Blended Cottage Cheese Ice Cream

Imagine a rich, creamy and delicious ice cream that is also healthy, naturally sweetened and high in protein! This Cottage Cheese Ice Cream is the perfect refreshing dessert or healthy evening snack. When blended, cottage cheese tastes remarkably like cream cheese, making a perfect blank canvas for the flavor combination of chocolate, peanut butter and banana.

For more cottage cheese frozen treats try my Blueberry Cottage Cheese Popsicles and my Frozen Cottage Cheese Bark.

Recently I have been going for a lot of long walks and I also wanted to increase my protein intake to keep up with all that exercise. Cottage cheese was the perfect option for that except for one thing: I prefer smooth, creamy textures like pudding and mousse and I was very unsure about the texture of cottage cheese. I decided to blend the cottage cheese with a little maple syrup and I had the perfect high protein snack. This inspired me to imagine where else I could add the smooth texture of blended cottage cheese and this ice cream recipe was the result!

Have fun experimenting with this recipe by trying your own add-ins. Try frozen fruit, chopped nuts, jam, vanilla extract, lemon zest and more!

For more naturally sweetened treats visit my posts for Date Sweetened Cookies, Buckwheat Brownies, Tahini Stuffed Dates and Rice Cake Chocolate Bars.

Health Benefits of Cottage Cheese

Cottage cheese is rich in high-quality protein while still being relatively low in calories, especially compared to other dairy products. It contains many essential nutrients (many of which are essential for bone health) like calcium and phosphorus. Cottage cheese also provides some probiotic benefit to improve gut health. For me, I find it is a delicious and easy way to get my protein intake up fast! (Health information sourced from Healthline)

More Cottage Cheese Recipes: Cottage Cheese Lemon Mousse, High Protein Quiche, Strawberry Cottage Cheese Smoothie, Cottage Cheese Dill Pickle Dip as well as resource with 40+ High Protein Cottage Cheese Recipes.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

• Naturally sweet
• You can have ice cream for breakfast! (OR try my Apple Cinnamon Cottage Cheese Breakfast Bowl)
• Kid friendly!
• No-bake recipe
• No churning or ice cream machine required!
• Easy to customize the flavors
• A delicious high protein dessert (just like my cinnamon apple mousse!)

Ingredients

• Banana - if you use an extra ripe banana then you can skip the maple syrup entirely and have a delicious ice cream treat that is sweetened entirely by fruit.
• Cottage cheese - I recommend 2% milk fat cottage cheese for a creamier ice cream.

See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.

Substitutions & Variations

• Milk: you can swap for any dairy free milk alternative (like Homemade Pumpkin Seed Milk.)
• Peanut Butter: swap for powdered peanut butter for a higher protein option. Or any of your favorite nut butters like almond butter, cashew butter or sunflower seed butter. (If you're a big peanut butter fan you'll love my Peanut Butter Black Bean Brownies)
• Banana: Consider swapping with a Medjool date or two. To further reduce the sugar content swap the banana for strawberries or blueberries.
• Maple syrup: Can be swapped for honey or coconut sugar.
• Toppings and Mix-ins: sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, chopped peanuts, sliced strawberries or bananas or Homemade Sugar Free Granola.
• To Increase the Protein Content: consider adding a tablespoon of your favorite protein powder

I have not experimented with any other substitutions or alterations for this recipe. If you decide to make any changes by adding or substituting ingredients, I would love it if you could share your results with us by leaving a comment below.

How To Make Cottage Cheese Ice Cream

Here are the step-by-step instructions to make this recipe.

Step 1: Blend all ingredients (except milk) and freeze.

Add all the ingredients except the milk into your blender. Blend until combined and smooth.

Divide this mixture into an ice cube tray and freeze well.

Step 2: Blend the frozen cubes with just enough milk to get the blender moving.

When mixture is frozen and you are ready to eat the ice cream, add back into the blender. Add the milk and blend to a soft serve ice cream consistency. Add a little more milk but only if needed to get the blender going. 

Step 3: Serve and enjoy!

That's it! You have turned high protein cottage cheese into a smooth and creamy soft serve ice cream. Enjoy!

Expert Tips

• Choose full fat cottage cheese because it will result in a creamier texture.
• Use well ripened banana in this recipe for maximum flavor and sweetness.
• Pour the blended mixture into ice cube trays and freeze well. Blend from frozen with just enough milk to allow the blender to work well. The ice cream will be a soft serve consistency. Enjoy immediately.
• This recipe makes one serving. Double or triple to serve more people or to have ready it in the freezer for another time.
• If your ice cream turns out too soft after blending, you can add it to a freezer safe container and freeze for about an hour or so until it's a nice scoopable consistency.

Recipe FAQs

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