Cottage Cheese Protein Pancakes

Want a nutritious breakfast that tastes amazing?  Try these cottage cheese protein pancakes! They are easy to make in a blender, so they won’t take up too much time each morning. You can quickly add a sautéed apple topping, or just add your favorite quick option like peanut butter or maple syrup.

Note: This post was originally written in 2018 and has been updated in 2023.

Why include protein at breakfast?

Protein seems to be a nutrition buzzword lately. Many people do actually meet their protein needs each day. But there is often room for improvement in two areas:

• Spacing protein intake throughout the day, as protein helps with satiety and keeps you feeling full longer. Most people have a very small amount of protein at breakfast, a moderate amount at lunch, and a lot at dinner.  Just shifting that a bit to get more protein at breakfast and some snacking options might help for overall health and fullness after a meal.

• Eating protein within 30-60 minutes after a tough or long workout to help promote muscle repair and recovery.

These pancakes can check off both those boxes, and when combined with the apple topping, they make a bomb post-workout meal.

Ingredients and Instructions

Here’s a photo of what you’ll need to make the basic pancake (plus butter or oil for cooking):

Here are a few helpful notes about selected ingredients:

• Oats: You’ll want to use rolled oats or instant oats for this recipe. Steel cut oats do not work; they are too firm and dense to use in a blender pancake recipe.

• Cottage cheese: I recommend 1% milkfat for this recipe, but you can use a higher fat version if you prefer. The recipe is flexible.

• Butter/oil – It’s not pictured, but you’ll need that for greasing the skillet to cook your pancakes. I think butter adds the best flavor!

• Baking powder – *Update 2023* – I’ve found I like this recipe better with a little baking powder added to help with the fluffiness. This is optional but recommended.

You’ll find full recipe instructions and amounts in the recipe card below, but this recipe is crazy simple.

First, you’re going to grab a cup of oats and toss ‘em in a blender.  I like a single serve blender because the clean up is easy, but you can use a regular size blender too.  The goal is to grind the oats down a bit so they become more like a course flour than full rolled oats.  (Don’t skip this step – the texture will be off if you do).

After that, you just add the eggs, cottage cheese, baking powder, vanilla, and cinnamon to the blender along with the oats.  Blend it up for a few seconds until you have a nice uniform batter, and then cook ‘em like you would normal pancakes.

As a heads up, the batter and pancakes will be thinner than normal pancakes – they won’t be quite as fluffy.  But they still taste ah-mazing!

That’s it! Easy peasy.

If you want to add the apple topping like I have, you’ll just sauté some apples with brown sugar in butter until soft. Then pour that on top of your pancakes!

Nutrition Benefits

Traditional pancakes are more carb-heavy – and ain’t nothing wrong with that sometimes! – but it’s nice to have an option that has a bit more protein. These pancakes pack in 16 grams of protein per serving, thanks to the eggs and cottage cheese.

The cottage cheese is a particularly good source casein protein, which may be useful for athletes before bed. (And even if you’re not a big cottage cheese fan, I think you’ll like it in this recipe.)

This recipe also provides:

• Calcium – 11% of daily needs, important for bone health, especially in active folks
• Vitamin B12 – 38% of daily needs, key for helping our body with energy production
• Iron – 9% of daily needs, essential for transporting oxygen in our blood to muscles

More Cottage Cheese Recipes

After you try these, I’m going to bet you’ll want to explore more fun ways to enjoy cottage cheese! Here are a few of my favorite recipes:

• Cottage cheese bagels
• Cottage cheese cookie dough
• Texas lasagna
• Skillet lasagna

Give these pancakes a try and let me know how you like them.  And if you need more protein-rich morning meals, don’t forget to check out these 19 ideas for adding more protein to breakfast.

Cottage Cheese Protein Pancakes

Snacking in Sneakers

Looking for a way to add protein to your breakfast? Try these cottage cheese protein pancakes! Perfect for a healthy breakfast or a recovery meal after a workout. 

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 20 minutes mins

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Servings 8 pancakes

Calories 223 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

For the cottage cheese pancakes

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder (optional but recommended)
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp butter (for cooking)

For apple topping (optional):

• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 large apples peeled and sliced
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Instructions

 

For the pancakes:

• Place the oats in a blender. Pulse a few times until the oats become a rough flour-like consistency.
• Add the cottage cheese, eggs, baking powder (if using), vanilla, and cinnamon to the blender. Turn the blender on for about 20-30 seconds, or until everything is well combined.
• Place 1 tsp butter in a large skillet and melt over medium heat. Pour the batter into pancakes in the skillet. Note that the batter and pancakes will be relatively thin – that’s normal for this recipe. Cook for approximately 2 minutes, then flip and continue cooking an additional minute.
• Remove the cooked pancakes with a spatula and set aside on a plate. Prepare the skillet for the second batch by heating with another 1 tsp butter. Repeat the process with the remaining batter until all pancakes are cooked. Enjoy your pancakes with the apple topping below, pure maple syrup, or any preferred topping.

For the optional apple topping:

• Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add apples and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add brown sugar, reduce heat to low, and continue to cook for an additional 5 minutes, until the apples are soft. Serve on top of pancakes.

Notes

Notes:

• This recipe should make about 8 medium pancakes, or 4 servings of 2 pancakes each.
• I usually use a large single serve blender cup for this recipe. 

 

Nutrition analysis for cottage cheese pancakes (per 2 pancakes):

223 calories, 10 g fat, 4 g sat fat, 16.5 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 2.5 g sugar, 16 protein, Vitamin D: 5%, Calcium: 11%, Iron: 9%, Potassium: 4%

Nutrition analysis for optional apple topping (per serving – assumes 4 servings):

116 calories, 3 g fat, 2 g sat fat, 24 g carbohydrate, 21 g sugar, 0.5 g protein

Nutrition

Calories: 223kcal

Keyword cottage cheese protein pancakes

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Share with me:  What’s your favorite way to get protein in at breakfast?  Have you ever tried cottage cheese protein pancakes?

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Chrissy Carroll

Chrissy Carroll is a Registered Dietitian and USAT Level I Triathlon Coach. She specializes in sharing nutrition and fitness tips, as well as recipes, for runners, triathletes, and active women.Chrissy holds a Bachelor's Degree in Nutrition, a Masters Degree in Public Health, and is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer.

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