High Protein Chicken and Broccoli Pasta Bake
Creamy, cheesy, comforting, and secretly loaded with protein and fibre. Blended cottage cheese makes the sauce rich without a mountain of cream, wholewheat pasta and white beans push the fibre up, and it all bakes under a golden cheddar top. The kind of pasta bake you don't have to feel clever about.
Method
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Preheat the oven to 190C. Boil the pasta in salted water, adding the broccoli florets for the final 3 minutes. Drain, keeping a splash of the water.
💡 Tip: Cooking the broccoli with the pasta saves a pan and keeps it just tender, not soft. -
Blend the cottage cheese, milk, parmesan, garlic powder, and mustard until completely smooth to make the sauce.
💡 Tip: A smooth blend is the whole trick. Lumpy cottage cheese won't give you that creamy finish. -
Combine the drained pasta and broccoli with the shredded chicken, cannellini beans, and the blended sauce. Loosen with a little pasta water if needed and season well.
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Tip into a large baking dish, scatter over the grated cheddar, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden and bubbling.
Notes
Blend the cottage cheese until completely smooth before it goes in. It melts into a creamy, high-protein sauce and nobody will guess it's there.
Cook the pasta a minute short of the packet time. It finishes cooking in the oven and you don't want it mushy.
Wholewheat pasta and cannellini beans are doing the fibre work here, which is what makes this more than just a treat meal.
This is a great use for leftover roast chicken. It also reheats brilliantly, so it's a strong meal-prep option for 3 to 4 days.
Nutrition Information
| Calories | 483kcal |
| Total Fat | 9g |
| Total Carbohydrates | 51g |
| Protein | 44g |
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Frequently Asked Questions
I don't like cottage cheese, will I taste it?
Not once it's blended and baked. It melts into a smooth, creamy sauce and reads as cheesy, not like cottage cheese. It's the key to the high protein count without heaps of fat.
Can I make it ahead?
Yes. Assemble the whole thing, keep it covered in the fridge for up to a day, then bake when you're ready. Add a few extra minutes if it's going in cold.
What pasta shape works best?
Short shapes that hold sauce, penne, rigatoni, or fusilli, are ideal. Wholewheat is worth it here for the extra fibre.
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