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My Cottage Cheese Ice Cream Is So Good!
I was a little skeptical at first when I started seeing cottage cheese everywhere. But now that I’ve been adding it to my smoothies, pastas and baked goods, I can confidently say I’m a cottage cheese convert. It blends up to a creamy consistency that makes it so versatile and most of the time, you can hardly taste it! That’s why it works so well in this Cottage Cheese Ice Cream.
To make my cottage cheese ice cream base, I simply blend up full fat cottage cheese with honey until it’s smooth and creamy. Depending on what I’m craving, I’ll add some fruit, nut butter for additional protein or even brownie or cookie crumbles to make an extra decadent treat! I’m sharing a few of my favorite combinations here, along with some tips on getting the creamiest cottage cheese ice cream, but the great thing about this recipe is how easy it is for you to customize with your favorite add-ins.
Cottage Cheese Ice Cream Ingredients
- Cottage cheese: I recommend using whole milk cottage cheese for the creamiest texture and skipping low-fat cottage cheese, which is more watery.
- Honey: I like to use honey to sweeten the ice cream, but you can also go with maple syrup or another liquid sweetener. Dates can also be blended into the base to sweeten the cream or chopped and folded in for a chewy texture addition.
Popular Additions
- Add extracts. You can easily change up the flavor of the ice cream base with a few drops of vanilla, almond or mint extract. Start with less than a teaspoon and add in a little more if needed.
- Use any fruit. Fresh or frozen fruits will both work. You can add mango, kiwi, and berries. Some fruit may have more juice than others, and you may need to adjust the fruit-to-cottage cheese ratio to get the desired consistency.
- Stir in some nuts. Chopped walnuts, almonds, pistachios and pecans add a nice crunch to this ice cream made with cottage cheese.
- Give it a chocolate twist. To make chocolate cottage cheese ice cream, blend in ¼ cup cocoa powder. You can also swirl in melted chocolate for even more cocoa flavor!
- Make it more decadent. Try folding in chunks of brownies or cookie crumbles.
How to Make Cottage Cheese Ice Cream
The first step to making cottage cheese ice cream is to choose your equipment. A high-speed blender works great, but you could also use an immersion blender or food processor. Then choose your add-ins!
Strawberry Cottage Cheese Ice Cream
Peanut Butter Cottage Cheese Ice Cream
Banana Cream Pie Cottage Cheese Ice Cream
My Best Cottage Cheese Ice Cream Recipe Tips
- Use full-fat cottage cheese. Whole milk cottage cheese contains more fat and protein, adding richness and creaminess to the ice cream.
- Blend in some ingredients. Depending on the flavor you’re making, you may enjoy some of the ingredients being mixed into the base for a flavored cottage cheese ice cream with chunks of additional topping folded in before freezing.
- Rest on the counter before scooping. Because cottage cheese can become icy when frozen, you’ll want to take the chill off from the freezer. You’ll get a cleaner, smoother scoop that tastes more like ice cream. Depending on how deep your container is, this can take up to 30 minutes.
- Stir occasionally. To make sure that your cottage cheese ice cream doesn’t get icy, once you’ve placed it in the freezer, give it a good fold every 30 minutes. Cottage cheese has a good amount of water, so once you freeze it, that water will also freeze. Keep it creamy with this quick step.
- Think of chilling instead of freezing. I found the best consistency is when I chill the cottage cheese ice cream so that it’s thick and cold instead of freezing it completely. That way it’s more creamy and less icy.
Topping Ideas
- Chocolate Granola
- Candied Walnuts
- Whipped Cream
- Cashew Cream
- Strawberry Topping
- Nutella
- Almond Butter
- Strawberry Chia Jam
Recipe Help & FAQs
Cottage cheese ice cream before any add-ins has about 12 grams of protein per serving. You can easily increase the amount depending on what you add in, such as nut butter or another ingredient with a good amount of protein.
Yes! If you have a frozen container of cottage cheese you’ve been saving and you don’t want it to go to waste, you can for sure make ice cream with it. I would let it thaw for 30 or so minutes at room temperature so you aren’t trying to blend a hunk of ice.
Most vegan cottage cheese recipes are made with tofu, I am not sure how it would turn out. You can always try it, maybe ¼ cup of vegan cottage cheese with a tablespoon or two of maple syrup, to see how it turns out. If you try it, let me know if it worked!
More Frozen Treat Recipes:
- Banana Nice Cream – 4 Ways
- Fresh Fruit Frozen Popsicles
- Frozen Yogurt Bark
- Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie
- Almond Joy Ice Cream
- Cappuccino Nice Cream
- Creamy Avocado Ice Cream
- No Churn Ice Cream
- Mason Jar Ice Cream
If you try this Cottage Cheese Ice Cream recipe or any other recipe on Feel Good Foodie, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment below! It helps others who are thinking of making the recipe. We would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some shots, share it on Instagram so we can repost on Stories!
Cottage Cheese Ice Cream Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 15 ounces whole milk cottage cheese
- ¼ cup honey
Peanut Butter Chocolate
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- ¼ cup chocolate chips
Strawberry Cheesecake
- ½ cup Strawberries
- ¼ cup crushed graham crackers
Banana Cream Pie
- 1 ripe banana
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place the cottage cheese, honey, and any other ingredients in a high-powered blender or food processor and blend until it’s silky smooth.
- Fold in the topping ingredients of your choice.
- Transfer the mixture into one or multiple freezer-safe containers of choice and freeze for at least 3-4 hours. Allow to thaw for 15 minutes before scooping.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.
Excellent and delicious!
Yay! So glad you liked it, Liana!! Thanks!
Can you use another sweetener instead of honey? If so, which natural sweetener works best?
Maple syrup and agave should both work. Hope you enjoy!
Yum! I just made the ice cream with peanut butter and chocolate chips. Now I just need it to hurry the heck up and freeze! Lol!
Ha! You will love it!
What are saying is a serving size may I ask?
About 1/4 of the frozen ice cream. The nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary based on the add ins you use.
Thx. It’s still bitty from the cottage cheese and I did blitz it in a processor half way through.
Wonder if high protein yoghurt better?
Do you mean gritty? If so you may not have blended it long enough. You can for sure use yogurt to make ice cream!
I just made the strawberry cheese cake recipe! Delicious. I did freeze it over night however and now it is as hard as a brick. Could I thaw and store this in the fridge now or would that ruin it? Appreciate the feedback!
You can try storing it in the fridge. But, I would watch it and when it starts to soften eat it asap.
I follow you on Instagram and love your recipes. I tried this, but I used low fat cottage cheese. I think that might have impacted the results, right? Because it froze rock hard, and even after 30 minutes on the counter, some of it was too wet and some of it was still rock hard. Is whole better? Have you tried it with 4% milk fat? Just wondering! Thank you so much!
Hi Janine! Welcome to the Feel Good Foodie website! You do want to use whole milk cottage cheese for this recipe. The water content is too high in low-fat and does cause it to freeze like ice. I have not tried it with 4%. Hope the second time around works out better for you!
Thank you Yumna! I tried it with 4% and it still froze like a block. Do you think 4% isn’t enough fat, and also, stirring it every 30 minutes–would that prevent freezing into a block? I just realized I skipped that step. Ugh!
The stirring is going to help tremendously and keep it from setting too hard and also it’s a good way to keep an eye on it so you know it’s ready to eat.
Hi, i am amazed by this recipe! Super delicious ! thank you
Thank you so much, Rachel!
Salaam! I tried the strawberry cottage ice cream, it was great; but I thought to improvise; and added on peanut butter, m&ms along with the biscuits, it was awesome! Would love to see you try it!
Oh I love that idea, thanks for sharing Haniya!
We tried it with peanut butter and strawberries and it didn’t taste right. 🙁
So sorry you didn’t enjoy it. I am not sure the combo of peanut butter and strawberries is a good fit here. The strawberries with graham crackers or peanut butter chocolate would probably taste better.
You combined peanut butter AND strawberries? Individually the pb and strawberries are good in the cottage cheese. Tonight we are making peanut butter (powdered pb), bananas, and some Lily’s chocolate chips melted to swirl after the blending process. I hope you give the recipe another try.
Hi, l love that you can make icecream with cottage cheese. I make ice cream with frozen bananas, peanut butter and some Nutella and it’s fantastic. Could l add cottage cheese to this mixture?
Hi Tricia! Yes, I think you could. Let me know how it turns out!