If you’re in the mood for something sweet, chances are cottage cheese isn’t the first thing you reach for. On its own, cottage cheese has a relatively bland taste, somewhere between ricotta cheese and plain yogurt. And though it does make for a sweeter treat when paired with fruit, cottage cheese is still more of a breakfast item than a dessert. But technically, that’s only the case if you serve it straight from the tub. As people on TikTok have been discovering lately, if you blend cottage cheese until smooth, it’ll become the perfect base for a surprisingly tasty ice cream substitute.

Let’s be real: Cottage cheese ice cream will never fully hold a candle to actual ice cream, but if you’re looking for a way to increase your protein intake while also enjoying the classic dessert, using cottage cheese is a smart way to go about it. It has a whopping 218 percent more protein than vanilla ice cream, according to calculations by SouperSage. In fact, the texture of cottage cheese ice cream is similar to that of protein powder ice cream, except it only uses a single ingredient for its base, and the source of protein isn’t ultra-processed. Regardless, the ice cream still turns out rich and creamy.

Even blended, cottage cheese will still taste like cottage cheese, but with the right mix-ins, you can easily mimic any ice cream flavor. The most popular combination of ingredients seems to be the Snickers-inspired one, made with almond butter, chopped dates, mini dark chocolate chips, cinnamon, and sugar-free caramel syrup. A much simpler cookies and cream cottage cheese ice cream is also a common go-to, made with vanilla extract, sweetener, and Oreos.

While you can’t go wrong with either flavor, the truth is that you can still taste a slight cheesiness. Instead of masking that flavor, try balancing it out with strawberries to create a strawberry cheesecake-like flavor. The natural sweetness of the strawberries goes a long way, but if you really have a sweet tooth, you can also add vanilla and perhaps some maple syrup or honey.

No matter which flavors you go with, you can expect cottage cheese ice cream to come together as easily as a smoothie. All you need to do is puree the cottage cheese in a blender, food processor, or hand blender along with the sweetener of your choosing. After the lumps have dissipated, you can fold in your favorite mix-ins and stick it in the freezer. In two to three hours, the cottage cheese mixture should be the consistency of ice cream, and once you taste it you’ll quickly forget it started out as a a tub of cottage cheese. Here’s how to make cottage cheese ice cream, as inspired by TikTok.