Our Favorite Ways to Use Protein Powder in Recipes

You’ve decided that increasing your protein intake is probably a good idea. So, you’ve purchased a carton or bag of whey or plant-based protein powder. Then, you’ve added a scoop to some smoothie recipes and maybe even stirred some into coffee or yogurt — that’s a great start!

But if you’re like me … Well, I got pretty tired of protein powder after a few months of basic smoothie recipes.

Fortunately, our team of registered dietitians has been using protein powder and collagen to boost our protein intake in many-a-meal and recipe over the years! The boredom I experienced with plain old protein powder smoothies has led us down a pretty fun path of creating tons of new protein powder recipes.

(Oh, and if you’re having trouble incorporating your powder into recipes, I share a few baking tips at the bottom of this post to help explain the issues I ran into while testing many of my creations.)

Protein Bars

Purchased protein bars are a convenient option to throw in a purse or gym bag. But you can easily make less processed protein bars at home and save some money, too! (Plus, I’m always hesitant to buy most protein bars, as they’re often filled with extra ingredients and additives I don’t want my family eating.)

Here’s my rule of thumb that has worked over tons of my protein bar recipes: To add protein powder to a protein bar recipe, replace ½ to ¾ cup of the dry ingredients with an equal amount of a favorite protein powder. This works for both baked protein bar recipes and no-bake protein bars.

Here are some that we’ve made over the years that are still mainstays for my meal prep rotation.

Energy Balls

One of our all-time favorite healthy snacks to make and share are energy ball recipes. Every one of these we create is loaded with energy-supplying healthful carbohydrates, fiber, healthy fats, and protein.

To add protein powder to an energy balls recipe, replace a portion of the rolled oats (not all of the oats) with protein powder. The proportions can get tricky, so here’s what we’ve found works best to keep the balls sticking together and the texture similar:

• In recipes that call for 2 or more cups of oats, replace ½ cup oats with ½ cup protein powder. 
• In recipes that call for less than 2 cups of oats, replace ¼ cup oats with ¼ cup protein powder.

Here are some of our recipes to try:

Pancakes, Waffles, and Muffins

Get a high-protein breakfast by adding protein powder to pancake, waffle, and muffin recipes. Believe it or not, you can eat all of these things without overloading your body with sugar! (Pancakes and waffles, in particular, are some of my favorites to test with healthier ingredients.)

To add protein powder to pancake, muffin, and waffle batter, replace a portion of the flour with protein powder. Just like with energy balls, be cautious with proportions:

• In recipes that call for 2 or more cups of flour, replace ½ cup oats with ½ cup protein powder. 
• In recipes that call for less than 2 cups of flour, replace ¼ cup oats with ¼ cup protein powder.

Try these:

Cookies

Whether it’s a breakfast cookie you can make ahead for easier mornings or a typical snack cookie, cookie dough often bakes up nicely with the addition of protein powder. And don’t get me started on how good these are when paired with ice cream!

My rule of thumb: To add protein powder to a cookie dough, replace ½ cup of the dry ingredients with an equal amount of a favorite protein powder. 

Here are some protein-boosted cookie recipes to try:

Oats and Puddings

You can easily stir a scoop of protein powder into your next bowl of oatmeal or use it to boost breakfast recipes like overnight oats, baked oatmeal, and chia pudding.

Typically, ¼ cup to ⅓ cup of protein powder or collagen peptides can be added to a single serving of oatmeal, overnight oats, and chia pudding without needing to reduce any other ingredients. For baked oatmeal recipes, reduce the oats by ½ cup and stir in ½ cup protein powder. 

Use these recipes as inspiration:

Smoothies and Shakes

Shakes and smoothie recipes lend themselves well to being boosted with protein powder. When blending a single-serve smoothie, boost it with 1 scoop (typically about 30 grams) of your favorite protein powder to increase the total protein count by 18 to 25 grams. 

Here are some of our favorite smoothie combos to try:

How To Use Protein Powder In Baking

To add protein powder to baked goods and no-bake treat recipes, follow this formula:

• If a recipe contains 2 or more cups of dry ingredients (meaning the total volume of flour, cocoa powder, and/or oats), then replace ½ cup of the dry ingredients with ½ cup of protein powder. 
• If a recipe contains less than 2 cups of dry ingredients, you can replace ¼ cup of the dry ingredients with ¼ cup of protein powder.

Our team of dietitians has found that this is the best way to ensure a recipe will retain its texture and “stickiness” (especially for things like energy balls).

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Our Fave

As a team of dietitians, we get asked almost weekly about which protein powders we recommend. We’ve put so many protein powders to the test over the years – and we’re constantly sampling new ones, too. When we try a protein powder, we’re looking at the protein source, ingredient quality, certifications and 3rd party testing, total nutrients, any sweetener used, and of course, how it tastes! 

The whey protein powder our entire team loves and uses most often in these recipes is Puori Whey. We appreciate that the whey protein concentrate comes from the milk of pasture raised cows, and a single 30-gram scoop provides 21 grams of protein and a complete amino acid profile. 

We also love that this one doesn’t contain any low-calorie sweeteners, which often leave a bad aftertaste, especially in baked goods. Instead, Puori is sweetened with just a very small amount of organic coconut sugar.

It’s also awesome to know that Puori has received Best-in-Class certifications from the Clean Label Project, a national nonprofit with the mission to bring truth and transparency to food and consumer product labeling. You can try Puori and get 20% off your first order (or 15% off subscriptions) with PUORIxRFD.

For ultimate success, we highly recommend reading the tips in the full blog post above. All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish a recipe, please rewrite the recipe in your own unique words. Link back to the source recipe here on The Real Food Dietitians. Thank you!