https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/ take a browse through this website, its probably the most trustworthy source of nutrition info.
Some highlights:
Protein per 100g
Ground Beef: ~18
Beef (Steak): ~22
Chicken breast: ~15g
Tofu: ~17
Peanuts: ~ 28
Cashews: ~17
Almonds: ~21
Bean corner, all listed raw and dry, when cooked mass increases by 2-2.5x so protein content will half or a bit more, 100g of dry beans soaked and cooked is ~the contents of 1 can(? i think):
Soybeans: ~37 (waow, also crazy high on iron, best macro balance of any food? 37 protein, 20 fat, 30 carbs)
Chickpeas(Garbonzo beans): ~20
Navy Beans: ~22
Black beans: ~22
Red kidney beans: ~23
Red lentils: ~24
this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2025
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Soybeans: ~37 (waow, also crazy high on iron, best macro balance of any food? 37 protein, 20 fat, 30 carbs)
soybeans are the reason I think graham hancock's hypotheses that we've inherited alien technology might have some merit
They're also one of a handful of plant-based complete protein sources. Quinoa is another one and it's also kind of alien.
Didn't humans basically invent both of these? Imo the Neolithic Revolution is really about creating new sources of food from plants that are either inedible or have nutrients that aren't bioavailable to humans.
ssssshhhhhhh the pseudoarchaeologists might hear you!
I love adding beans wherever I can, such amazing fiber and a great protein boost, with a texture I enjoy. Just an awesome food.
i love beans but beans don't love me
Try replacing rice with Mujadara with varying ratios. Up to 3:1 (dry) lentils:rice still feels like pretty much rice. You can train your body to accept more fiber and eating a lot of rice makes you shit better too and levels out the fiber.
Textured soy protein / textured vegetable protein is very protein dense. You can often find it in the bagged dried spice section of Mexican, Asian, or other international markets.
Lentils are always a good choice. Cheap and very protein packed. It is low in certain amino acids, so eat some rice with it. You can always go the protein powder route too, but make sure it has a balanced amino acid profile as well.
Can you check the amino acid profile by reading the label or how would you find this information?
Yes, good protein powder will have the added proteins and amino acid listed on the label. That being said your body is really good at breaking down proteins to get the amino acids it needs, and some like whey (which is milk so if you're going vegan won't work) protein are already complete and will have enough of each amino acid that you need unless you are an athlete.
You don't need to worry about "protein combining" and stuff like that. Plants contain all the essential and non-essential too. Here's the actual protein (amino acids) profile of different foods if you're interested.
Surprised it's not here yet, but look into nutritional yeast. One serving is like 1g fat, 5g carbs (but 4 are fiber) and 9g protein
Many of the brands are fortified and get you your B vitamins, too!
I bought a big shaker can for a reasonable price when I was trying to make a ground beef style tofu preparation. That recipe didn't work out for me, but I'd been meaning to use it. I know people make a vegan mac and cheese with it, and that causes some polarizing opinions lol. Are there like specific recipes for it or would I just add it in to things I'm trying to change the macros of?
Use it in virtually any savory dish! If something could be made with stock or cheese, you can safely and deliciously add nooch.
Here is a very good savory seasoning blend for veggies. popcorn, etc. that has a sort of BBQ'y flavor. All ingredients are optional, esp. those in parentheses.
- 2-4 parts onion powder
- 2-4 parts nutritional yeast
- 1 part garlic powder
- 1-2 part salt
- (smoked paprika, sumac, cumin, thyme, dried chives, peanut powder, MSG, dried citrus, tajin*, season salt*, lemon pepper*, garlic salt*, black pepper)
* substitute for salt
You can dust this over baked/roasted/grilled veggies, or add to sautees for soups or any other application!
Thanks it's fun to have roll-your-own seasoning blends, I'll play with this. I often default to seasoned salt on things this looks like a way to add a lot more flavor with the same amount of saltiness. When the other poster said add it to savory dishes my mind immediately went to adding nooch to mashed potatoes and gravy.
Those are great applications!
Anything where you want cheese-ish flavor. You can make a good sauce base with raw cashews (boil for five minutes), paprika, nutritional yeast, onion powder, and garlic powder. Good macros, and you can dump that on the cooked pasta of your choice and have baked mac and cheese inside a half hour..
Thank you I'll start trying to incorporate it into things and thanks for the cashew sauce recipe.
I eat a shit ton of chickpeas but honestly get yourself vegan protein powder. It's more expensive than whey but its manageable. Just eat whatever you want and suppliment your protein with a shake or something. Way nicer than eating high protein density foods all the time imo.
. It's more expensive than whey
This might shake out to nearly even when you correct for differences in amino acid score (pea: 0.893 vs whey: 1.0), but my organic pea protein powder is waaaaay cheaper (pun intended) than the same mass of whey protein (0.7 dollars per ounce of pea compared to 0.93 dollars per ounce of whey) and doesn't require the forced impregnation of a sentient being!
My quick maths (please correct if I'm literally peaing bad arithmetic out my doodoo ass): peas get us 1.28 PDCAAS per dollar and whey gets us 1.08 PDCAAS per dollar.
idk but tofu sure tastes good
Vital wheat gluten. 24g of protein per 30g serving. The ratio is less when prepared though.
I was gonna shout out the Tofurkey brand of sausages, this is where they get their protein from. They make a kielbasa style and an Italian style that is my favorite, probably some other flavors. Slice 'em and fry em, dice 'em up and add to soups, and they're affordable which I feel like other meat substitutes suffer on.
I don't eat store-bought mock products often (because that shit's expensive), but I've had the Tofurky kielbasa in the past, so I can definitely second what you're saying here. That shit is good as fuck.
Yeah the kielbasa ones are good too. When I had some I made a dish of cabbage and noodles with mock sausge, and the wheat pasta plus the vital wheat gluten was just too much wheat though lol, and I'm not like gluten averse or anything. I wonder how they'd hold up in a stew, they hold their shape pretty well and I'd imagine more so if you put them in a frying pan for a little while first. If there's an Aldi near you they have a decent vegan meatball offering.
1 brick of high protein tofu from trader joes has 64g of protein
You can get it at Chinese supermarkets too. I ate this until I got sick of it 1 and a half brick in.
How do you season your tofu? I used 5 spice, soy sauce, and sesame oil.
The most important part is the prep. Simmering is veryveryvery salty water for 5 minutes or so will season it and get rid of the gross tofu water. Pressing it is also good, I have an actual tofu press. I usually do oil, cornstarch, seasoning salt (I use the TJs umami salt), and pepper. Then I toss it in whatever sauce I've made for the meal, or I just eat it as is. It gets nice and crispy, plus the saltwater seasons the inside improving the actual tofu flavor.
There are bean curd skins which are essentially sheets of curdled soy protein, as well as TVP. If you want a complete protein with minimal carbs.
If you are talking about whole foods I don't think there are any non meat sources as dense as meat. If you go processed maybe peanut powder gets close. I'm limited to beans, soybeans and nuts for the most protein. With beans you're gonna get some carbs and with soybeans you will get some fat too but it is high quality unsaturated so that is ok for me. Nuts come with a lot of fat including some saturated fat but I'm not worried about that because that is my only source of saturated fat now since avocados are gone from stores in the midwest.
All the answers below are correct.
Legumes are great but they have carbs, whereas meat doesn't, so you're not gonna get the equivalent of "chicken and rice" for lean gains. Tofu and TVP (in the PNW there's something called soycurl which is just TVP) are close. Seitan (wheat gluten) is very high in protein but it is an incomplete protein so you'll need to supplement a legume into it. Blending tofu into seitan works great. Vegan specialty stores sell jerky that is similar in protein density to meat, they're just not very good. "Pleather" is the best brand of it I've tried.
Sauce Stache on YouTube was a channel of a chubby vegan doing his best copycat recipes, then he went in a "get healthy" transformation arc. He has tons of high protein vegan meal videos.
Eating a plant based diet involves an understanding that you're not just removing meat from your diet or substituting X for meat in a 1:1 ratio. It involves understanding how fats, proteins, carbs, and fiber are found in plants and how that creates energy for your body.
Broccoli has more protein per gram than beef
Misinformation, there are plenty of good vegan protein sources though!
source https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/
at least broccoli has more water per gram than Dasani
I use a peanut powder for taste and the lean mean power of extra protein in my diet, it’s nice to have something more aligned with “dessert” palettes and stuff so it goes good with my vanilla oat milk. I may even try “baking” some homemade bars out of it one of these days when it gets cold and I want to turn my tiny oven on.
Chickpeas are good. Hummus is super tasty and good for you, especially if you get some good olive oil in there, that’s a nice combo of healthy fats and protein to power your body and lubricate the gears.
Where do you find peanut powder? It used to be at the grocery store plain right when it first came out but now I can only occasionally find some kind marketed as a 'protein supplement' that has a bunch of added sweeteners and shit I don't want added to it.
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If you are new to vegetarianism, the loss of many types of processed foods will compensate for the lower calorie:protein ratio of vegetable sources.
How so? Also, would it make one crave healthier lower calorie things more? I notice when I'm hungry I will eat raw sprouts that I grow from melon seeds and sometimes bean sprouts.
Idk if this context helps: I'm on medicine that makes me fat and I get really miserable if I don't meet enough protein and carbs needs. I'm also one of those meat eaters who has hangups about eating meat and I want to start transitioning to non meat protein because of that. I'm very lucky to be able to eat all of the things people listed.
Generally, any new restrictive diet will cut down the amount of processed food you are eating so the lower protein density of, say, lentils is offset by no longer eating processed meats and things to an extent.
Protein is not an issue.
Iron is, and can be found in shit like tofu and beans.
I like tofu and tempeh!
TVP/TSP is my go to