5 Ingredient Creamy Cottage Cheese Mac and Cheese

This 5 ingredient creamy mac and cheese is a balanced one pot meal ready in 20 minutes. The secret ingredient? Cottage cheese! With over 30 grams of protein per cup cottage cheese lends the salty tang we all love in our favorite boxed mac and cheese while adding extra nutrition that will leave you feeling more full and satisfied after eating. As a dietitian Mom it’s everything I love in a recipe and is a huge hit with the kids!

Who doesn’t love a creamy bowl of mac and cheese? Growing up it was always a favorite of mine and now as a mom of two and an intuitive eating dietitian, I have a newfound appreciation of the dish. Not only is it always a guaranteed hit around the dinner table, it’s also an easy dish to make and the options are endless. 

You can eat it out of the box (yes I love some annie’s or KD), make a cheesy baked version, add in some veggies (it’s so good with peas or broccoli), or mix in some protein like chicken, beans, tofu, or cottage cheese. There are so many different varieties you can enjoy!

When I developed this high-protein version of mac and cheese, I wanted to take the classic dish and add an extra boost of nutrition without making the recipe more complicated or time consuming. This 5 ingredient high protein mac and cheese is exactly that – the perfect one pot meal that will keep you full and satisfied after eating. 

Is Eating High Protein Mac & Cheese Still Intuitive Eating?

There’s a school of thought that if you’re constantly trying to make a recipe healthier it’s not intuitive eating. As I always say, it all comes down to intention! 

Are you modifying the recipe because you feel guilty eating it as is? Or because you have a food rule that you can only eat carbs if they’re high in protein? 

Or do you like the idea of adding protein so you can stay full longer through those afternoon meetings? Or like how the addition of nutrient rich vegetables makes you feel? 

My goal whenever I’m creating a recipe is to provide you with feel good nutrition, without taking away from the enjoyment of the dish. And that is exactly what I did with this dish here! The cottage cheese ADDS to the rich creamy texture and the veggie additions make it more filling, and provide fiber to keep blood sugars (aka mood and energy) more stable throughout the day. 

Eating any kind of mac and cheese – the OG version, a version filled with veggies, or one packed with protein – can be a part of your intuitive eating life. It’s all about intention and making the most loving decision for yourself in that moment.

Some days I want a quick and easy one pan meal that has the protein, veggies and grains all in one – my delicious protein-packed pesto pasta and this cottage cheese mac and cheese is exactly that. Other days, I want a mac and cheese that has a crispy baked crust to satisfy my soul and that’s totally ok too! 

One of the lessons we are always coming back to with our Make Food Feel Good clients is reminding them this—at the end of the day intuitive eating is all about choosing the most loving thing – body, mind and soul – in that moment without feeling guilty after eating. It’s about truly enjoying what’s in front of you so you can be present with your loved ones and create memories over meals. 

What you need for this Cottage Cheese Mac and Cheese & Substitutions

Macaroni or elbow noodles: You can’t have mac and cheese without the mac! I went traditional with my noodle choice for this recipe but you can also go the Annie’s route and use shells or try it with bigger noodles like penne or rigatoni.

Cottage cheese: Cottage cheese is the creamy base for the cheese sauce. It adds a rich and creamy texture to the sauce, which I find makes the mac and cheese more satisfying plus it has a lot of nutritional benefits (more on that here). I used 2% milk fat cottage cheese for this recipe but you can use whichever % of cottage cheese you prefer. 

You can substitute the cottage cheese for ricotta, cream cheese or a non-dairy alternative that you prefer. Cashew cream would be a delish option. 

Milk: Milk adds that creamy and smooth texture to the cheese sauce. These days, I use whatever milk I have. Often it’s homogenized (3.25%) as that’s what our 1 year old drinks and makes for a creamy and satiating base but any milk will work. Just make sure it’s not flavored!

Cheddar cheese: I like using a pre-shredded cheddar cheese blend in this recipe. It saves you both dishes and time and still tastes great. I also have made my mac and cheese with shredded tex mex. The added spice is sooo good – I highly recommend trying it! 

Garlic Salt: While only a small amount is used, it adds major flavor! I love using garlic salt as a two in one ingredient (salt + garlic powder/granulated garlic) to add not only saltiness, which brings out the flavor of a dish, but an extra layer of flavor from the garlic. 

Cornstarch: Cornstarch is key to a smooth and creamy sauce in this recipe! It allows the sauce not only to thicken up, but to hold the ingredients together so you don’t end up with a stringy sauce. 

You can use any type of cheese you want – marble, swiss, mozza, heck you can even try it with gorgonzola blue cheese. Just remember if you’re using a stronger flavored cheese you might need less than the 1 cup recommended in this recipe. 

Cauliflower rice: You can use store bought or homemade cauliflower rice in this recipe. I like the texture that the cauliflower rice adds to the dish but you could also use florets if you prefer cheesy pieces of the cruciferous veg. You can substitute for almost any veg. I love mac and cheese with peas or broccoli but you could try it with tomatoes or even spinach. 

How to Make High Protein Mac and Cheese

Mistakes and Fixes

Sauce too thick: If the sauce is too thick, add more milk gradually until the desired consistency is reached.You can also try adding a bit of butter, one tablespoon at a time to loosen the sauce a bit.

Sauce too thin: Because of the cornstarch and cheddar cheese, the sauce will thicken as you cook it. If it’s still too runny even after 5-10 minutes of cooking, try adding a bit more cheddar cheddar cheese or cornstarch, half of a tablespoon at a time, allowing it to heat a couple of minutes before adding more. 

Stringy cheese: When I first made this recipe, the cheese was quite stringy. There are two reasons I think this happened. First of all, I only blended the milk and cottage cheese and added the other ingredients to the pot as the sauce and noodles heated together, I think this prevented the shredded cheese from incorporating into the sauce, leaving it stringy. The other thing was that I initially left out the cornstarch which acts as a binding and thickening agent, keeping the sauce together in a smooth consistency. So lesson learned, let it be easy and blend everything together and don’t skip the cornstarch! 

Nutritional Benefits of This Recipe (Nutrition by addition) 

As a dietitian I love the concept of nutrition by addition – the philosophy of focusing on what you’re adding to your plate vs. what you need to cut out or put back on. For example, it’s common for those trying to eat healthier to think they need to cut out carbs, including pasta. Well that’s just not the case. Carbs provide energy along with other nutritional benefits like B vitamins which support energy metabolism, and fiber to keep us feeling full longer and support our gut health. 

Not only do we not need to cut out carbs, we can increase the nutritional profile of a dish by adding other ingredients to make it more balanced or more nutrient dense. See some of the thought behind my additions to this recipe below.

Cottage cheese: Cottage cheese is one of the easiest and most versatile ingredients to add a major boost of protein to a dish. Not only does protein support building and repairing muscle in our body, it also helps stabilize blood sugars and helps us feel more full and stay full longer after eating.  You can see how I’ve incorporated into other dishes like these spinach and cottage cheese eggs or these super satisfying cottage cheese blended peanut butter overnight oats which have been a huge reader favorite! A few more things I love about cottage cheese, it’s also rich in calcium which is crucial for maintaining strong bones and teeth, and it contains various B vitamins, including vitamin B12 which can help keep your body’s blood and nerve cells healthy. 

Cauliflower rice: I love keeping a stash of cauliflower rice in my freezer for an instant boost of veggies, fiber and antioxidants. It integrates so well into this dish adding a bit of texture but not impacting the flavor much. My kids gobble this up! Cauliflower is also packed with immune supporting vitamin C and vitamin K. Some of my other favorite ways to use it are in this  post-workout frappucino smoothie or my mango and shrimp fried rice. It also contains dietary fiber, which supports gut and digestive health and helps with feelings of fullness. This cruciferous veg is also rich in minerals like potassium and folate and contains antioxidants which protect us from free radicals. 

By adding cottage cheese and the cauliflower rice you end up with a completely balanced meal in one pot and 20 minutes flat!

Recipe, Kitchen, & Time Saving Hacks

Meal prep it: This is one of those recipes that you can double or triple and freeze to enjoy when you need a quick meal or don’t feel like cooking. One of my favorite things about this recipe is that it’s a one pot meal. It has your grains, veggies, and protein already in there. Just defrost and reheat for a super simple dinner that the whole family will love. 

Serve it with a salad kit: If you’re looking to add a few more veggies to lean into that plate method, serve this with a salad kit. I have grown to love these, especially on those days when I have no time to cook but am craving a little crunch. You can find them in the produce section of your grocery store and the options are endless. 

Buy pre-shredded cheese and frozen cauliflower rice: One of my go-to time saving hacks is buying prepped ingredients. Personally, one of my least favorite kitchen tasks is grating cheese so we almost always buy pre-shredded. I sometimes make my own riced cauliflower (recipe here!), but there are some days I don’t even have 5 minutes before a toddler meltdown happens. Having these ingredients on hand and ready to go makes each step of a recipe so much easier and cuts down on that prep time so you can spend more time doing what you love.  

Use a food processor: Repeat after me – kitchen tools are your friends. I’ve always used my food processor to shred cabbage or slice mushrooms. It can honestly save you 15 to 20 minutes of slicing and dicing. But I had never tried it for cheese until we were recipe testing for my cookbook. We needed a lot of cheese and didn’t buy pre-shredded cheese because it wasn’t as economical at the time. We’d been shredding carrots, cabbage, and beets (best hack to save those fingertips), so we thought why not try it for cheese. It was pure magic! We managed to shred an entire block and a half of cheese in 30 seconds. If you don’t have a food processor with the slicing and grating options, do yourself a favor and get one asap. This is the one I use almost daily.

Use up your cold veggies: I really try to reduce food waste any way possible. That can look like freezing a bag of spinach that’s wilting and using it in smoothies or blending up some herbs that have seen better days into a smoothie. This recipe is a great kitchen sink recipe for veggies. You can toss in some cauliflower florets that might be starting to brown, stir in some wilting spinach, or mix in some sad looking broccoli. Adding in these veggies, not only adds an extra dose of nutrition, it also helps reduce food waste. 

If you make this Cottage Cheese Mac and Cheese it would make my day if you would leave a comment and/or star rating below— I love hearing your feedback! And don’t forget to snap a pic and tag me on Instagram @lindsaypleskot.rd so I can see your versions! It makes me so happy to see these recipes come to life in your kitchens! Xo

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