I saw a post on Instagram of someone using cottage cheese as the base for their cheese sauce rather than make a béchamel sauce using butter and flour. Of course, I had to test it out myself. And let me tell you, what a game changer.
Why? Well, first, you remove a ton of calories by nixing the butter and flour. Swapping it with cottage cheese adds a really good boost of protein to the sauce base. Now, I see a lot of people then add sour cream, but I opted for Greek yogurt… again, protein boost! The other huge benefit of not using butter is that the sauce doesn’t separate when it cools. Which means, reheating it is super easy and just as delicious as the first time around. I mean, have you ever had day old fettuccine alfredo and the butter and cheese just won’t combine again? Ugh! It’s also kinda gross with that layer of separated butter.
The downside I see to this sauce is that cottage cheese and sour cream/Greek yogurt add a bit of a tart flavor to the cheese sauce, so you need to be able to cut that out with something. Enter sriracha.
If you love sriracha and haven’t tried it on your mac and cheese before, you haven’t lived. My husband and I love spicy food, but I didn’t even opt to go spicy with this. I just wanted the slight heat and flavor of the peppers without it being overwhelming. And it was perfect. I could also see using hot sauce — I’m a huge fan of Los Calientes (not so much a fan of Tabasco).
This dish couldn’t be easier. And trust me, I’m not trying to say this is healthy. It’s not. It’s still loaded up with cheese and fats and calories, but if you split this dish into 6 servings, it has a whopping 45 grams of protein (936 calories) and if you divide it into 4 dishes, that comes out to 68 (!!!) grams of protein but also pops the calories up to 1400. So again, I am not selling this dish as healthy. But if you’re looking for a treat meal with a hefty boost of protein, this is your go to comfort dish.
This will be great on it’s own come the cold weather. But it’s also fantastic with any of your favorite summer grilling dishes… BBQ chicken? Yes please.. Steak? Pork chops? Or for us.. delicious with my baked oysters. However you want to serve, I know you’ll love it!
Sriracha Cottage Cheese Protein Macaroni & Cheese
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6
Ingredients
16 oz. small shell pasta
8 oz nonfat, small curd cottage cheese
8 oz freshly shredded gruyere
16 oz freshly shredded sharp white cheddar
170 g. nonfat Greek yogurt
.75 lbs pancetta, cut into small chunks (about the size of the small shell pasta)
1 TB Dijon mustard
sriracha
salt and pepper
Instructions
Cook the pasta according to the box. Drain and rinse with cold water.
Add the pancetta to a pan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on paper towels to remove the access grease.
Meanwhile, put the cottage cheese in a microwaveable bowl and nuke for 30 seconds. Stir and nuke for an additional 30 seconds. Place in a small blender and blend until smooth.
Add the cottage cheese, gruyere, cheddar, and yogurt to a medium saucepan and heat over low heat, stirring occasionally until the cheese melts. Add the Dijon mustard and sriracha to taste. Add the cheese sauce to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour over the pasta, add the pancetta, and stir until thoroughly coated. Season to taste with salt and pepper and adjust the sriracha as needed. Enjoy!
Keywords: macaroni and cheese, cottage macaroni and cheese, high protein macaroni and cheese, healthy-ish macaroni and cheese
