Sauces & dressings · Pasta sauces

Cottage cheese alfredo

Name: Cottage cheese alfredo
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups cottage cheese; 1/2 cup whole milk; 2/3 cup grated parmesan; 1 1/2 tbsp butter; 3 cloves garlic, minced; 1/2 tsp salt; 3/4 tsp black pepper; a scrape nutmeg

The viral rebuild of alfredo: blended cottage cheese and parmesan instead of a cup of cream. Same clinging garlic-cheese sauce, and the protein goes where the fat used to be.

Time: 15 min (5 prep + 10 cook)
Servings: 4
Per serving: 211 kcal
Protein: 16 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups cottage cheese340 g
1/2 cup whole milk120 g
2/3 cup grated parmesan60 g
1 1/2 tbsp butter20 g
3 cloves garlic, minced12 g
1/2 tsp salt3 g
3/4 tsp black pepper2 g
a scrape nutmeg1 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Blend the cottage cheese with the milk until completely smooth — a full minute, longer than feels necessary. Curds you can still see become a grainy sauce.
Soften the garlic in the butter over low heat without colouring it.
Pour in the blended base and warm gently; stir in the parmesan off the heat so it melts instead of stringing.
Season and toss straight with hot pasta and a splash of pasta water. Don't boil it — cottage cheese splits at a simmer the way cream doesn't.

Does it actually taste like alfredo?

Close, not identical: you get the salt, garlic and parmesan, and about 90% of the cling, but cream carries flavour in a way cottage cheese can't fully copy. The parmesan is doing the heavy lifting, so use the real thing.

Alternative

Alfredo saucethe cream original19

Why this score

moderately filling

No single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

29% of kcal

72% water

1 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

Nothing here converges the way engineered food does — no sugar, no savoury and no alcohol penalty.

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 846 kcal goes into the pot, 558 g of ingredients comes out as ~560 g of food → 151 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 151
Protein: (29%); 11 g
Fat: (55%); 9 g
Carbohydrates: (16%); 6 g
of which sugar: 1 g
Fiber: <1 g
Sodium: 639 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

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Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.