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Grab the weighted blanket, turn on Yellowjackets, and get ready to dive into a bowl of DIY strawberry cheesecake ice cream packed with 20 grams of protein per serving. Unlike the grade school make-your-own ice cream experiment that involved vigorously shaking a bag full of milk (with a boatload of sugar), ice, and salt until it turned into a pile of semi-frozen mush, this version of homemade ice cream is much easier to make (yep, it won’t turn into an arm workout), and it’s far more nutritious.
You heard it here first. One of the latest—and potentially greatest—new recipes to take the internet by storm is this three-ingredient strawberry cheesecake “nice cream” with one rather unexpected ingredient: cottage cheese.
Before you run for the hills and say, “no way” to this ice cream, hear us out. It’s a complete source of protein, is packed with many essential nutrients, and gives this dessert the most luxuriously creamy texture. Aren’t sold yet? Don’t worry; the cottage cheese is completely untraceable in the final product. So, get the ice cream scooper ready because this is about to be your new go-to frozen dessert all season long.
How to make the easiest homemade strawberry cheesecake ice cream ever
In a recent Instagram post by @lainiecooks_, Lainie Kates demonstrates how to make the world’s easiest homemade ice cream using three simple ingredients: strawberries, maple syrup, and cottage cheese. To make it, she starts by adding a 16-ounce container of Good Culture Whole Milk Cottage Cheese in a large bowl and topping it with a quarter cup of the sweetener of your choice (she uses maple syrup but also suggests other options like honey). Then, she adds about six to eight fresh, clean, and chopped strawberries—reserving about half of them to mix in later on.
Now, the fun part: Transforming lumpy cottage cheese into a creamy batch of homemade ice cream. To do so, Kates uses an immersion blender—though you can also use a high-powered blender or food processor—to whip the ingredients together until smooth, silky, and, most importantly, the cottage cheese is undetectable. Once the base of the ice cream is all set, she stirs in the remainder of the chopped strawberries for added texture. And, although this part’s optional (yet highly recommended), she folds in crushed Simple Mills Sweet Thins Honey Cinnamon Cookies (aka graham crackers) into the mix for a Cold Stone Creamery effect.
Finally, she dumps all of the contents back into the empty cottage cheese container (sustainability act of the day, check) and tosses it in the freezer for a few hours until the mixture solidifies. Then, she gets the scooper out, adds a few scoops of ice cream into a bowl, and tops it all off with even more crushed graham crackers. Easy, peasy.
But wait. If you thought Kates would stop after making just one delicious flavor and her genius ice cream-making hack, you thought wrong. In another recent video, Kates shows how to make another delicious variation of her cottage cheese ice cream: peanut butter and chocolate chip cheesecake. Swoon.
To make this version, she follows the same steps as the previous recipe; however, she swaps out the strawberries and graham crackers in place of peanut butter and chocolate chips. Although, it’s truly impossible to go wrong, no matter which delicious ice cream toppings you choose to mix together.
Health benefits of cottage cheese in any form—including ice cream
Though the name “cottage cheese ice cream” might give you pause, after one bite of this sweet DIY ice cream, you’ll be sold on the idea forever. What’s more, this sweet treat has many impressive benefits thanks to its star ingredient: cottage cheese, obvi.
Though the name “cottage cheese ice cream” might give you pause, after one bite of this sweet DIY ice cream, you’ll be sold on the idea forever.
For starters, cottage cheese is a rockstar when it comes to protein. A half-cup serving of the cottage cheese used in the video has a whopping 14 grams of protein (27 percent of your daily intake). “The protein in cottage cheese is considered ‘complete,’ as it contains all nine essential amino acids. Not to mention the fact that it’s also a great source of vitamin B12, phosphorus, calcium, and selenium, to name a few,” Leah Johnston, RDN, a culinary nutrition, certified registered dietitian at SRW, previously shared with Well+Good.
A half-cup serving of cottage cheese has 14 grams of protein, or 27 percent of your daily intake. “The protein in cottage cheese is considered ‘complete,’ as it contains all nine essential amino acids. Not to mention the fact that it’s also a great source of vitamin B12, phosphorus, calcium, and selenium, to name a few.”—Leah Johnston, RDN
What’s more, cottage cheese is packed with calcium. You know, the really good stuff for your bones. “Calcium and phosphorus work to maintain bone health which reduces the risk of injuries,” Johnston says. And, as if this weren’t enough, cottage cheeses, like Good Culture’s, contain probiotics to help bring good bacteria into the gut, which can positively impact the health of your microbiome. Seriously, this deserves a chef’s kiss. But before you get started, you may want to learn how to wash strawberries like a pro to take extra food safety precautions.
An RD talks healthy ice cream options:
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