The 3-Ingredient Retro Appetizer I Make When I’m Feeling Nostalgic

I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin with parents who loved to dine out, so as a kid, I was dragged to many a supper club. If you’re not familiar, a supper club isn’t really a club; it’s a family-run restaurant with multi-course dinners, dancing, and stiff brandy old fashioneds. The interminably long evenings were only made tolerable for me with plenty of Shirley Temples and the “relish tray” that landed on every table as a complimentary snack to kick off the evening. 

Relish trays vary from supper club to supper club, but they generally include raw vegetable sticks, radishes carved to resemble flowers, pickled beets, olives, rye crackers, breadsticks, and a cheese spread or dip of some sort. I particularly loved the “spiced cottage cheese” dip, a mixture of cottage cheese, caraway seeds, and chives or green onions. 

I’ve never found a definitive account of where spiced cottage cheese comes from, but my guess is that it’s a simplified version of Liptauer, a central European spread made with farmers cheese, butter, paprika, caraway, and sometimes capers and/or anchovies. The supper club version is more kid-friendly–no anchovies or briny capers, just the bittersweet flavor of caraway (think rye bread), plus the tangy creaminess of cottage cheese and a little green onion or chives. 

When dipped into with crispy vegetable sticks and rye chips, there’s nothing better to pique the appetite (and hold you over until your parents are done gabbing with everyone in town and finally sit down to eat).  

How To Serve Spiced Cottage Cheese Dip

Now that I’ve moved 2,000 miles away from supper club country, I frequently make spiced cottage cheese when I need to feel connected to my roots. It’s the ideal creamy dip for dunking kettle chips into, using as a baked potato topping, or enjoying as a quick lunch alongside a green salad. 

But my favorite way to serve spiced cottage cheese is the OG supper club way: with an artfully arranged platter of icy-cold vegetable sticks and pumpernickel rye chips. It brings back memories of the hours I’ve spent in kitschy supper clubs nestled in snowy woods where dinner was always a somewhat glamorous, hours-long event. 

How To Make My 3-Ingredient Spiced Cottage Cheese Dip 

To make six servings (about 2 cups), you’ll need:

• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
• 1 (16-ounce) tub full-fat, small curd cottage cheese
• 2 green onions, trimmed and finely chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat a small saucepan over medium heat until hot. Add the caraway seeds and cook, swirling the pan occasionally, until they smell toasty and crackle just a little bit, 1 to 2 minutes. Pour the seeds into a mortar and pestle and bash until about half of the seeds are broken up. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, crush the seeds with the bottom of a large sauté pan on a cutting board. 

In a medium serving bowl, stir together the cottage cheese, green onions (reserving a bit of dark green tops for garnish), and crushed caraway seeds. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate in an airtight container for at least 1 hour and up to 5 days. Serve as a dip with crudités, chips, or breadsticks. 

Tips For Making Spiced Cottage Cheese Dip  

• Buy the best cottage cheese you can find. For the creamiest texture, I recommend using small curd, full-fat cottage cheese. Look for “4% milk fat” somewhere on the label. The stuff made with 2% milkfat tends to be thinner and not as satisfying. I’m a fan of the tanginess of live-culture cottage cheese like Good Culture or Nancy’s. 
• Make it dippable. If the cottage cheese you purchased is on the dry side, add a few tablespoons of cream or milk to loosen it to a dippable consistency.  
• Toast and lightly crush the caraway seeds. Toasting the seeds in a dry pan releases some of their savory essential oils and crushing them speeds up the transfer of their flavor into the cottage cheese. 
• Give the flavors time to meld. The dip will need to chill for at least an hour, and I recommend 24 hours for the best flavor. 
• Spice it up. Add a dash of garlic powder, MSG, or celery salt if you’re feeling fancy.
• Make your veggies shockingly cold. For the full Wisconsin supper club experience, cut up carrots, celery, and radishes and soak them in ice water for half an hour before patting dry and serving with the spiced cottage cheese. Something about the shockingly cold vegetables makes them taste extra fresh.