The misconception that vegan diets are naturally low in protein has finally been lain to rest, but getting enough protein still requires some forethought. In this article, we will be looking at five high protein vegan meals that you can cook at home.
What to Look For When Picking High Protein Vegan Meals
With a bit of experience, it can become quite easy to differentiate high protein vegan meals from low or medium protein ones. The trick is to learn to spot high protein vegan foods. Here is a quick list of ingredients to look out for:
- Lentils
- Chickpeas
- Tofu
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Peas
- Oats
You can also look to increase your protein intake through vegan protein powders or vegan protein bars. But try to get as much protein as you can via your daily nutrition.
Now that you know what sort of ingredients to look out for, we will take you through five high protein vegan meals to try out.
Here are our Top High Protein Vegan Meals
High Protein Vegan Meal #1 Miso Soup
The main thing to pay attention to when ordering miso soup in a restaurant is whether it is truly vegan or not. While most of the ingredients are vegan, the stock can sometimes come from fish. If you are making your own, then it’s not a problem.
Miso soup is a great vegan option, as it is packed with vitamins and minerals, tastes amazing, and you get your protein from generous helpings of tofu.
High Protein Vegan Meal #2 Sweet Potato Curry
Curries are often a great source of vegan protein, and a sweet potato curry is a great choice. The protein comes from the chickpeas that you add, but you could also add lentils which are another excellent source of protein. You will also get some protein from the sweet potatoes and from the coconut milk. The curry also uses a lot of spinach, which is relatively high in protein for a green.
What is particularly good about this meal is that it can be easily batch cooked, then frozen, ensuring that you always have a high protein meal as backup.
High Protein Vegan Meal #3 Vegan Breakfast Potatoes
Hauke Fox has created a superb high protein vegan meal which you can check out here. It’s very simple to make but tastes amazing and contains 17 grams of protein per serving.
The meal is just grilled tomatoes, diced potatoes, chopped onion, and spices, with crumbled tofu providing the protein.
What makes this meal so good is that there are hundreds of ways that you can edit the meal. Just keep the tofu for protein, and add in whatever you like. Fancy some spinach added? That would work. Swap regular potatoes for sweet potatoes? Also fine. Hate grilled tomatoes, but fancy adding a can of chopped ones? That will also work great.
High Protein Vegan Meal #4 Vegetarian Casserole
This recipe comes from the BBC, and it is really excellent. It’s a Mediterranean casserole, that gets its protein exclusively from vegetables (namely the lentils). Onions, carrots, peppers, celery, tomatoes, and courgettes, all make for a ridiculously healthy and hearty meal. The lentils also contribute to the taste, consistency, and the protein content.
High Protein Vegan Meal #5 Black Eyed Pea Soup
This is a superb vegan meal from Jenn Sebestyen from VeggieInspired.com. The recipe contains 24 grams of protein per serving! All you need is an onion, carrots, diced tomatoes, collared greens, garlic, and some black eyed beans.
What’s great about this recipe, is that it can also be served with rice and turned into a bigger meal. The soup alone is great for lunches but add some rice and you’ve got an excellent main meal. The black eyed peas are the main protein source. The soup is absolutely packed full of vitamins and minerals from the various vegetables.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Do Vegans Eat on a High Protein Day?
Well, the obvious foods to add would be the ones mentioned earlier (lentils, chickpeas, tofu etc). Or you could add a vegan protein powder or protein bar. However, the main goal for vegans should be ensuring that all days are high in protein, rather than just certain “high protein” days.
How Can Vegans Get 100 grams of Protein a Day?
Increasing the number of meals, you eat per day could help. Eating four meals per day means that you only need 25 grams of protein per meal.
Spreading out your protein better is important. You can’t have a low protein breakfast or lunch and hope to catch up in the evening. Finding high protein vegan snacks is another way to make life easy for yourself.
Then there is always supplementation, to help you over the hill. But don’t use supplementation as a magic bullet. Focus on high protein breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. With a couple of protein snacks between meals, or a fourth meal (if you can fit the calories in). Then use a protein powder or bar to get that last 10-20 grams.
Final Thoughts
Hitting your protein targets as a vegan is admittedly a little harder to do than doing so as an omnivore. It requires a little more adventurousness in the kitchen, a little more planning for the shopping, and a good bit of culinary knowledge.
But the benefits are that you end up eating a lot of amazingly healthy, vibrant meals, and you get your protein from a large variety of different sources. Don’t be put off by other people, vegan diets can be an excellent source of protein, provided you do your research.
The internet is absolutely packed with exciting, tasty, high-protein vegan dishes for you to explore. Get out there and give it a go.
References
https://thevegan8.com/sweet-potato-chickpea-and-spinach-coconut-curry/
https://hurrythefoodup.com/vegan-breakfast-potatoes/
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