Meals · Tacos, burritos & enchiladas

Cottage cheese taco shells

Name: Cottage cheese taco shells
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 cup cottage cheese (1%), low-fat; 4 whites liquid egg white; 3/4 tsp garlic powder; 1 lb ground turkey; 2 tsp chili powder; 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin; 1/4 tsp salt; 6 cups iceberg lettuce, shredded; 5 Roma tomatoes, diced; 1/4 red onions, diced; 1/2 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt; a handful fresh cilantro, chopped; 1, in wedges lime

The viral two-ingredient shell: cottage cheese and egg white baked crisp, then filled like any taco. All the crunch, and the shell itself is protein instead of corn.

Time: 40 min (15 prep + 25 cook)
Servings: 4
Per serving: 313 kcal
Protein: 39 g

Ingredients

Shells

1 cup cottage cheese (1%), low-fat260 g
4 whites liquid egg white120 g
3/4 tsp garlic powder2 g

Filling

1 lb ground turkey500 g
2 tsp chili powder5 g
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin3 g
1/4 tsp salt2 g

6 cups iceberg lettuce, shredded320 g
5 Roma tomatoes, diced380 g
1/4 red onions, diced50 g
1/2 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt120 g
a handful fresh cilantro, chopped10 g
1, in wedges lime30 g

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

Steps

Blend the cottage cheese, egg whites and garlic powder smooth (low-fat blends thinner and crisps better than full-fat here) and pour into 8 thin circles on lined trays.
Bake at 175°C for 20–25 minutes until dry and lightly golden — they crisp as they cool, so pale-and-set beats browned.
Drape each warm round over a wooden spoon handle or the bars of an oven rack to set in a taco curve. Two minutes and they hold the shape.
Brown the turkey with the spices and salt, then build: meat, lettuce, tomato, onion, a spoon of yogurt, cilantro, lime.

Do they really hold like a taco shell?

Crisp at the edges, chewier in the middle — closer to a cheese crisp than a fried corn shell, and they soften once filled. Build them at the table, eat them fast, and they work.

Alternative

Ground beef tacosthe corn-tortilla original53

Why this score

solidly filling

Protein plus low energy density — the two strongest fullness levers.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

50% of kcal

81% water

10 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: 1251 kcal goes into the pot, 1802 g of ingredients comes out as ~1350 g of food → 93 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: 93
Protein: (50%); 12 g
Fat: (34%); 3 g
Carbohydrates: (17%); 4 g
of which sugar: 2 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 186 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.