Cottage Cheese Bowl with Tomatoes & Seeds

📝 Ingredients

• 200 g cottage cheese
• 100 g cherry tomatoes (about 8)
• ¼ cucumber (about 80 g)
• 15 g pumpkin seeds
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 hard-boiled egg (cooked in advance)
• 1 slice wholemeal bread (about 40 g)
• 4 fresh chive stalks
• Salt, black pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Deep bowl
• Paring knife
• Chopping board
• Teaspoon
• Scissors
• Saucepan (for the hard-boiled egg)

📖 Steps

1. If the hard-boiled egg isn't ready, lower it into a pan of boiling water and simmer gently for 10 min, then cool it in cold water for 5 min. Easiest of all: cook 6 at once, as they keep for 5 days in the fridge in their shells.
2. Wash the cherry tomatoes and cut them in half, or into quarters for the larger ones, using a sharp knife so as not to squash them. Put them in a small bowl with a pinch of salt: they release a little juice and gain flavour.
3. Wash the cucumber, halve it lengthways and scoop out the seeds with the teaspoon if it is very watery, then cut it into 1 cm dice so it stays nice and crunchy.
4. Drain the cottage cheese if there is any whey in the pot, then tip it into the deep bowl. Season with pepper and scatter over half the chives, snipped with scissors. Don't add salt: the cottage cheese is already salted.
5. Arrange the tomatoes and cucumber on top, drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle over the pumpkin seeds at the last minute so they stay crunchy.
6. Peel the hard-boiled egg under cold running water, cut it into quarters and place it on the bowl. Season the egg lightly with salt and pepper, add the remaining chives and serve with the slice of wholemeal bread.