I’m continuing my new love affair with cottage cheese and experimenting with all the fun things you can do with this inexpensive source of protein. I know a lot of people just can’t stand the texture of cottage cheese, so I wanted to play around with whipping it up into a smooth sauce or dip to get rid of the “curds” that turn so many people off. My first experiment was this Garlic Herb Whipped Cottage Cheese Dip (using my all-purpose garlic herb seasoning), which turned out amazing and tastes a lot like ranch dip, but with way better nutrition stats. Pair this creamy dip with some vegetables and crackers for dipping and you’ve got a pretty meal-worthy “snack.”
How to Use Garlic Herb Cottage Cheese Dip (or spread!)
As I was crunching down on my cottage cheese dipped vegetables and crackers, I was thinking of all the delicious ways you could use this dip! In addition to dipping vegetables and crackers, this dip would make an awesome spread for a veggie sandwich or wrap sandwich. And I’d totally spread this all over a toasted bagel if I didn’t have any cream cheese on hand. And while I haven’t tried it, I suspect this would be good stirred into mashed potatoes! 😱
How Long Does it Keep?
You probably don’t want to keep this in your fridge any longer than about 5 days. Dried herbs and spices contain natural yeasts and molds that become activated when hydrated, and they can grow at colder refrigerator temperatures. But hey, this is a small 1 cup batch, so I think you’ll be able to eat it up within that time!
What Kind of Blender do I Need?
I just used my super inexpensive Hamilton Beach single serving blender (the type usually marketed for smoothies), so you definitely don’t need anything super powerful to make this dip. If you have a small food processor, that would also work well.
What Brand Cottage Cheese Do you Recommend?
Okay, so here’s the thing with cottage cheese: they can vary a LOT from brand to brand. I find that a lot of brands add a lot of extra ingredients in attempt to make the texture and color better, but IMHO those ingredients just end up making it taste a little off. So, I look for brands with the least amount of Ingredients. Daisy is the best I’ve found, but it’s also more expensive. The worst, IMHO, is Kroger brand. This week I used Aldi’s Friendly Farms brand and it fell somewhere in the middle. It’s okay and the price is great, so I rolled with it. Feel free to leave your favorite brand in the comments below! I’d love to hear your fav’s.
4%, Low-fat, or No-fat Cottage Cheese?
I definitely recommend 4% fat cottage cheese for this recipe. The little bit of fat really helps the flavor and mouthfeel of the dip and even though it’s the “highest fat” version available, it’s still far less than sour cream or mayonnaise based dips.
Shown in a small Splatterware Collection enamelware bowl.
Garlic Herb Whipped Cottage Cheese Dip
Servings 4 ¼ cup eachIngredients
- 1 tsp dried parsley ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp dried basil ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder ($0.03)
- 1/4 tsp onion powder ($0.03)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
- freshly cracked pepper ($0.03)
- 1 cup cottage cheese ($0.53)
- 1 tsp lemon juice ($0.01)
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a blender and purée until smooth. You may need to add about 1 Tbsp water if the mixture is too thick to blend, but avoid adding excess water as this will make your dip too thin.
- Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to eat.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Garlic Herb Whipped Cottage Cheese – Step by Step Photos
Make the All-Purpose Garlic Herb Seasoning by combining 1 Tbsp dried parsley, ½ tsp dried oregano, ½ tsp dried basil, ¼ tsp garlic powder, ¼ tsp onion powder, ¼ tsp salt, and some freshly cracked pepper (about 10 cranks of a pepper mill).
Add 1 cup cottage cheese, 1 tsp lemon juice, and your garlic herb seasoning to a blender. Purée until smooth, adding a tablespoon of water, if needed, if the mixture is too thick to blend.
Avoid adding too much water so the dip doesn’t get too watery. It will firm up a bit after being chilled in the refrigerator, too.
Serve your whipped cottage cheese dip immediately, or refrigerate for up to 5 days! This would be another great dip to include in your meal prep Veggie Snack Packs!
This is going to be in my regular rotation. Served it to my kiddos with veggies and crackers and they loved it! Great for an easy lunch with good macros. Thank you!!
I, too, love cottage cheese!! I eat it straight out of the container all the time!! My husband, on the other hand does not like cottage cheese!! This recipe sounds so yummy I am sure my husband would eat it.
So happy you are experimenting with recipes with cottage cheese as a base!! Can’t wait to see what you next come up with!!
Husband and toddler approved- that’s a easy 5 stars from me!!
Loved this! It tastes like the calorie-filled store-bought ranch dips we all love but you don’t have to feel guilty about it. I used the leftovers for spreading on turkey wraps for lunches. Thanks for making some of our favorites cheaper, healthier, and most importantly easy to make!
You can use a canning jar – regular mouth – on a blender. Just screw the base onto the jar and the put the assembly onto the blender as usual. No need for a smoothie size blender.
I tried this and I love the idea of blending up the cottage cheese and the texture was good but I thought the seasonings needed some oomph. I might try TJs onion salt next time, or their mushroom powder. I used Daisy lowfat, because that’s what I had but I’ll try the full-fat next time.
I second Good Culture! The ingredients are: ORGANIC SKIM MILK, ORGANIC WHOLE MILK, ORGANIC CREAM, CELTIC SEA SALT, LIVE AND ACTIVE CULTURES. That’s it. It’s a little bit higher in price so worth it. Looking forward to making this!
What a GREAT job writing the recipe!! As a man who has written thousands of recipes for restaurant “bibles” I commend your abilities. Very easy to follow AND with costs and portions. BRAVO, Ma’am, VERY NICELY DONE !
What TF kind of comment is this? You, a MAN, are congratulating a WOMAN for the nice way she writes up her blog? It’s strange how you had to mention both your gender and hers within the few sentences you typed up, as well as trying to one-up her by stating that you have written “thousands” of recipes. You could have just said that you like the way her recipes are easy to follow and that she breaks down the costs for each one.
For what it’s worth, Mark, I don’t see anything rude in what you said. I think we all have better things to do with our time than judge other peoples compliments.
Couldn’t agree more! Beth really does present these recipes well!
Amazing!!!!! Thanks for sharing this yummy cheese dip recipe.
Ha well just to show you how variable individual tastes can be, my all time favorite brand is Kroger, both the 2% and 4%, and my all time least favorite is the Aldi Happy Farms brand! Breakstones is pretty good but usually expensive. I haven’t tried Daisy. I haven’t tried blending cottage cheese yet but I have had success with a spoonful of Aldi’s French Onion dip mixed in to a half cup of cottage cheese to give it a ranch dip flavor. Great for scooping with cucumber slices or wheat thins with more protein than dip alone.
I’m not brand specific on a lot of things and will almost always buy generic; however, for cottage cheese I always buy Daisy brand for the reasons you mentioned. It’s the only one I have found in my stores that doesn’t contain any weird extra ingredients. It’s still pretty inexpensive and I can often find it on sale or clip a coupon. I usually buy the 2% fat kind but might use 4% for something like this or lasagna.
Good Culture cottage cheese has changed my life and I will never look back!! 😍
I make this similar dip with tofu and non-dairy milk! Just as delish.
I’ve been wanting to try Good Culture!
I had a difficult time finding quark which is a German favorite – maybe a little different culture than cottage cheese but I found that blending cottage cheese smooth worked in those recipes. Now I do lots of things using smooth cottage cheese.
Quark is AMAZING. Kroger usually has it. Try publix also
This recipe is amazing an it’s tasty. My dad is on a special diet which consists of puréed food. So this was perfect as I could incorporate this with vegetables i blended up. That being said do you have any recipes of yours that you recommend that would work for a person on a puréed diet? Other then that it’s great as always.
Jumping in here…I’ve had some teeth problems for the past year or so and I’ve eating a bunch of soft foods.
I’ve been in love with her Tomato herb soup since the first time I tried it. https://www.budgetbytes.com/tomato-herb-soup/
Her Lemon Curd is *amazing* she recommends putting it into greek yogurt which is also really good! https://www.budgetbytes.com/luscious-homemade-lemon-curd/
I’ve tried her quick seasoned black beans which are really good too. You could probably mash them or put them in a blender. https://www.budgetbytes.com/quick-seasoned-black-beans/
I liked her Rosemary white bean soup too that you could probably mash or blend again. https://www.budgetbytes.com/easy-rosemary-garlic-white-bean-soup/
Oh, and her homemade hummus too! You may be able to put this with the blended vegetables you mentioned in your above comment. https://www.budgetbytes.com/hummus-four-flavors/
She’s got at least 2-3 smoothie recipes too which would probably work!
You may have already thought of those ones but if not… :)
The Budget Bytes curried tofu is not exactly pureed, per se, but very close to it in texture/softness. https://www.budgetbytes.com/curried-tofu-salad/
. Good luck!
My husband got braces at age 73 a couple of years back and I dashed out and bought a NutriBullet blender. He practically lived on smoothies for 2 years, but I also used it to puree all soups–I make a lot of soup. His faves were potato, various bean and pea soup recipes, a curried carrot soup, and a silky pureed corn soup, but if you aren’t cooking that day, things like canned chicken noodle soup puree just fine. As another poster mentioned, you can screw a mason jar onto just about any blender base, and that’s exactly what I did when my daughter was born 51 years ago–whatever we had for dinner went into that jar and blended up for baby food. I sometimes had to add a little liquid which was usually the very nutritious liquid I’d cooked veggies in, that being years before I discovered the ease and deliciousness of roasting veggies..
The NutriBullet is a real powerhouse, though, and makes short work of raw veggies. DH turned up his nose at most super healthy smoothie recipes in favor of fruit–my usual blend is 1/2 large banana, 4-6 oz frozen fruit, 4 oz plain yogurt (I used whole milk yogurt at that time when he was consuming a very low fat diet), and 4-6 oz of fruit juice. If using fresh fruit, I add a few ice cubes. You can sweeten this a little, but the fruits and juice are usually quite sweet enough for our tastes. He still wants a smoothie for breakfast about 3 out of 4 days.
This sounds yummy!
I’ve also blended up cottage cheese and milk with Parmesan for a protein packed “alfredo” sauce.
Ooh I like this idea!