onion, diced
100gm sundried tomatoes, chopped

200gm cottage cheese
4 eggs, lightly beaten (you can use up to 6 eggs. I just didn't want to)
1/3 milk (I think it's better if you use cream instead though, but I didn't have any)

200gm mozzarella cheese, grated
salt and pepper, to suit taste

Line texan muffin pans with sliced bread. You'll find that by cutting 2 opposite crusts off will make it easier to do so (shown on the left).


In a large bowl, mix capsicum, onion, chicken, sundried tomatoes and a little of the mozzarella cheese (do not use all of it! only a little, as you need it for 2 other things)


Sprinkle a little of mozzarella on the base of each bread base. This will help the quiche stick to the base, as well as to stop it from soaking the bread completely before baking.


Add the eggs, cottage cheese and milk to the mixture. Add salt and pepper to suit taste. (A sprinkle of each is fine)


Scoop the mixture into each muffin hole until mixture is completely used up. Sprinkle a little of the mozzarella on top of each quiche.


Bake for 30mins at 165C.


Remove from pan immediately and onto cooling rack, to prevent the bread from becoming soggy.


Serve immediately.

I had actually chopped up 2 onions. All those tears I went through. Haha. But it was way too much to put in. I'm estimating there's about half an onion left over. I'll just use it for tomorrow's bake (if I end up doing so) :)