Ricotta and Blueberry Dessert Cups

Nutrition Snapshot

• About 14 grams of protein in one small cup, from ricotta and Greek yogurt, in a dessert with no added sugar and no refined starch.
• Blueberries bring the sweetness, about 2 grams of fiber, and the polyphenols that give them their color, and the ricotta brings about 298 milligrams of calcium.
• The trade-off: ricotta carries saturated fat, about 5 grams a cup here. The card shows the figures, and the notes show a lighter version.

Part-skim ricotta whipped for a minute with Greek yogurt, vanilla, and the zest of a lemon until it is smooth and light. Frozen blueberries warmed in a small pan for three minutes and mashed with a fork into a thick, dark sauce with no sugar added.

The two go into four small cups in layers, ricotta, blueberries, ricotta, with a pinch of cinnamon on top, and they chill until dinner is over. Each cup is a half cup of dessert that tastes like cheesecake filling and berries.

Why This Dessert Is Great After Gastric Bypass

After gastric bypass, sugar and refined starch move into the small intestine faster than the body can handle. The result is dumping syndrome: cramping, sweating, a racing heart, and sometimes a crash in blood sugar an hour or two later. A slice of cake, a bowl of ice cream, or a sweetened yogurt can bring it on. Most people learn to avoid dessert entirely.

They do not have to. What triggers dumping is added sugar and refined flour, and a dessert can be built without either. This one is: the sweetness comes from fruit, which arrives with its own fiber and is absorbed slowly, and the body of the dessert is dairy protein, which slows everything else down further.

Protein in the Dessert

The protein is the other half of the design. After bypass, every small portion has to carry protein, because the day’s total is hard to reach in the volume the new stomach allows. A half cup of this dessert carries about 14 grams, more than most bariatric protein snacks, and it counts toward the day.

Which foods carry protein at each stage after surgery, and how much a day calls for, is in Protein After Bariatric Surgery: Stages, Doses, and the Foods That Work.

Where the Sweetness Comes From

Warming frozen blueberries and mashing them concentrates their own sugar into a sauce that tastes far sweeter than the raw berries, with no sweetener at all. Vanilla and lemon zest make the ricotta taste sweet by association; both are flavors the tongue reads as dessert, and neither carries sugar. Cinnamon does the same on top.

Sugar alcohols and artificial sweeteners are left out on purpose. Many people after bypass find that sugar alcohols cause the same cramping and gas that sugar does, and a dessert that needs none of them is easier on the gut and easier to trust.

Portion and Timing

A half cup is the portion, and the cups are made that size so there is no deciding. After bypass, dessert is best eaten thirty minutes or more after the meal, so the small stomach holds only one thing at a time. It is eaten slowly, with a small spoon. The cups keep three days covered in the refrigerator.

Ricotta and Blueberry Dessert Cups

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Part-skim ricotta whipped with Greek yogurt, vanilla, and lemon zest, layered in four small cups with warm mashed frozen blueberries and a pinch of cinnamon. No added sugar, no flour, no sweetener; about 14 grams of protein in a half cup, built for the months after gastric bypass.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 3 minutes mins

Total Time 13 minutes mins

Servings: 4 small cup (about 1/2 cup)

Course: dessert, Snack

Cuisine: Italian-American

Calories: 181

Ingredients Equipment Method Nutrition Notes

Ingredients

  

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• 1 1/2 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (2 percent or nonfat)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1 1/4 cups frozen wild blueberries
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• a pinch of ground cinnamon

Equipment

• Hand mixer or food processor
• Small saucepan
• Four small cups or ramekins

Method

 

1. Beat the ricotta, yogurt, vanilla, and lemon zest with a hand mixer or in a food processor for about 1 minute, until smooth and light.
2. Warm the blueberries and lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat until they burst and release their juice, about 3 minutes. Mash with a fork into a thick, chunky sauce. Cool 5 minutes.
3. Spoon a quarter of the ricotta into each of four small cups, then most of the blueberries, then the rest of the ricotta. Finish with a spoon of blueberries and a pinch of cinnamon.
4. Chill at least 30 minutes. Eat slowly, with a small spoon, 30 minutes or more after a meal. Keeps 3 days covered in the refrigerator.

Nutrition

Calories: 181kcalCarbohydrates: 13gProtein: 14gFat: 8gSaturated Fat: 4.9gSodium: 103mgPotassium: 196mgFiber: 2.3gSugar: 1.6gCalcium: 298mgIron: 0.7mgMagnesium: 21mgPhosphorus: 217mgCholine: 20mg

Notes

Lighter version: nonfat ricotta and nonfat Greek yogurt cut the saturated fat to about 1 gram a cup with the same protein. Frozen raspberries or strawberries work in place of blueberries. For someone still in the pureed stage after surgery, blend the blueberries smooth and press through a sieve to remove the skins. For more protein without more volume, beat 2 tablespoons of unflavored protein powder into the ricotta. No sweetener is needed; if the dessert tastes flat, add more lemon zest.

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Gluten Free

Ricotta, yogurt, blueberries, lemon, vanilla, and cinnamon are naturally free of gluten, and this dessert contains no flour or grain. For people with celiac disease, check the ricotta for modified food starch and the vanilla extract for a gluten-free label. People who avoid gluten by preference can use any brand.

Go deeper

• Protein After Bariatric Surgery: Stages, Doses, and the Foods That Work (food.nutriscape.net)
• Bariatric Surgery (nutriscape.net)
• Bariatric Surgery (supplement-sciences)