Every now and then I like to share things with you that aren’t exactly “recipes” but are just the random bowl meals that I make out of things found in my fridge. I’ve discovered so many great flavor combinations by experimenting with these bowl meals and I hope they inspire you as well. This Cottage Cheese Crab Bowl is my most recent favorite. It’s light and fresh for this early summer heat, but still filling enough to serve as a whole meal (for me, at least).
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What’s In This Bowl
This cottage cheese crab bowl was inspired by the classic sushi roll, the California roll, which contains crab (or often times imitation crab), cucumber, and avocado. I had been seeing imitation crab every time I stopped and Aldi and I eventually started craving it, so I bought a pack, I grabbed a cucumber, and threw them on top of the cottage cheese I had in my fridge. I also went a step further and sprinkled on a little bit of Everything Bagel Seasoning, and a light drizzle of sriracha for fun. It’s not fancy, but it’s soooo good!
P.S. If you have avocado on hand, it would go marvelously with these flavors, just like it does in the California roll.
What is Everything Bagel Seasoning?
Everything bagel seasoning has been taking the food market by storm lately. It’s basically the mix of ingredients that you’d find on top of an “everything” bagel, or sesame seeds, poppy seeds, flakey salt, dehydrated garlic, and dehydrated onion. I’m not sure who marketed this seasoning blend first, but the first time I saw it was at Trader Joes. It’s gotten so popular lately that several other grocery stores are now making their own version, including Kroger and Aldi.
What is Imitation Crab?
Imitation crab might throw some people off, and I totally get it. Imitation crab is basically fish that has been processed to taste and look more like crab. It’s probably not the most wholesome choice of proteins, but it’s so much less expensive than real crab and since I only eat it maybe once a year, I’m not going to sweat it. I’m all about everything in moderation, and I encourage everyone to make the food choices that they are comfortable with. Here is a great article from Healthline breaking down exactly what imitation crab is and how it compares to real crab, so you can decide for yourself: What is Imitation Crab and Should I Eat It?
Can I Substitute…
The whole idea of a “bowl meal” is that you allow yourself to be a little experimental, throw in whatever you have, and just go with it. So, can you substitute the imitation crab? Sure, go with what you have. Maybe a soft boiled egg, some canned tuna, real crab, cooked salmon, or smoked salmon. Can you substitute the Everything Bagel Seasoning? Sure, maybe try some plain sesame seeds, or just some freshly cracked pepper and flakey sea salt. Can you substitute the cottage cheese? Sure, try a bed of rice, or maybe some fresh greens. I can’t guarantee you’ll like any of these substitutes, but the point is that you try it and see for yourself. :)
Cottage Cheese Crab Bowl
Servings 1Ingredients
- 1/2 cup cottage cheese ($0.27)
- 1/2 cup chopped cucumber ($0.32)
- 1/3 cup imitation crab ($0.58)
- 1/4 tsp everything bagel seasoning ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp sriracha ($0.02)
Instructions
- Add the cottage cheese, chopped cucumber, and crab meat to a bowl. Top with everything bagel seasoning and a light drizzle of sriracha.
- Serve immediately, or refrigerate until ready to eat, up to four days.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Want more bowl meals? Check out our bowl meal category!
How to Make Cottage Cheese Crab Bowls – Step by Step Photos
Chop about a ½ cup cucumber. Depending on the girth of your cucumber, you may want to either halve or quarter the slices to make them bite-sized.
This is the imitation crab meat that I got at Aldi. You can usually find it in the seafood department in grocery stores, but at Aldi it’s with the seasonal refrigerated items. So I’m not sure if they’ll continue to carry this item forever.
And here is the everything bagel seasoning I used. I’ve used different brands and each seems to have a different salt content, so you may just want to add your seasoning to the bowl according to your tastes. I find that this one from Aldi has a lot more salt than the one from Kroger (I prefer the less salt version).
To make the cottage cheese crab bowl, start with ½ cup cottage cheese, add ½ cup chopped cucumber, about ⅓ cup of the imitation crab, and then sprinkle on some of the everything bagel seasoning (I used ¼ tsp, but would have used more if it had less salt).
Finally, drizzle a little sriracha on top.
Then enjoy! This bowl meal preps really well, so feel free to make a few for easy grab and go lunches later in the week!
I loved this! Bonus, I had all the ingredients on hand. Definitely will be making this for a quick lunch.
Made as written, but added some matchstick carrot along with the cucumber. Perfect, quick, and easy no-reheat lunch during a busy workday in the summer! Scratches the itch for sushi without breaking the bank.
Why use Everything Bagel seasoning when you could give the krab an authentic taste with Old Bay seasoning?
Because I wasn’t going for anything authentic, I was going for what I was in the mood for, which was EBB. ;)
pardon my smirk….loved your answer.
Because Old Bay is gross?
“k”rab? Seriously?
Love this recipe, have been making it for a while now. I’m not huge on cucumber so I replace with peas!
One of my newest favorites – delicious!
I really like this. I’ve made it multiped times. I typically buy the leg-style imitation crab in the store brand – this lets me make the bites of crab as small or as large as I want. I typically halve the cukes and scoop out the seeds with a small spoon before cutting into bite-sized pieces, especially the older cukes with the well-developed seeds.
Hello…..I made this except I didnt have the everything bagel seasoning….booohoooo…I think that would of made my day as far as taste.
You can find recipes to make the seasoning online.
This is so good and filling! Everything bagel is not easily available in my nook of the world (Belgium) so I use Furikaki (is expensive) or sesame seeds. Have eaten it for breakfast lunch and dinner :-)
Why does this work? It’s tasty, refreshing, and easy to make. I totally wasn’t expecting it to be good.
Haha, I’m right there with ya. 😆
This is so good and refreshing! What an easy lunch to throw together. I found a salt-free everything bagel seasoning, so I can use as much as I want. :D
I didn’t think I’d want sriracha on it, but it definitely helps to tie it all together. The cottage cheese mutes the spice.
Forgot to leave a rating. . . . I
Three of my favorite foods always in my fridge and I never thought to put them together like this. I think it’s because I don’t eat much sushi. Anyway I made this with a couple tweaks; I put olive oil and fresh ground black pepper on the cottage because that’s my favorite way to eat it (wonderful with pita chips), I added a fourth favorite food with diced avocado (everything is better with avocado), and omitted the siracha. It was the perfect lunch after a long hot morning. Thank you for the inspiration – I’ll make this often!
The first time I tried this I used chicken and no seasonings. I didn’t have everything bagle and I’m not aBIG fan of Sriracha. It was sad, boring and tasteless. I just tried it again as written and WOW! It is SO GOOD!! Glad I have it a second chance
I was scared because I’ve never tried cottage cheese before – this was a fantastic step into that world. Texture usually bothers me, but here the curds had the consistency of rice to me, which was very appropriate. This filled my sushi craving wonderfully and didn’t break the bank! I’m really excited to try again with avocado – as well as budget bytes’ other cottage cheese recipes.
I bought my first ever bottle of sriracha and I’m worried it’s going to go to waste, because I’m not loving it, but! This is still a 5/5 recipe. Loved the rest, although I did my own veggies. I steamed 3 broccoli florets and a carrot in the microwave. Anyway, this is the first BudgetBytes recipe I tried and I had my doubts on how filling they would be, but I’m impressed. It kept me full for hours and hours.
I just made this for lunch today, and I’m already excited for lunch tomorrow! I didn’t have the everything bagel season, so I tossed on a couple dashes of soy sauce and OH. MY. YUM.
Its like a deconstructed sushi roll. It put me immediately in my happy place! :)
Loved this idea and see out to make it. I shopped late in the day so the store was out of Krab and Bagel Seasoning. I substituted shrimp and Nori Komi Furikake seasoning. It’s delicious. Thanks for including substitution ideas.
Aldi didn’t have the imitation crab so I picked up some frozen salmon for this. It turned out really great. I’m not all that into cottage cheese but all the flavors mixed together worked really well and this is perfect option for the keto-lite diet I’ve been doing.
I’m gonna try it again without the sriracha because it was so overpowering. It’s got potential.
So let me say that without the sriracha? This tastes exactly like sushi in a bowl. This is wonderful.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe
This bowl is so made for summer!
Would never have thought this weird combo of ingredients would taste so good! I’ve had it 3 times this week, and I’m off to Aldi now to restock the fixings for it! I’m addicted! The addition of avocado slices is delicious.
I had this for dinner yesterday and I was surprised that it kept me full well into the night. Thanks for this great, really LC idea!
I made this and added 3 oz of pasta for a delicious pasta salad! Very tasty.
Thanks for the reminder that cottage cheese is amazing!
This is really good! It makes such a nice light breakfast or lunch. If you already don’t like cottage cheese and/or imitation crab, this probably won’t redeem either one for you. BUT if you already like these things, give this bowl a try! I love everything bagel seasoning but didn’t have any on hand, so I just used flaky sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. I like to make mine with extra cucumber or grated carrots, because I like a lot of crunch. Really customizable – use whatever you have on hand.
This was so good! I couldn’t get everything bagel spice, so I used some cracked pepper, sea salt, poppy seeds and celery seed instead. I also added avocado.
Anything is good with cottage cheese, I can’t wait to make this. I am sure it will be great. Another quick summer dish is the old ancient stand-by of “Cottage Cheese Salad”, consisting of cottage cheese, diced onion, diced bell pepper, diced fresh tomatoes, and salt/pepper to taste. This salad is old as the hills, an old stand-by of pot-lucks and funeral dinners, but it is just about the perfect summer meal-in-a-bowl.
Great combo…So fresh and yummy!! I substituted the bagel seasoning with hemp seeds.
This is better than it has any right to be! I made it exactly as written but with TJ’s everything bagel seasoning and it was a delicious and light lunch, perfect for our 90 degree weather lately. Now I can go swimming and not have to suck anything in :) Thanks Beth!
Although I only used 2 out of 3 your main ingredients here, your “recipe” reminded me how tasty and cheap imitation crab is. What is this stuff? Don’t tell me, I might not want to know……I bought the imitation crab in bulk from a large grocery and think it was only 3 bucks per Lb. I whipped this up in about 5 min. 1/2 Lb. imitation crab – rough chop, 1/2 cucumber – seeded and large dice, 2 Tbsp. mayo, 1 Tbsp. shrimp cocktail sauce, nice squirt sriracha, salt, pinch sugar. Super tasty with some R*** crackers. Love your website, always good ideas.
This sounded oddly good to me, and while I like cottage cheese, I seldom buy it because I never know what to add to it. I went and got cottage cheese and crab sticks the last time I went to the store to give this a go! I made mine with spinach, cucumbers, sesame seeds (because my everything bagel seasoning seems to be MIA), sriracha, black pepper and a sprinkle of bacon bits.
I liked it! I wound up having it for breakfast and found it to not only be a light yet satisfying meal, but also easy on the calories. I think I’d like to toss some croutons and/or shredded carrot in when I make it again for extra crunch.
Made this for breakfast this morning. Yum. Very refreshing and light. The Everything Bagel seasoning was perfect (mine was low salt).
I think that a quick squeeze of lemon to add a hint of brightness and acidity would be a good addition. I’ll try it tomorrow morning when I have this for breakfast again!
Quick and easy (which breakfast should be) and yummy. Highly recommended.
I’m from Estonia and we eat buckwheat HEAVILY. My lunches are buckwheat+cottage cheese with whatever fresh stuff at hand (cucumber, tomato, avocado, reddish, red pepper…)
So I’d imagine everything you have here on top of some buckwheat would be an amazing salad.
Random, I know. For us, buckwheat is the cheapest grain as well so it’s super budget, might not be the case where buckwheat is not “national” food. However, haven’t tried crab yet, so a new idea!
I’m hoping you might have some more cottage cheese recipes up your sleeve. I usually have cottage cheese around for a snack, but I don’t have a lot of ideas of how to dress it up into a meal.
Personally I mix it up with spaghetti squash, spinach, and tomato sauce, it’s kind of a lasagne flavour!
i was wondering if you have a recipe for zucchini bread?
thanks
We don’t have a recipe for zucchini bread on the site. However this Zucchini and Orzo Salad with Chimichurri is one of my favorites!
This “recipe” sounds weird but strangely enough I want to try it. Guess I’ll make a trip to Aldi’s.
I love cottage cheese on pasta and think this combo would make a great pasta salad!