Snacks · Dips & spreads

Cottage cheese queso

Name: Cottage cheese queso
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 2 cups cottage cheese; 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded; 1 poblano poblano pepper, seeded and diced; 1 small jalapeño, seeded and minced; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin; 2 tsp chili powder; juice of 1/2 lime; 1/4 tsp salt

Blended cottage cheese does what evaporated milk does in a classic queso — carries the cheese and keeps it smooth — except it brings protein with it. Warm, spiced, scoopable, and it turns a bowl of raw vegetables into something people actually finish.

Time: 20 min (10 prep + 10 cook)
Servings: 6
Per serving: 165 kcal
Protein: 14 g

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

Ingredients

2 cups cottage cheese500 g
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded100 g
1 poblano poblano pepper, seeded and diced100 g
1 small jalapeño, seeded and minced20 g
2 cloves garlic, minced6 g
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin3 g
2 tsp chili powder4 g
juice of 1/2 lime15 g
1/4 tsp salt2 g

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

Steps

Blend the cottage cheese completely smooth — a full minute. Any curd left will look like a split sauce once it's warm.
Soften the poblano, jalapeño and garlic in a dry non-stick pan over medium heat, 4–5 minutes, then stir in the cumin and chilli powder for 30 seconds.
Turn the heat to low, add the blended cottage cheese and the cheddar, and stir until the cheddar melts. Keep it below a simmer — boiling makes it grainy.
Finish with the lime and salt. Serve warm with pepper strips, cucumber or chips; it thickens as it cools and loosens again with a splash of milk.

Will it taste like cottage cheese?

Blended and warm with cheddar and spice in it, no. What survives is the tang, which is what evaporated milk versions are missing anyway.

Alternative

Queso dipthe real-cheese original30

Why this score

solidly filling

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

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

34% of kcal

74% water

5 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: 991 kcal goes into the pot, 750 g of ingredients comes out as ~720 g of food → 138 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: 138
Protein: (34%); 12 g
Fat: (51%); 8 g
Carbohydrates: (15%); 5 g
of which sugar: 1 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 458 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.