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All you need to make this strawberry cottage cheese ice cream is 4 simple ingredients and a food processor. It’s a creamy, high protein dessert that you’ll be making on repeat.
Cottage cheese may be the new cauliflower! This overlooked but versatile ingredient is been used for all sorts of viral recipes on social media.
When I saw the viral cottage cheese ice cream recipe on Tiktok and Instagram I remembered I used to make something similar, and delicious ; ). So I ran to the kitchen to share this recipe with you!
This healthier alternative to ice cream doesn’t taste exactly like the real thing, but it’s a delicious frozen treat.
You’ll find a delicious strawberry version in this post – but I share suggestions for making it your own with different mix-ins. My top tip – use frozen fruit so you can enjoy right away! (It’s like creamy and delicious soft serve ice cream.)
Even if you’re not a fan of cottage cheese, give this easy ice cream a try! The chunky texture of cottage cheese is often its biggest turn off – but you avoid that by using blended cottage cheese for this ice cream recipe.
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What is Cottage Cheese Ice Cream?
Although it’s not technically ice cream, cottage cheese ice cream is a trendy treat made by freezing pureed cottage cheese until firm.
The creamy texture is similar to regular ice cream – but higher in protein with less fat and less sugar. Women especially need more protein as they age, and this is a totally fun way to add to your daily intake!
A serving of this cottage cheese ice cream has 10 grams of protein vs ½ cup traditional vanilla ice cream which has about 3 grams.
Ingredients You’ll Need
You’ll be shocked at the simple and healthy ingredients used for my healthy ice cream recipe:
- Cottage Cheese: use a plain, good quality cottage cheese for this delicious cottage cheese ice cream recipe. Both nonfat and regular cottage cheese work well, but you’ll get a richer and creamier texture ice cream when using full-fat cottage cheese.
- Frozen Strawberries: use frozen strawberries so that your cottage cheese ice cream is like soft serve after pureeing. (No need to wait for it to freeze, you can enjoy it right away!) However, if you need to use fresh strawberries, you should let the cottage cheese ice cream freeze for 2-4 hours before serving. Either way it makes a delicious healthy ice cream!
- Vanilla Extract: adds lovely flavor to complement the strawberries.
- Stevia: this is our sugar-free/calorie-free sweetener of choice, but you can use whichever one that you prefer. You can also sweeten this with honey, agave, or maple syrup – I suggest using 2-4 tablespoons, depending on how sweet you would like this high protein dessert recipe to be.
Variations
There are endless different variations you can make with this recipe, but here are a few of my favorite flavor combinations for this high-protein dessert.
Strawberry “Cheesecake”: stir ½ cup of chopped fresh strawberries and 3-4 sheets of crumbled graham crackers into the ice cream or crumble them on top after dishing it out. You could also try it with a handful of crushed vanilla wafers or teddy grahams.
Use a Different Berry: strawberries are a classic, but you can use frozen cherries, blueberries, or raspberries instead. Berries are a great anti-inflammatory food to add to your diet!
Strawberry Swirl: after transferring the pureed cottage cheese mixture to a container add a few spoonfuls of strawberry jam and use a spoon to stir in a swirl pattern through the high protein ice cream.
How to Make Cottage Cheese Ice Cream
Puree: add all the ingredients to a food processor or high-powered blender and puree until creamy. Enjoy right away (it will be like soft serve ice cream) or transfer the ice cream mixture to a freezer safe container and freeze for 2-3 hours until firm. Allow to thaw on the counter for 5-10 minutes until it is scoopable.
Add Mix-Ins (optional): if you want to add any of your favorite mix-ins, you’ll want to stir them into the protein ice cream after transferring to a container. We suggest chopped fresh strawberries, crumbled graham crackers, chocolate chips, or strawberry jam.
Recommended Tools
- Food Processor (or High-Speed Blender)
- Ice Cream Scoop
- Measuring Cups
Why Is My Cottage Cheese Ice Cream So Hard?
This “ice cream” has a much higher water content and is lower in sugar than traditional ice cream so it can become hard and icy when frozen. Just let your ice cream sit out on the counter for a few minutes after pulling it out of the freezer and it will become creamy and scoopable again.
Have a sweet tooth you just can’t kick? Check out more of my healthy low-calorie dessert recipes!
More Protein-Packed Desserts
Have a sweet tooth but working on making healthier choices? Try one of these other healthy desserts!
- Healthy Cookie Dough Dip for a Crowd
- 1-Minute Protein Brownie in a Mug
- Snickerdoodle Protein Balls
- Healthy Cookie Dough Bites
Strawberry Cottage Cheese Ice Cream
Equipment
- Food Processor (or High-Speed Blender)
- Ice Cream Scoop
- Measuring cups
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup cottage cheese
- 2/3 cup frozen strawberries
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons stevia powder, or 2 tablespoons maple syrup, honey, agave nectar
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a food processor (or blender) and blend until creamy. Serve right away if you like a soft serve texture or transfer to a container and freeze.
- If you want to add mix-ins, transfer the pureed ice cream to a loaf pan or glass dish and stir them in before serving or chilling in the freezer.
- For a firmer, scoopable texture – freeze the cottage cheese ice cream for 2-4 hours. Remove from the freezer and let it thaw for 10 minutes or so on the counter at room temperature until scoopable.
Cottage cheese….fat free (yuk), 2 %. Or 4% fat?
We like 2% or 4%!
Then do you freeze it ??
You don’t need to! Since we use frozen cherries, it’s already cold and ice cream like but you could if you didn’t want to eat it right away!
Mine turned out like a smoothie. I
Not sure what happened.
Hi! Maybe your cherries were totally frozen? We like to make sure we pull them out right before use – but it will be a softer texture than you’re typical ice cream!
I loved it! Perfect for that finisher after dinner.
RIGHT? I’m kind of obsessed!!
I see all the ingredients for the strawberry cottage cheese ice cream but there are no amounts given for each of the ingredients. Would like to make this but would feel more comfortable if the amounts for each were given.
Thank you.
UGH- we had one day when measurements were missing – we just launched a new website theme and had one day of chaos. I just looked – scroll to the bottom – there is a recipe card and the measurements are all there!