Low-carb sweetheart cabbage Alfredo with cottage cheese and parmesan

Low-carb cabbage Alfredo: strips of sweetheart cabbage as noodles in a sauce of cottage cheese, parmesan and lemon, with walnuts. A gluten-free lunch with 28 g of protein per serving.

At a glance

• Serves 2
• Prep time: 10 min
• Cooking time: 15 min
• Total time: 25 min
• Calories: 457 kcal per serving
• Protein: 28 g
• Fat: 28 g
• Carbs: 18 g

Ingredients

• 1 sweetheart cabbage
• 20g walnuts
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 200g cottage cheese
• 50ml milk
• 2 garlic cloves
• 50g parmesan
• 1 unwaxed lemon
• 1 pinch of nutmeg
• 1 pinch of pepper
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1/2 bunch of parsley

Method

You’ll need: frying pan · stick blender · chopping board · knife

1. Halve the sweetheart cabbage, remove the core and cut the leaves into 1 cm wide strips. These are your cabbage noodles.
2. Toast the walnuts in a large dry frying pan for 3 min and chop them roughly.
3. Heat the butter and olive oil in the pan and fry the cabbage strips over a medium heat for 8 min, until soft and browning at the edges.
4. Blend the cottage cheese, milk, garlic and half the parmesan until smooth. Season with nutmeg, pepper, salt and grated lemon zest.
5. Pour the sauce over the cabbage and warm everything over a low heat for 2 min without letting it boil.
6. Divide the cabbage Alfredo between plates, scatter over the rest of the parmesan, the walnuts and chopped parsley and drizzle with lemon juice.

Good to know

Cabbage Alfredo is on Pinterest's trend list for 2026: cabbage instead of pasta, with a cheese sauce. This sauce is made from blended cottage cheese rather than cream. Browned in the pan, sweetheart cabbage tastes slightly nutty.

Swaps

Sweetheart cabbage → white cabbage (fry 4 min longer). Cottage cheese → ricotta (milder). Walnuts → pumpkin seeds (nut-free). Parmesan → pecorino (stronger).

Cooking tips

If your frying pan is small, fry the cabbage in two batches, otherwise it steams instead of browning. Don't let the sauce boil, or the cottage cheese will curdle.

Storage

Best eaten fresh; leftovers keep for 1 day in the fridge.

Allergens

Contains milk and walnuts; gluten-free and no egg. Nut-free with pumpkin seeds instead of walnuts.