The best plant-based protein sources (and how much I eat)

"But where do you get your protein?" I've been asked that question more times than I've been asked my name. The honest answer is boring: from beans, mostly. This post is the list version of that answer. The foods I actually build meals around, how much protein is in a serving I'd really eat, and what a normal day adds up to without me tracking any of it.

If you want the reasoning first (how much you need, why I'm not anti-protein but I am anti-obsession), start with how much protein you actually need on a plant-based diet. This post assumes you're on board and just want the foods.

The foods I actually build meals around

Seven foods do most of the work on my plate: lentils, black beans, chickpeas, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and seitan. I chose these seven for two reasons that matter more than any protein number.

First, they're filling for their calories. Beans and lentils are mostly water and fiber, so a cup of them is a real serving of food, not a garnish. Second, they're cheap and they keep. A can of chickpeas is under a dollar and lasts a year in the pantry. Tofu lives in the fridge for weeks. I can always build a protein-rich dinner without a special trip.

That combination, filling and always available, is why these seven show up on my plate more than anything with a "high protein" label on the box.

The protein table

Grams of protein per serving, with the calories beside it, so calorie density and protein sit side by side. Numbers are typical, rounded, and per the serving I'd actually eat.

Look at the tofu and seitan rows. Twenty grams of protein for 110 to 150 calories. That's the best ratio on the table, which is why tofu is in my stir-fry three nights a week. Lentils and beans bring less protein per calorie, but they bring fiber and volume the others don't, and they're the ones that keep me full until the next meal. I want both kinds on my plate, not one or the other.

Grains and extras that add up

Nobody thinks of pasta as a protein food, and it isn't. But the grains and small extras that come with a normal day quietly add 15 to 20 grams before I've counted a single bean.

Soy milk is the quiet winner here. Swap it for water in your oats and you've added 7 grams to breakfast without tasting a difference. Hemp seeds are dense (they're mostly fat), so a spoonful on a salad is plenty. I don't reach for them every day.

A real day of my meals with the protein added up

The practical target I use is roughly 0.6 to 0.8 grams of protein per pound of your goal body weight. Say your goal is 150 lbs. That's 90 to 120 grams a day. Here's a day I actually eat, no powders, no bars, nothing weighed:

• Breakfast: a big bowl of oats cooked in soy milk with peanut butter and banana. About 21 g.
• Lunch: a loaded baked potato with a cup of black beans and salsa. About 22 g.
• Dinner: tofu stir-fry over rice, half a block of tofu, frozen vegetables. About 24 g.
• Snack: a cup of edamame with salt. About 17 g.

That's 84 grams from the four things I'd have eaten anyway. The bread, rice, vegetables, and grains around them add another 15 or so. Right around 100, inside the range, and I didn't open a tracking app once. Two protein foods a day, spread across meals, gets almost everyone there.

The not-medical-advice line, because it matters: this is what works for me and for the readers who write to me. Check with your doctor before changing your diet, especially if you have a health condition.

Do you need protein powder? My honest take

No. Optional, not required. Look at the day above. It's in range without any.

Where it can make sense: you're strength training hard, your goal weight is on the higher end, and you genuinely can't fit another cup of beans into your day. A scoop of pea or soy protein in your oats is a reasonable tool then. What I push back on is the idea that a plant-based diet is somehow broken without it. The powder is a convenience, like buying canned beans instead of soaking dry ones. It's not a fix for a problem you probably don't have.

If you buy one, buy a plain one and use it in food, not as a meal. A shake instead of lunch is how people end up hungry at 3pm.

Cooking these so you'll want them

A list of foods is useless if you don't like eating them, and plain boiled tofu will convince nobody. Here's how each one earns its place on my plate, with a free version of most of them on my recipes page:

• Lentils: a big pot of lentil soup or a lentil curry over rice. The easiest of the seven to batch, and the base of my big-pot soups.
• Black beans and chickpeas: chili, burrito bowls, chickpea curry, or roasted crispy on a tray as a snack.
• Tofu: pressed, cubed, tossed in cornstarch and soy sauce, baked until crisp. This one converts skeptics.
• Tempeh: sliced thin, simmered in a smoky marinade, then pan-seared. Great in tacos.
• Edamame: steamed from frozen with salt. The five-minute snack that keeps me out of the chips.
• Seitan: stir-fried in strips with peppers and a peanut sauce.

Try this today

Take one meal that has no protein food in it and add one. A can of beans into the soup. Tofu into the stir-fry. Lentils stirred into the pasta sauce. That's the entire job. Do that at two meals a day and you can stop thinking about protein, which was the goal all along.