Whip Up A High-Protein Pumpkin Ice Cream With Only 4 Ingredients

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! Pumpkin ice cream, that is. If you love the frozen stuff and love pumpkin, then pumpkin ice cream is a match made in heaven. And, when you make it at home you have the luxury of working with a special ingredient that makes it not only super-rich and creamy but packed with protein, too. Cottage cheese gives ice cream a healthy kick and a rich texture that will turn your favorite frozen dessert into a seasonal treat that you can't resist. 

Cottage cheese has been making waves on social media lately since it can be substituted into all sorts of recipes, from a protein-packed spinach dip and keto-friendly chips to a rich and creamy chocolatey mouse. But it actually goes great with all kinds of flavors, including a whole variety of fruits like strawberries, peaches, and pineapples. 

While you may not typically find single serving containers of cottage cheese paired with pumpkin at your local grocery store (yet), the mild flavor of the cottage cheese lets the pumpkin and spices shine when you combine these ingredients together, whip them up, and freeze them until you've got ice cream. All you need is cottage cheese, canned pumpkin, whatever sweetener you like, and some pumpkin pie spice, which you can easily make yourself from an assortment of spices you've probably already got in your pantry — namely, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice.

Cottage cheese is a great way to turn ice cream into a healthier treat. A ½ cup contains approximately 3 grams of carbs and over 13 grams of protein. Considering that a ½ cup of milk has approximately 6 grams of carbs and only around 4 grams of protein, cottage cheese is a no-brainer if you want to get some extra protein in your dessert. But will it fool diehard ice cream fans? 

This 4-ingredient pumpkin spice ice cream will be plenty flavorful, but you'll want to do your due diligence to make sure it comes out as creamy as ice cream should. Skip the low-fat option so you get a creamier final result and be sure to strain the extra moisture out of your cottage cheese before you blend it together with your other ingredients so the high water content it's known for doesn't cause extra ice crystals to form, which will make your ice cream grainy and unpleasant to eat. 

One of the major bonuses with this particular hack is that you have a lot of choices when it comes to which sweetener to use. You can opt for regular sugar or go with an alternative like agave. Other options such as maple syrup and honey will deepen the pumpkin profile, and you can always toast and chop up some pecans to sprinkle on top to make it even tastier, as well as more aesthetically pleasing. They'll not only elevate the flavor, but pecans will give your pumpkin spice ice cream a delectably crunchy texture that just screams "fall."