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Healthy Cottage Cheese Waffles are a high protein waffle recipe made with cottage cheese. A low calorie waffle recipe that's healthier, easy to make and meal prep for a healthier breakfast or snack.
It's time for a low calorie waffle recipe! My 4-ingredient cottage cheese pancakes are one of my most popular recipes with my clients! It's one of my oldest and most popular recipes here. I've been make pancakes with cottage cheese for years and adding them to my morning omelets or eggs.
Over the years, I've had several questions if the pancake version would work for waffles. I wasn't sure, because the batter isn't as thick as other pancake recipes so I decided to test it out for myself and as you can, YES it does work!
Now I make these cottage cheese oatmeal pancakes on repeat along with my healthy blueberry waffles!
What Makes Waffles with Cottage Cheese Healthier?
What's not to love about waffles?!? Waffles are comforting and here's a few reasons why this waffle recipe is healthier than most.
- High Protein - Protein is always the missing ingredient in waffle and pancake recipes. This one has 12 grams for a full sized waffle (4 squares). Cottage cheese and egg whites are great sources of protein and effortlessly are sneak into this healthy waffle recipe.
- Low Calorie - 123 calories for one waffle is considered low calorie and the higher protein means you will be less likely to have cravings.
- Low Sugar - Waffle and pancake recipes usually have a ton of added sugar from maple syrup or honey hidden in the recipe and they have sugar from the flours used. This waffle recipe has no added sugar - instead cinnamon is used to sweetened it and rolled oats are used in place of flour.
Ingredients For Cottage Cheese Waffles
Here's what you need to make this gluten free cottage cheese waffle recipe. Scroll to the bottom of this post for the recipe card where you will find ingredient measurements, nutrition data and the instructions.
- Cottage Cheese
- Egg Whites
- Eggs
- Cinnamon
- Rolled Oats - gluten free if needed
For ingredient substitutions, see the substitution section below.
How To Make Low Calorie Cottage Cheese Waffles
Add all the ingredients to a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth then scrape down the sides with a spoon or spatula and blend again until smooth.
Spray the waffle maker liberally. I recommend using coconut oil or cooking spray to grease your waffle maker. I discovered in testing this recipe that coconut oil was the only thing that prevented this batter from sticking. Other cooking sprays like avocado oil and olive oil DO NOT WORK. The batter just falls apart. I have not tested butter or ghee.
Heat the waffle iron to a 2 or second to lowest setting. You do not want the heat to be too hot for this waffle recipe. This is the best waffle maker!
Add 1/2 cup of the batter to the waffle iron. Close and cook 3 minutes then flip and cook another 2 minutes. If your waffle iron does not flip then cook 5 minutes. Check that the waffles are golden brown then remove carefully with a fork. Spray the waffle iron liberally again then add another 1/2 cup of batter, cook again and repeat this process until no batter remains.
What To Serve With Protein Waffles
These waffles go so well topped with berries and a small amount of real maple syrup. I never eat the zero calorie maple syrups as they are all chemicals. Real maple syrup is always the healthier option, just measure out the amount!
A little warmed nut butter would also be super tasty served on top of these cottage cheese waffles.
How to Store Waffles
Store your low calorie waffles in the refrigerator in an airtight containers up to 5 days. I place parchment paper in between the waffles to prevent them from getting soggy.
Can you freeze cottage cheese waffles? Yes - you can free them! For freezing, cool the waffles completely on a wire baking rack first them wrap them seperately in plastic wrap followed by tin foil. This will prevent moisture from making the waffles soggy.
Substitutions For Cottage Cheese Waffles
Here's a few ways you can customize this cottage cheese waffle recipe. Please remember that substitutions will change the nutritional values of this recipe that you see below in the recipe card.
- Rolled Oats - You can substitute rolled oats for oat flour 1:1. Make sure you spoon the flour into a measuring cup if you do this or you will get twice the amount of flour. I do not recommend substituting instant oats as they will not be dense enough for this recipe.
- Cinnamon - You can omit the cinnamon if you like.
- Cottage Cheese - The cottage cheese is necessary for this recipe. I recommend low fat, but any variety will work. Greek yogurt or sour cream have not been tested yet. I do have a Greek yogurt waffle recipe in my low-calorie cookbook too!
- Egg Whites - You can substitute whole eggs by dividing the number of egg whites in half. Using whole eggs will significantly increase the calories and fat content of this recipe and reduce the amount of protein.
- Whole Eggs - You can swap the two whole eggs for four egg whites, but I found to make this waffle recipe successful you need the fat from the whole eggs.
- Additional Add-Ins - This recipe is so versatile! You can add a number of things to this batter - vanilla extract, chocolate chips, cocoa powder would be yummy additions.
Love healthy waffles? You must try my gluten free waffle recipe, oatmeal waffles with blueberries, waffle recipe with coconut flour, and pumpkin waffles recipe next!
Cottage Cheese Waffles
Ingredients
- 2 cups Gluten Free rolled oats
- 10 egg whites
- 2 whole eggs
- 2 cups low fat cottage cheese
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth then scrape the sides down and blend again until combined.
- Heat the waffle iron to a 2 (second to lowest setting). Spray liberally with coconut oil spray. See the note above in the blog post on this.
- Scoop 1/2 the batter onto the waffle iron, close and cook 3 minutes then flip and cook another 2 minutes (or cook 5 minutes total if not flipping).
- Open the lid and check that the waffle is golden brown, carefully remove with a fork and place on a cooling rack.
- Repeat step 3 until no batter is remaining. I got 10 waffles total from this batter.
- Store in the refrigerator up to 5 days or freeze up to one month.
Notes
- One waffle equals the full size you see in the photos (4 squares).
Nutrition
These were so easy, delicious & filling!
Thank you Marissa!
Made these tonight for dinner, chicken and waffles. I despise cottage cheese but these were amazing! I’m a convert, lol. Used regular rolled oats because that’s what I had.
That's great to hear - thank you so much for the positive review!
These are sooo good! I am also super full and very satisfied after eating one with a side of blueberries.