Cottage cheese sits between a protein pint and a cream pint, and that middle position is why it spins so well. Full-fat cottage cheese brings about 4 percent fat and a dense load of casein protein, so the frozen base is softer than a whey and skim milk pint but leaner than a heavy cream base. On the NC351 our vanilla cottage cheese pint came out creamy after one re-spin on Lite Ice Cream, and on the NC601 CreamiFit it needed none.
The blend is the whole technique. Cottage cheese curds do not melt in the freezer, and any curd that survives the blender becomes a hard speck in the finished pint. We blend for a full 60 seconds until the base pours like thick cream, then add the sweetener and flavor and blend again for 15 seconds. A tablespoon of honey or maple syrup does more than sweeten; the sugar lowers the freezing point enough that the first spin comes out closer to scoopable.
The flavor question comes up more than any other. Blended, sweetened and frozen, cottage cheese reads as a mild cheesecake tang, and vanilla, cocoa or berries cover the rest. The base ratios page gives the cottage cheese to milk ratio we start from, which is 1 cup cottage cheese to 3/4 cup milk per 16 oz pint, and each recipe card scales it by 1.5 for the 24 oz XL tub.
Tips for cottage cheese ice cream
- Buy 4 percent cottage cheese. The 2 percent version needed two re-spins in our NC351 test and fat-free spun to powder like a whey base.
- Blend for 60 seconds before adding anything else, then check the base against the light. If you can see grain, blend another 30 seconds.
- Sweeten with at least 2 tablespoons of sugar, honey or allulose per pint. A barely sweetened test pint was the only one where the cheese flavor came through.
- Freeze flat for 24 hours at 0 F with the lid on. The dense base freezes with a slight dip in the center if the pint is under-filled, so fill to the line.
- Re-spin once on Lite Ice Cream. Our full-fat pints never needed a second re-spin, so if yours is still dry after one, check the fat content of the cheese first.
- Add mix-ins after the re-spin with the Mix-In program. Crushed graham cracker suits the cheesecake note better than anything else we tried.
Best model for cottage cheese ice cream
The NC351 is our pick because cottage cheese does not need the CreamiFit program to come out well, so the extra programs on the Deluxe add nothing here. Lite Ice Cream plus one re-spin gave a texture score of 4 out of 5 on the NC351 with its 128 second cycle and 70 second re-spin, and the 2026 housing measured 82 dB, the quietest Creami we have tested. The 16 oz pint suits the one or two people who tend to make this style. Our NC351 review has the full test table; if you already own an NC601, CreamiFit saves the re-spin and the result is the same.
Creami · Gen 2
Ninja Creami 7-in-1 Gen 2 (NC351)
Model NC351 · Our score 8.4/10
- Same 7 programs as the NC301 in the 2026 housing
- Measured 82 dB, two decibels quieter than Gen 1
- Uses the same 16 oz pints as the NC301
The recipes hub lists the other 13 categories. Protein recipes are the natural next step if you want higher protein per serving than cottage cheese gives.
Not once it is blended smooth and sweetened. The curds disappear in a blender, the tang reads as a mild cheesecake note, and vanilla, cocoa or fruit cover the rest. The one pint where the flavor came through was a plain, lightly sweetened test base; every published recipe here has enough flavoring to hide it.
Lite Ice Cream on every model. The base has more fat than a whey pint but less than a cream base, and Lite Ice Cream matched it on the NC351 with one re-spin. CreamiFit on the NC601 also works and saved the re-spin in our tests, but Lite Ice Cream is available on all five machines.
Yes, and for longer than you expect. We blend for a full 60 seconds in a countertop blender until the base pours like thick cream with no visible grain. Curds that survive blending freeze into hard specks that the paddle does not break down, and they give the finished pint a grainy mouthfeel.
Full-fat, 4 percent, gave the creamiest pint and needed one re-spin on the NC351. The 2 percent version needed two re-spins and a tablespoon of milk. Fat-free behaved like a whey protein base and spun to powder on the first pass. Use full-fat and add protein powder if you want higher macros.