Note: Glutino brand crackers pictured are Gluten-Free but are made in a facility that processes dairy containing products. The label states that the crackers may contain ‘trace amounts’ of milk. Be aware of this if you have an extreme sensitivity or true milk allergy. Jacqui can have milk as a trace ingredient, but not a primary ingredient, so these crackers work well for her.
This little recipe has been a long time coming! Before we learned about Jacqui’s food sensitivities, one of the few foods we could count on her to eat without a fuss was cottage cheese. When we had to go casein-free, she was devastated! Ever try and explain to a three-year-old why they can’t have cottage cheese? Or better yet, why you haven’t been able to find one without milk in it? Believe me, I tried. As near as I know, no such thing exists. Jacqui’s grandmother came to the rescue with a homemade soy version that I have since tweaked to Jacqui approved perfection. It’s not really perfection to my own lofty cottage cheese standards (grin) but it’s decent. And it puts a smile on Jacqui’s face and always ends in an empty bowl. Thanks mom, for making a little girl’s cottage cheese wishes come true! And without further adieu…
Jacqui’s Casein-Free Mock Cottage Cheese
Note: Rice Dream beverages contain trace amounts of gluten even though the labels state they are gluten-free. Rice dream is manufactured using barley malt, which contains gluten, but since the product meets the FDA requirements of less than 200 parts per million (0.002%) gluten, they can label it as gluten-free. Also know that within the last year, the manufacturer’s of Rice Dream have removed the reference to barley protein from their labeling, even though nothing has changed with their manufacturing. I confirmed this via their customer service center, so avoid this product if you are extremely sensitive to gluten. Trace amounts of gluten are not a problem for Jacqui and the Rice Dream brand is the only one we can get her to drink, which is why we use it. However, if you are a celiac or highly sensitive to gluten, I would recommend a truly gluten-free brand such as as Pacific Foods Rice Milk or making your own, like Karen’s Homemade Rice Milk at Only Sometimes Clever. Her recipe contains more a lot more protein, and she’s working on finding a way to economically add calcium to it.
Assemble the following Ingredients:
Mori-Nu Firm Silken Tofu - 1 Box
Mori-Nu Extra-Firm Silken Tofu - 1 Box
Better Than Sour Cream Dairy-Free Sour Cream Substitute - 1 TBSP
Dairy-Free Margarine - 1 TBSP - Melted
Lemon Juice - 2 tsp
Garlic Powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Rice Milk - 1 tsp
Open the box of the firm silken tofu and drain the liquid off. Place the block into a large mixing bowl and cut off one third of the block. Cube the third you have removed and place the cubes in a food processor or food mill.
Add to the food mill containing the tofu cubes: 1 TBSP of dairy-free sour cream substitute, 1 TBSP of dairy-free melted margarine, and 2 tsp of lemon juice.
Pulse the food processor or food mill until the cubes are no longer intact.
Open the lid and scrape down the sides. Re-seal the lid and pulse until smooth.
Remove the lid and check the consistency. It should be creamy and about the consistency of mayonnaise. If it is too thick, add rice milk, 1 teaspoonful at a time, pulsing food processor or food mill in between each addition, until desired consistency is reached. If it becomes to thin at any point, you can add a little of your remaining block of firm tofu, but try to avoid using very much of it as you will be needing it for the other portion of the recipe. Once desired consistency has been reached, set aside.
Open box of extra-firm silken tofu and drain off the liquid. Place the block in the same mixing bowl with the remaining 2/3 block of firm silken tofu. Cut both blocks into cubes and then gently mash with a fork to form ‘cheese curds’. The purpose of the two different firmnesses of silken tofu? The extra-firm silken tofu more closely approximates the texture of the cottage cheese curds. The firm silken tofu is easier to cream to make the creamy base for the curds. Combining the two different firmnesses of the tofu in the recipe has yielded the best results for our family.
Gently turn the curds over in the bowl, checking for un-mashed blocks until all the tofu blocks have been broken into curd-size chunks.
Scrape reserved creamed tofu from food processor or food mill into mixing bowl. Add 1/4 tsp of garlic powder and 1/2 tsp of salt.
Gently mix until all ingredients are uniformly incorporated. Adjust salt and garlic powder to taste. Store in air-tight container in refrigerator… or serve up immediately to your cottage-cheese deprived kiddos!
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I am so glad you found a way to make cottage cheese that is Gluten free. Looks very healthy.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:14 am
Oh, good. Thanks. This looks like something even I can eat. After almost a year of just giving up all the foods I’m allergic to, I think I’m ready to start finding substitutes. My menu choices are ready to expand again.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:50 am
This is a test comment to see if your edit comments thing is working.
< :-P
Yep, it’s working.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:56 am
Yay Casey! =D> You rock! ^:)^
February 21st, 2008 at 1:05 am
HEY! You are CLEVER! Hey…if you make the Red Velvet cupcakes C/F too…let me know how they turn out! And let me post a link to them if you ever do, okay? I have lots of folks who want me to do C/F too, but I don’t do that often!
THANKS!
Krista
February 21st, 2008 at 1:46 am
Becky - Took us a while too before we were finally ready to start experimenting in the kitchen. Hang in there! It does get better!
Krista - Will do!
We have a birthday coming up this weekend to attend, so I’m planning on giving them a shot on Friday after I grocery shop. Hope it works! 
February 21st, 2008 at 2:08 am
I LOVE cottage cheese, and I can totally see how you would be motivated to make some your kids can eat. Yum!
February 21st, 2008 at 5:45 am
Hey sweetie. I am so sorry I’ve been MIA for a month. Things have been insane with work, and sickness and such. I am really hoping to have something written and posted by this weekend. I miss this blog so, and all my (3) blogging friends who stuck it out in my absence. Thanks for keeping me reminded that someone out there wants to read something that I write. I might resort to my grocery list…if I had one.
Thank you for the recent award. Your guilt trip is working on me overtime. 
I love the new place. I’m gonna go change my blogroll settings so I don’t miss anything.
HUGS,
TaunaLen
February 21st, 2008 at 2:25 pm
You are such a good mommy. Tell Jacqui I said to not go anywhere near the toilet with those crackers.
February 21st, 2008 at 3:34 pm
How awesome!!!!!!! Glad she gets to have her cottage cheese and it makes her happy!!!!!
February 21st, 2008 at 5:41 pm
[…] Casein-Free Cottage Cheese. This comes to you from In the Life of a Child, who’s daughter is on a Casein-Free diet. […]
February 21st, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Hi there! I write a blog that is geared towards kids with special needs. On Thursdays, I write a Tools entry - resources, finds, “tools,” that make this kind of parenting easier. For today, I’ve linked to your recipe, but I wanted to see if you would grant permission for me to reprint the whole thing there - with photos. You would absolutely be given the credit, with link to both your regular blog home, as well as the recipe entry itself. Please let me know. Thank you for the consideration.
February 21st, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Yes, you are such a good mommy, Jacqui is a lucky girl (but then looking at her, you’re lucky too). Love the blog, so much better is wordpress
February 21st, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Ooooh, this sounds great… no wonder it’s a success!
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:25 am
Now that is just fantastic! Dash and I are allergic to milk and I to wheat this is a great idea! Every Sunday my IL have cottage cheese and pineapple salad.We can not do this , now we can! Nice new blog. How come the change?
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Okay, okay, OKAY! :)You will be glad to know that there’s a new post up over at my place. I know. But, try deep breathing exercises—that might help. Thank you for dragging me back.
Hugs.
~TaunaLen
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:51 pm
TaunaLen - WAHOOOOOO!!!! < :-P Knew you could do it! I'll be over for a nice quiet read with a cup of cocoa once it's nap-time around here.
You just made my day! (And anyone reading these comments who's not reading TaunaLen's blog... you are missing out on something special!)
Angie - LOL! We have toilet locks now
(For any new readers, click here to read about the incident Angie is referring to.)
Michele - You’re most welcome! Glad you got my email letting you know it was OK to post. You have a great site for families facing challenges with their kiddos and I’m happy do do anything I can to help.
Jo - I must agree… I’m more than lucky. I’m blessed! And glad you like the new place… I’m still not up to speed with everything around here yet, but I’m already liking it much better
Donetta - Hope this works for you as well as it has for us. The texture still isn’t quite the same as the real deal, but the flavor is quite good. If you create something fabulous in your magical kitchen with this recipe, do let me know! I’ll post a link. And the move was for a number of reasons… More flexibility with the Wordpress platform, I wanted to move to a self-hosted blog, and to escape a big giant bug that was haunting my old blog and freezing up some of my reader’s computers.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
I am WAY impressed!!! It looks just like the real thing!
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:06 pm
This looks great! I have just begun to experiment with making my own mock cheeses, of the hard block variety. This looks wonderful and I’ll have to try it.
I like the new webspace too! I’ve also had a hard time transitioning into the new year!
Katherine
February 25th, 2008 at 12:59 am