Cottage Cheese Chocolate Mousse
You’d never guess this cottage cheese chocolate mousse is loaded with protein and fiber. This healthy dessert will satisfy any sweet tooth!

I love any dessert with chocolate. And as a dietitian, I love it even more when it’s loaded with nutrition and good-for-you ingredients.
If you’re battling a sweet tooth while trying to eat healthier, add this cottage cheese chocolate mousse to your nutritious dessert rotation. Made with just five nourishing ingredients, this simple sweet snack is loaded with protein and fiber for blood sugar balance.
It will keep you full and energized for hours, and it’s the BEST nutrient-rich swap for your usual chocolate pudding. And it couldn’t be easier to make.
Why you’ll love it
Quick: This cottage cheese chocolate mousse takes about two minutes to blend everything together, and another 30 to let things set.
Minimal ingredients: You’ll only need five ingredients you probably already have at home.
Protein: Can you believe this healthy dessert contains 30 grams of protein? And without protein powder!
Fiber: You’re getting 6 grams of dietary fiber in this healthy pudding.
Delish: I crave this high protein chocolate mousse daily. I love normal desserts (with all the fat and sugar), but I love this recipe just as much!

Ingredients
You’ll need five ingredients to make this chocolate mousse:
- Cottage cheese — I used 2% but you can use whatever fat percentage you like. This gets blended so don’t worry about the texture!
- Cocoa powder — for that chocolatey taste, of course
- Maple syrup — you can sub honey, sugar, or any sweetener of choice
- Vanilla extract
- Chia seeds — for fiber but also to help things thicken (and you don’t taste them)
How to make cottage cheese chocolate mousse
Add cottage cheese, cocoa powder, maple syrup, chia seeds, and vanilla extract to a blender.

Blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. This will take 30-45 seconds.

Transfer to a jar or cup, cover, and refrigerate for a minimum of 30-minutes or until mousse has thickened.

Add toppings right before eating and enjoy!
Toppings
You can top this high protein chocolate pudding with whatever you like!
Here are some of my favorites:
- Crushed peanuts
- Crushed sandwich cookies
- Whipped cream
- Vanilla yogurt
- Berries
- Banana slices
- Low sugar gummy worms
Helpful tools
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Tips and tricks
- You might need to scrape down the sides of your blender or lightly shake it to get things moving
- If your cottage cheese is watery, add an extra teaspoon of chia seeds
- Add more maple syrup for extra sweetness
Frequently asked questions
You can use greek yogurt instead of cottage cheese but the flavor and texture will be considerably different. Still yummy, though! If you use greek yogurt, leave the chia seeds out and simply mix ingredients in a bowl.
In my opinion, this tastes like a balanced and lightly sweet pudding or mousse. It doesn’t taste like cottage cheese and obviously has a smoother texture.
Make this high protein chocolate mousse lactose-free by using a lactose-free cottage cheese.
You’re welcome to use more or less maple syrup to suit your taste! You can also swap for any sugar-free syrup or sweetener of choice if desired.
Nope! But it won’t be as thick of a texture if you eat it right away.

Cottage Cheese Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
- 1 cup cottage cheese, I used 2%
- 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp chia seeds
Optional Toppings
- crushed cookies, nuts, berries, banana, vanilla yogurt, or whipped cream
Equipment
Instructions
- Add cottage cheese, cocoa powder, maple syrup, chia seeds, and vanilla extract to a blender.
- Blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. This will take 30-45 seconds.
- Transfer to a jar or cup, cover, and refrigerate for a minimum of 30-minutes or until mousse has thickened. Add toppings right before eating and enjoy!
So decadent and delicious!
Incredible! The perfect dessert! No notes
I loved this! My family thought it was too chocolate-y and needed a little more sweetener, but I thought it was perfect. I am a fan of dark chocolate anything and this had that flavor plus the yummy creaminess of the cottage cheese. I will make this again!
This is SO good! I’m someone who needs (ok, wants) a little something sweet at night. This totally does the trick. Not too sweet and healthy ingredients to boot! I used Good Culture cottage cheese because I think it’s the absolute best tasting cottage cheese…and added an extra splash of vanilla extract because I like it. I topped it with a dollop of TruWhip (like Cool Whip) that I buy from Whole Foods. Perfection! Just made another batch. 🙂
Looks so good! But I have gastroparesis and can’t handle the seeds. Is there another way to thicken the mousse without the high fiber chia seeds?
You can leave the seeds out and refrigerate for a few hours! It won’t be quite as thick, but it will still taste great 🙂
What can I substitute for chia seeds?
You could try with a little bit of ground flaxseed instead, or just omit them!
Just need the amounts of the ingredients.
Hi Cynthia! All the ingredient quantities and instructions are written in the recipe card. If you’re at the top of this page, click the “Jump to recipe” button and it will take you there! 🙂
Will this work without chia seeds? Is there a substitute for chia seeds?
You can do it without chia seeds. It just won’t be quite as thick!
This mousse topped with thawed mixed berries is quite possibly my very favourite thing to eat for breakfast, and I’m quite convinced I could do so every day and never tire of it. Superb!
OMG I have to try it with frozen berries! But I agree – SO YUMMY! Thanks so much for your review!
I really like cottage cheese and figured I should give this a try but it REALLY tastes like chocolate cottage cheese ☠️. Unfortunately I followed the recipe exactly and I don’t think it’s to my liking. Sorry!
Ok this is good!! Satisfied my nightly sweet tooth for sure and yet I still felt good afterwards. Topped with a few dark chocolate chips, raspberries and bananas.
I’ve converted friends to be cottage cheese lovers with this recipe! 🙂
Definitely going to try this . It looks so yummy
Hope you like it!
I made this recipe and the proportions are perfect, the Vanilla makes the chocolate taste way more chocolatey. We don’t like chia seeds in ours so we just left them out and added chocolate chips instead and it was the perfect summer snack.
Made this today and it is really yummy! Definitely fulfills the desire to have something chocolatey without having to feel bad about it. I did have to add some coconut milk to mine because it was too thick and would barely blend. Thanks for a great recipe!
Can I use something else instead of chia seeds ? Thank you
You can just leave them out! It just won’t be quite as thick 🙂
Can I use soaked chia seeds and blend them??
Yes, but I don’t think the texture will turn out quite as nice! The chia seeds soak in the liquid from the cottage cheese as it sits in the fridge, which helps the mousse thicken. I suspect soaking the seeds beforehand will lead to a thinner pudding.
Hello, I love the way you create healthy treats. I’m also a health nut lol.
I use a lot of yogurt in replacement of mayonnaise but I would never think to use cottage cheese.
Thank you,
Lori Padbury
this might be life changing. so hard to kick the sweet tooth completely. this will help so much! I made it today and it is delicious— even maybe a little too sweet for me, so i will happily try again with less syrup. YAY
Ahh I’m so glad you liked it!!
Oh wow!!!! I had these ingredients at home. Except the Chia seeds. Made it, put it in the fridge and it was marvelous!!! Thank you so much. I just made a quadruple batch and made jars for work for my breakfast!!! Thank you
Ps. Shared it with my daughters and they are going to try it too!!!!
Could you add ice to make this like a smoothie?
Maybe, but I haven’t tested it that way! You’ll probably need to add some milk to thin it out too.
This is great but I had to scroll thru a ton of nonsense before getting to the recipe. Why oh why does everyone do this? The picture looks great, a paragraph why it’s good is enough and then give us the recipe with the nutritional info. We’re all looking for great recipes and time savers. Please! Enough with the dissertations.
Hi Martha, I’m so sorry for your frustration! In future, there’s a “jump to recipe” button at the top of the page that will take you right to the recipe card. Have a wonderful evening.
can i replace cocoa powder with other flavors such as matcha powder?
I haven’t tested but I suspect that would work!
This looks delicious! Have you had success in pre-making it and storing in the fridge for a few days? Thanks!
Yes, it’s worked well made in advance for me!
42 gm of carbs seems high. Is it the syrup that makes it that high ? I would use sugar free syrup. Thanks!
WOW!! This is really delicious! I was skeptical because I’ve tried cottage cheese-based desserts before and was disappointed. I like cottage cheese but when I want a sweet treat, I don’t want cottage cheese lol. I cut back on the maple syrup a little bit because I wanted it less sweet and the result was perfect. Chocolatey and creamy and high in protein. Winner!
Am I correct that the posted recipe makes 1 serving and has 335 calories in one serving?
My kids thought it was a little bitter and so did I. We made some homemade whipped cream and folded it in. It’s much better and kids love it. 🙂
Next time I might use a melted dark chocolate because that’s less bitter than the cocoa powder.
Can u use dry cottage cheese instead of regular cottage cheese. Regular has too many unnecessary ingredients.
Thank you so much for your question! Unfortunately dry cottage cheese will not work well in this recipe because it doesn’t have enough moisture.
Have you tried freezing this?
I have not, sorry!