The Trendy Recipe That Makes Protein And Hot Honey The Stars Of The Show

Sometimes a recipe appears on social media that just looks and sounds delicious — take the TikTok-viral Turkish Pasta or Emily Mariko's salmon bowl, for example. Other times, it seems like people jump on the bandwagon because the elements of the dish are a little wacky together and they simply have to find out for themselves if it's any good. Case in point? Protein-heavy ground beef, sweet potato, and cottage cheese bowls, which get topped with a drizzle of hot honey.

Skillet-cooked, seasoned ground beef gets scooped into a bowl with roasted chunks of sweet potato alongside a dollop of cottage cheese. Once everything is in place, the entire contents of the bowl receive a sweet and spicy kick from hot honey. It shouldn't work together — there's every reason why this mixture of flavors and textures just should not be combined — and yet it's weirdly, surprisingly good. Better still, it only takes half an hour to make while packing a powerful protein punch (making it the perfect meal for after a workout) that's also gluten-free.

Since all of the ingredients are, for the most part, pretty soft, you can add some textural variance in the form of chopped romaine lettuce. Or, instead of eating it with a fork, you can scoop a combination of the elements onto extra-sturdy tortilla or pita chips.

You can make substitutions for the base elements of the bowl if you don't like them or if they don't align with your dietary preferences. For example, if you try to stay away from red meat, you could swap in ground chicken, turkey, or pork. If you're living meat-free, make it vegetarian with plant-based meats, like Impossible beef. While sweet potatoes tend to be more wholesome than regular potatoes, the latter actually has more protein, so if you don't like 'em sweet, sub in a regular roasted russet.

A lot of people have texture issues with cottage cheese, but what's great about it is how versatile the dairy product really is. Not feeling those curds? Whip your cottage cheese up in a blender or food processor. If it's the flavor you don't like, you can easily substitute in plain Greek yogurt or ricotta cheese. If you're vegan, aside from swapping out the meat for plant-based products, you can also whip tofu to make a creamy, protein-rich replacement for the cottage cheese. What's great is that all of these alternatives mentioned here can be switched out with any of the others, and they will still work flavor-wise, especially with the hot honey.

One popular variation on this bowl is to make it Mexican-influenced by adding taco seasoning to the beef (if you don't trust what the store-bought stuff is made of, you can easily make your own homemade blend) as well as cubes of avocado. You could make it Italian-influenced by using jarred Italian seasonings instead. The dish would really pop with the addition of fresh herbs, too, like parsley, thyme, oregano, or basil. Why not add some chopped tomato into the mix? Or in addition to the hot honey, drizzle on a bit of balsamic glaze.

On the same line of thinking, make it Asian-inspired by adding soy sauce, brown sugar, and a touch of sesame oil plus as much sriracha as you can handle to your ground beef (this mimics the flavors of Korean BBQ). Break out the avocado again, maybe top everything with a few squirts of kewpie mayo, and then still add a drizzle of hot honey to finish the dish. For added protein, include a jammy or fried egg.