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This easy super viral cottage cheese queso dip is insanely good, high protein, and only uses four ingredients. It’s creamy, flavorful and takes less than 5 minutes to make. Enjoy as a high-protein snack with tortilla chips, on top of nachos, or drizzled on your favorite tacos.
Why You’ll Love This Healthy Queso
As soon as I saw this viral Tiktok recipe (and all over social media in general!), I know I had to create my own version of this high protein cottage cheese queso. It’s easily one of my favorite cottage cheese recipes, and I’ve made a lot of them!
Here’s why you’ll love this high protein queso dip:
- High protein. Unlike traditional queso, one serving packs 14 grams of protein, making it a great high protein snack or dinner option!
- Only 4 ingredients. You only need four simple ingredients to throw it together.
- Perfectly creamy. High-protein cottage cheese is blended up so it’s silky smooth and it has so much flavor, you’d never even guess that it was made with cottage cheese.
- Quick and easy. Four ingredients and truly only 5 minutes to make. It doesn’t get much better than that!
Using cottage cheese is such a game changer for making a healthy dip. It’s mildly flavored, high protein, and blends up shockingly smooth. If you love cottage cheese dip like I do, you’ll love my Cottage Cheese Ranch Dressing and Cottage Cheese Taco Dip too!
Ingredients
You only need four simple ingredients to make this high protein, cottage cheese queso recipe! Scroll down to the recipe card for full ingredient amounts and instructions.
- Cottage cheese: Cottage cheese is such a versatile ingredient. It blends into a silky smooth texture and even if you’re not a cottage cheese lover, you’d never know this is made with it! I recommend full-fat cottage cheese. Any type of cottage cheese will work, but I like Good Culture.
- Shredded Mexican blend cheese: Real shredded cheese from a block over pre-shredded cheese works best, but any will work! You can also sub in the cheeses like Monterey Jack or sharp cheddar cheese.
- Fresh garlic: A fresh garlic clove adds the perfect punch of garlicky goodness to this dip. You can sub 1 teaspoons of garlic powder if you don’t have any fresh on hand.
- Diced green chiles: Grab a 4-oz can of diced green chiles or you can use jalapeños too.
You’ll also need a blender or food processor:
Variations and substitutions
- Make it spicy. Add fresh jalapeño, pickled jalapeños, hot sauce, or cayenne pepper before blending.
- Add taco seasoning. Use a tablespoon or two of taco seasoning for a taco-flavored queso dip. You can also add other spices like garlic powder, onion powder, or chili powder right to your cottage cheese mixture.
- Change up the cheese. Instead of a Mexican cheese blend, sub in sharp cheddar cheese, Monterey Jack, pepper jack cheese or your fave shredded cheese for a different flavor profile.
- Use nutritional yeast: Instead of cheese, you can also use nutritional yeast to give the queso it’s cheesy flavor.
- Add toppings! I love adding pico de gallo, chopped tomatoes, diced red onion, jalapeños, green onion or cilantro.
- Use as a veggie dip: This queso isn’t just for tortilla chips! You could also serve with fresh veggies like mini bell peppers.
How to Make Cottage Cheese Queso
- Add to blender. Add cottage cheese, shredded cheese, diced green chiles and garlic clove to a high-speed blender or food processor.
- Blend. Blend on high until completely smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.
- Heat. Heat on low in a small sauce pan, stirring often. Do not overheat or the queso will separate. You can also heat in the microwave in 15 second intervals, but stovetop is preferred!
- Enjoy! Serve with tortilla chips, on top of nachos, or even on tacos.
How To Store
This cheesy dip is best served fresh, but you can store leftovers in the fridge for up to 4 days in an airtight container. Just make sure to follow the heating instructions (low and slow) for leftover queso.
Serving Ideas
You can enjoy your as a snack with your favorite tortilla chips, or some of my favorite ways to enjoy it are with these meals:
Jamie’s tips
Tips For Success
- Use 2% or full fat cottage cheese. Full fat cottage cheese is the creamiest and less likely to separate when heated. Fat free and low fat is more likely to not be as creamy, but any will work! Good Culture 4% is my favorite.
- Use low heat. Cottage cheese can be a bit finicky when heated, so make sure to go low and slow to prevent separation! Heat your queso on low, stirring regularly until it’s heated through.
- Shred your own cheese. This is optional, but shredded cheese without any filler ingredients helps it melt smoother!
- Microwave tips. I recommend using a stovetop to heat. But, if you need to use a microwave, heat in very small increments of 15-20 seconds in a microwave-safe bowl, stirring regularly.
More Cottage Cheese Recipes
If you’ve made and loved this Cottage Cheese Queso Dip or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and comments below!
Cottage Cheese Queso Dip
Ingredients
- 16 oz Cottage cheese
- 1 4-oz can diced green chilis
- 1 clove garlic
- 1-2 cups Mexican shredded cheese
Instructions
- Add cottage cheese, shredded cheese, diced green chilis and garlic clove to a high-speed blender or food processor.
- Blend on high until the queso dip is smooth and creamy. Taste test and add salt, pepper, or any additional seasonings to taste.
- Heat on stovetop (recommended): In a small sauce pan, heat the cottage cheese queso on low heat, stirring often until hot. Do not overheat or the queso will separate and lose it's creamy texture.Heat in microwave: In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave queso slowly in 15 second increments until hot. Stir in between microwave sessions. *Important note*: If you microwave the queso for too long or too quickly, it will separate and lose its creamy texture- heat carefully until it's just warm enough so that the queso stays nice and creamy!
- Enjoy with your favorite tortilla chips, tacos or nachos!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should only be used as an estimate.
Just had this with tortilla chips and carrots! Such a great way to add protein to the meal in a fun way that feels indulgent as well! Great recipe, I loved it!
Yay! So glad you loved it :). It’s so good with veggies too! thank you for leaving a review!
SO good and soo easy to make. Will definitely be making this again
So glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for leaving a review Nicole 🙂
Delicious! Mine did separate but that is user error not recipes fault. The flavor was spot on. Definitely a make again
Yay! Definitely make it again! Usually it separates if its heated too much or too quickly. I find that heating slowly and full-fat cottage cheese works best 🙂
OMG I cannot believe how good this is and how much it taste like real queso!! Made it exactly as stated and it turned out perfect!! Thank you so much Jamie for this recipe!!
So glad you loved it! Definitely one of my favorites too 🙂 thank you for your kind review!
Love this option! What is the serving size for the calories listed? My apologies if I overlooked it!
It ends up being about a 1/2 cup per serving, more if you use more cheese!
I made this last night with 16 oz of low fat cottage cheese, shredded Mexican cheese, about a 1/4 cup of salsa, several cloves of garlic (we love garlic), and one fresh jalapeno (I removed the seeds).
Blended it up until very smooth, then tasted it and it was perfect. I didn’t even need to add any taco seasoning.
Heated it up on the stove on low, and it took a while to heat up and was a little grainy. But it came out delicious. My husband couldn’t even tell it was low fat, and it was also very filling. I had intended for it to be an appetizer, but then after that and some soup and toast, I wasn’t hungry anymore.
So glad you enjoyed it! I definitely find that the full-fat cottage cheese holds up a little better when it’s heated but any kind is still delicious!