If you’re wondering how to meet your protein needs as a vegan, these 15 simple, protein-rich combinations of plant foods will guide and inspire you! Plus, information on protein recommendations, complete protein, and vegan protein sources, all from a plant-based registered dietitian.

Whether you’re a new plant-based eater, a longtime vegan, or a curious omnivore, there’s a good chance that you’ve wondered about protein.

Specifically, you may have wondered whether vegan diets can provide enough protein. Or you’ve heard conflicting things about obtaining “complete protein” as a vegan.

Maybe you’ve felt confident about your protein intake in the past, but a person in your life—a family member, a healthcare provider, etc.—has recently made you second guess yourself.

In my years practicing as a vegan dietitian, I’ve learned that these are commonplace scenarios and concerns. If you can relate to any of them, this blog post on protein-rich combinations of plant foods is for you.

And if you’re simply a nutrition-focused person who wants to become more informed about plant protein, then read on!

I’ve divided the post into a few key sections:

• Why you may be confused about protein and plant-based diets
• How much protein per day?
• Do Americans consume too much protein?
• Do vegetarians eat enough protein?
• Deficiency vs insufficiency
• Amino acids and complete proteins
• A food-based approach to protein requirements
• Sources of protein for vegan diets
• 15 simple, affordable, and protein-rich combinations of plant foods
• More high protein vegan recipes

Feel free to jump around if a particular section is most helpful for you.

Why you may be confused about protein and plant-based diets (you’re not the only one!)

I’ve been authoring vegan cookbooks, working as an RD, and writing about vegan nutrition on this blog for years.

In that time, I’ve observed two conflicting messages about vegan diets and protein that seem to pervade our culture.

The first message is that it’s very difficult—maybe even impossible—to get adequate protein as a vegan. As you can imagine, this message usually comes from critics of vegan nutrition.

The second message suggests the opposite. It says that getting enough protein as a vegan is super easy—and in fact, vegans shouldn’t be worried about protein at all.

How can there be such different viewpoints on the same question?

I often find that, the more neatly declarative a statement about nutrition is, the more I have to question it. We all want nutrition to be really straightforward. But the truth is that there’s a lot of nuance when it comes to nutrition facts.

My main purpose in writing this post is to assure anyone, plant-based eater or not, that yes, it’s totally possible to obtain enough protein through every day plant foods.

How you mix and match these foods to meet your protein needs, however, will require a little thoughtfulness and planning.

Let me explain, starting with an overview of adult protein needs.

How much protein per day?

Before we examine protein in the context of veganism, it’s helpful to go over protein requirements for adults.

The adult RDA for protein

The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, has proposed a recommended dietary allowance, or RDA, for adult protein needs. (1)

This RDA is 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, per day, for adult men and women nineteen years of age and older.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has a slightly higher, yet very similar, recommendation: 0.83 g / kg / day. (2)

Let’s apply this recommendation to a real world example.

First, you can see that protein needs are proportional to weight. There’s no standard amount that all people should aim for daily; protein needs vary from person to person.

In America, where I work, most people think about weight in pounds, rather than kilograms.

One kilogram is about 2.2 pounds. If 0.8 grams of protein is suggested per kilogram, that translates to 0.36 grams of protein per pound, per day.

For a woman who weighs 170 pounds, for example, this would amount to 61.2 grams of protein per day (170 ✖️ .36 🟰 61.2 grams).

61 grams sounds pretty achievable, and it is pretty achievable. But there are some added factors to consider.

Digestibility of plant protein

Plant protein is thought to have slightly lower digestibility—meaning that a little less of it gets absorbed into the small intestine during the digestive process—than animal protein. (3, 4)

For this reason, some nutrition professionals, myself included, recommend that vegans use an incrementally higher RDA for protein than omnivores: 0.9 grams of protein per kilogram body weight, per day. (5)

This converts to 0.41 grams per pound body weight, per day.

Using the same example above, a 170 pound vegan woman would aim for 69.7 grams of protein per day—about 70 grams, total.

This is still an achievable amount! And as you can see, there isn’t a significant difference between protein requirements for vegans and omnivores.

Other factors influencing protein needs

There are a few added factors that can influence a person’s protein needs.

Age is one of them. Increasingly, there are researchers and nutrition professionals who recommend higher protein intake for older adults. (6, 7)

The reasoning for this is that it’s harder to maintain muscle mass as we age. A slightly higher protein intake may be protective for muscle mass, as well as for the bone matrix.

Certain disease states, including infection, wound repair, healing from burns, and cancer will all create a need for added protein.

When I was doing my hospital rotations as a part of my training to become a dietitian, most patients were given 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram body weight.

However, I worked with many people who were recovering from catabolic illnesses. These patients required 1-1.2 grams of protein per kilogram body weight each day in order to recover.

What about athletes?

The National Institutes of Health doesn’t give a higher protein RDA for athletes than for the general population.

However, I know from observational experience that many athletes aim for more than 0.8 grams per kilogram daily. They report improved performance and more well-being with this higher protein target.

But wait—don’t Americans consume too much protein?

I’ve seen it in print many times, and I’m sure that you have, too: Americans eat too much protein.

It’s true that protein consumption in most western countries exceeds the 0.8g/kg/day recommendation, and the US is no exception. (8)

NHANES data for 2015-2016, cited in the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, suggests that most adults meet or exceed the recommended allowance of protein.

In the DGA, proteins are grouped by category. The category in which there’s the most excess—the most overconsumption of protein, compared to recommendations—is meat consumption.

With the exception of meat, though, protein overconsumption is not extreme. (9)

When protein intake exceeds the recommended intake range, it’s by a relatively modest margin. Seafood consumption actually falls below the recommendation, as does consumption of beans, peas, and lentils.

So it does seem that people in Western countries, including Americans, are exceeding protein recommendations on average, especially when it comes to meat. Yet it’s not the case that all Americans are vastly overdoing it on protein.

What about vegetarians and vegans? Are they eating too much—or not enough?

Are vegetarians eating enough protein?

Vegetarians worldwide consume less protein on average than comparable populations of omnivores.

But less by comparison isn’t the same as not enough.

Research suggests that plant-based eaters, including most vegans, get enough protein to meet their requirements.

So long as plant-based eaters eat enough—in other words, they meet their bodies’ needs calorically—they get enough protein, too.(10)

Deficiency vs insufficiency

We know that protein deficiency isn’t a widespread problem for vegans and vegetarians. But is it possible that some plant-based eaters need a little extra, regardless?

Maybe. There’s a difference between deficiency and insufficiency.

Deficiency is a medical problem that comes with known signs and symptoms. There’s often a clear criteria for diagnosis.

When it comes to vitamins, such as Vitamin D, there’s a clear diagnostic criteria for insufficiency, too. But when it comes to macronutrients, insufficiency is a little harder to define.

In spite of the fact that I work with restrictive-type eating disorders, I’ve never worked with a nutrition client who presented with clear signs and symptoms of protein deficiency.

I have, however, worked with people who were probably getting insufficient protein for their well-being.

Some of these folks were actually falling short of the 0.8g/kg/day guideline. Other were meeting the RDA, but they felt better when they ate a little more protein than is required.

“Better” in this context means more energy, fuller hair, more satiety with meals, or more productive workouts.

A small, but growing number of researchers believe that the 0.8g/kg/day recommendation is actually too modest. (11)

Whether or not that’s true, I don’t have a hard time believing that some people just need a little extra.

What about amino acids and “complete” proteins?

I’m often asked whether or not it’s necessary to get a “complete” protein with each meal. This is a great question, and our understanding of the answer has evolved a lot in the past few decades.

Amino acids are the building blocks of human life. They’re also the building blocks of protein: protein is composed of amino acids.

Our bodies can make some of the amino acids that we need. There are nine other amino acids, called the “essential amino acids,” that we have to obtain from food.

Complete proteins, which are also sometimes known as “high biological value,” or HBV proteins, contain all of the amino acids that human beings need to source from food.

Lower biological value proteins, or LBV proteins, are missing one or more of these nine essential amino acids.

Animal proteins, like meat, fish, whey, and eggs, are HBV proteins. They contain all of the essential amino acids.

With plant proteins, there’s variety. Some plant-based foods are complete, or HBV, proteins, while others are LBV proteins.

Here’s a list of HBV plant proteins:

• Quinoa
• Soy (including tofu, tempeh, and edamame)
• Hemp hearts
• Chia seeds

For a long time, common nutritional wisdom was that vegetarians and vegans had to combine plant based foods within meals in order to supply all of the essential amino acids.

The combination of rice and beans is a classic pairing of two LBV foods that together are able to provide all of the nine essential amino acids.

Contemporary research, however, suggests that it isn’t necessary for plant-based eaters to intentionally combine foods at each meal in order to assemble complete proteins. (12)

Vegans do need to eat a variety of protein-containing foods overall, so that their dietary pattern includes all of the essential amino acids.

Plant-based eaters should:

• Eat enough
• Eat a wide array of protein-rich foods over the course of any given week
• Emphasize HBV vegan proteins, like quinoa or tofu, but not to the exclusion of other proteins

A food-based approach to protein requirements

I know we’ve just traveled through a lot of facts and figures and generalizations. But the point of this post is not actually to speak in generalities or populations.

This post is meant to help you.

Given what we know about protein for vegans, how can we help you to get all that you need? Better still, how can we make the process of obtaining adequate vegan protein taste delicious?

The issue with most nutrition recommendations are that they’re either abstract or incomplete.

Let’s go back to our example of a 170lb vegan woman who determines, using the 0.9g/kg/day recommendation, that she needs about 70 grams of protein per day.

The next challenge is to distribute protein intake sensibly throughout the course of the day.

Suppose this woman plans to eat three meals and two snacks daily. This breaks down to about 15 grams of protein with each meal, and 5 with each snack, give or take.

Now there’s a goal for the day and a more specific goal for meals. But the woman in question still has to figure out what to eat in order to get there.

Most of us don’t think in grams of this or that. We think about foods, and the vegan recipes that we’re going to create with those foods.

The question is, how can a person intuitively combine vegan foods to get enough protein within a meal, a day, and a week?

The importance of mixing and matching

When I was growing up, dinner usually looked like a piece of animal protein, a starch of some kind, and a vegetable, nestled together on my plate.

I’m not the only person who was raised on this paradigm, and it continues to inform a lot of the conversation about building a balanced meal.

USDA’s MyPlate, which I think is a pretty good tool, operates along similar lines.

The tricky thing is that, if our first introduction to protein was in the form of a piece of meat, a chicken breast, or a fillet of fish, it can be really tough to figure out what constitutes a protein source on a vegan diet.

Of course there are vegan foods that are inherently high in protein. But many vegan meals end up being rich enough in protein not because of a single food, but because protein-containing foods have been paired together in an impactful way.

This is my main message. It’s great to seek out high-protein vegan foods, but you can also create high-protein meals in the way that you mix and match ingredients.

Speaking of that that, let’s quickly review the protein content of some vegan ingredients.

Sources of protein for vegan diets

When I sit down with a new client, I often provide them with a short list of every day vegan proteins.

I include the number of grams of protein that these foods supply and a suggested serving size, with the disclaimer that serving sizes can vary according to need.

I tell my clients that they don’t have to remember any of it precisely. The goal is just to start developing some mental awareness of how much protein different ingredients contain.

Here’s the list, divided into food groups.

Soy foods

• Tempeh, 3 ounces: 18 grams
• Tofu, 4 ounces: 12 grams
• Shelled edamame, 1/2 cup, steamed: 9 grams
• Butler Soy Curls, 30 grams, rehydrated (about 3/4 cup): 10 grams
• Soy milk, 1 cup (240ml): 8 grams

Grains

• Quinoa, 1 cup cooked: 8 grams
• Farro, 1 cup cooked: 7 grams
• Buckwheat, 1 cup, cooked: 5 grams
• Oat bran, 1 cup, cooked: 7 grams
• Rolled oats, ½ cup dry (or 1 cup cooked): 5 grams
• Brown rice, cooked: 3 grams
• Sprouted whole grain bread (such as Dave’s Killer Bread or Angelic Bakery), 2 slices: 8-10 grams
• 2 ounces pasta, dry: 8 grams
• Couscous, 1/4 cup dry (3/4 cup cooked): 7 grams

Nuts and seeds

• Almonds, 1 ounce (about 1/4 cup), raw: 6 grams
• Peanut butter, 2 tablespoons: 7 grams
• Shelled hemp seeds (otherwise known as hemp hearts), 3 tablespoons: 10 grams

Legumes

• Lentils, ½ cup, cooked: 9 grams
• Chickpeas, ½ cup, cooked: 7 grams
• Black beans, ½ cup, cooked: 8 grams
• Hummus, ¼ cup: 5 grams
• Split pea soup, 1 cup cooked (240ml): 8 grams

Vegetables

• Broccoli, 1 cup, steamed: 3 grams
• Kale, 1 cup, steamed: 3 grams
• Collard greens, 1 cup, steamed: 5 grams

Vegan Meats and Commercial Vegan Egg

• Daring Chicken, 2.5 ounces (about 1/2 cup): 14 grams
• JUST Egg folded, one piece: 6 grams
• Beyond or Impossible Burger burger patties, one piece: 20 grams
• Field Roast Sausage, 1 link: 23 grams
• Tofurky Deli Slices, 5 pieces: 13 grams
• Yves Ground Round, 1/3 cup, prepared: 9g
• Seitan, 2.5 ounces, cooked (about 1/2 cup): 18 grams

Seasonings

• Nutritional yeast, 2 tablespoons: 8 grams
• Yum sauce, 1/4 cup (60ml): 4 grams
• Average tahini dressing, 2 tablespoons: 2 grams
• Amazing cashew queso sauce, 1/3 cup (80ml) = 4 grams

That list is by no means complete, but it includes many of the ingredients that you’ll see often in recipes from my site.

Still, it can be limiting to think about protein only in terms of single ingredients.

15 Simple, Affordable, and Protein Rich Combinations of Plant Foods

As I said above, one of the keys to a well-balanced vegan diet is eating a variety of foods and pairing them together intentionally, in order to create nutrient-rich meals.

With that in mind, here’s a list of protein-rich food combinations, each supplying at least 10 grams of protein and as much as 30.

You may be surprised at how straightforward these combinations are. In fact, you may be eating a lot of them already!

Combination #1: Oatmeal with peanut butter and soy milk

1/2 cup dry rolled oats (5 grams) + 1 cup soy milk (8 grams, used for cooking the oats) + 2 tablespoons peanut butter (7 grams, for topping) = 20 grams plant protein

Combination #2: Simple grain bowl

1/2 cup cooked beans (7 grams) + 1 cup steamed kale (3 grams) + 1 cup cooked brown rice (3 grams) + 1/4 cup yum sauce (3 grams) = 16 grams plant protein

Combination #3: Lentil soup and avocado toast

1 1/2 cups lentil soup (12 grams) + 1 slice of sprouted grain toast (5 grams) with avocado = 17 grams plant protein

Combination #4: Roasted tempeh and broccoli

3 ounces roasted tempeh (18 grams) + 1 cup roasted broccoli (3 grams) = 21 grams plant protein

Serve with: brown rice, toasted sesame seeds

Combination #5: Sandwich with vegan deli slices

2 slices sprouted grain bread (10 grams) + 5 vegan deli slices (13 grams) = 23 grams plant protein

Serve with: lettuce, tomato, and vegan mayo

Combination #6: Pasta with beans and greens

2 ounces of pasta, boiled (8 grams) + 1/2 cup canned white beans (7 grams) + 1 cup steamed kale (3 grams) + 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (4 grams) = 22 grams plant protein

Combination #7: Quinoa and edamame

1 cup cooked quinoa (8 grams) + 1/2 cup shelled edamame (9 grams) + 1 cup chopped bok choy (3 grams) = 20 grams plant protein

Sauté with: avocado oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and crushed red pepper flakes

Combination #8: Hummus tartine

2 slices toasted, sprouted grain bread (10 grams) + 1/4 cup hummus (4 grams) = 14 grams plant protein

Top with: cucumber slices, herbs, sea salt

Combination #9: Plant-powered trail mix

1/2 cup roasted chickpeas (8 grams) + 1 ounce almonds (6 grams) + 1/4 cup raisins (1 gram) = 15 grams plant protein

Combination #10: Smoothie with hemp hearts

1 cup soy milk (8 grams) + 3 tablespoons shelled hemp hearts (10 g) + frozen fruits of choice = 18 grams plant protein

Combination #11: Vegan sausage and farro

1 Field Roast sausage (23 grams) + 1 cup cooked farro (7 grams) = 30 grams plant protein

Serve with: sautéed peppers and onions

Combination #12: Chickpea salad and crackers

3/4 cup smashed chickpea salad (8 grams) + seeded crackers (5 grams) = 13 grams plant protein

Combination #13: Burger night

1 grilled Beyond or Impossible burger patty (20 grams; substitute a black bean burger for 5 grams) + a sprouted grain burger bun (7 grams) = 27 grams plant protein

Serve with: your favorite burger fixings

Combination #14: Rice & beans

1 cup cooked brown rice (5 grams) + 1/2 cup cooked black beans (8 grams) + 1/4 cup vegan cashew queso sauce (4 grams) = 17 grams plant protein

Combination #15: Sunday breakfast

1 1/2 cups tofu vegetable scramble (17 grams) + a slice of sprouted grain toast (5 grams) = 22 grams protein

Serve with: a pat of vegan butter for the toast, fruit salad

To be honest, I could go on and on with these combinations!

The beauty of learning more about vegan protein sources is that, once you familiarize yourself with the basics, the possibilities for protein-rich means truly do become limitless.

More high protein vegan recipes from this blog

If you love the simple ideas from above, but you’d like more recipe-based inspiration, I have plenty of high-protein recipes in my recipe index.

Here are some of my favorites:

• Vegan Swedish meatballs
• Vegan pasta bake with (tofu-based) ricotta
• Lentil tahini wraps
• Meal prep teriyaki tofu noodle bowls
• Lentil tomato pasta stew
• Vegan spinach lasagna rolls
• Vegan tempeh tacos
• BBQ soy curl sandwiches with cabbage slaw
• Red lentil chickpea loaf with mushroom gravy
• Wholesome mushroom lentil kale lasagna
• Tamari glazed sheet pan tempeh and broccoli
• Savory turmeric chickpea oats

Vegan protein is a topic that can cause a lot of confusion, but it doesn’t have to. Knowledge is power, and it’s also empowering.

The more you understand how to pair protein-rich vegan foods together, the more able you’ll be to get the right amount of protein for you and your unique body.

I hope this post is helpful! Questions, comments, and personal experiences are welcome, as are suggestions based on your own favorite high protein plant food combinations.

xo

References

1. Institute of Medicine. 2005. Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10490.

2. Weiler M, Hertzler SR, Dvoretskiy S. Is It Time to Reconsider the U.S. Recommendations for Dietary Protein and Amino Acid Intake?. Nutrients. 2023;15(4):838. Published 2023 Feb 6. doi:10.3390/nu15040838

3. Ciuris C, Lynch HM, Wharton C, Johnston CS. A Comparison of Dietary Protein Digestibility, Based on DIAAS Scoring, in Vegetarian and Non-Vegetarian Athletes. Nutrients. 2019;11(12):3016. Published 2019 Dec 10. doi:10.3390/nu11123016

4. Kniskern MA, Johnston CS. Protein dietary reference intakes may be inadequate for vegetarians if low amounts of animal protein are consumed. Nutrition. 2011;27(6):727-730. doi:10.1016/j.nut.2010.08.024

5. Messina, Virginia, and Norris, Jack. Vegan for Life. Da Capo Lifelong Books, July 12, 2011.

6. Bauer J, Biolo G, Cederholm T, et al. Evidence-based recommendations for optimal dietary protein intake in older people: a position paper from the PROT-AGE Study Group. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2013;14(8):542-559. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2013.05.021

7. Deer RR, Volpi E. Protein intake and muscle function in older adults. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2015;18(3):248-253. doi:10.1097/MCO.0000000000000162

8. Mariotti F, Gardner CD. Dietary Protein and Amino Acids in Vegetarian Diets-A Review. Nutrients. 2019;11(11):2661. Published 2019 Nov 4. doi:10.3390/nu11112661

9. U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025. 9th Edition. December 2020. Available at DietaryGuidelines.gov.

10. Mariotti F et al.

11. Phillips SM, Chevalier S, Leidy HJ. Protein “requirements” beyond the RDA: implications for optimizing health [published correction appears in Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2022 May;47(5):615]. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2016;41(5):565-572. doi:10.1139/apnm-2015-0550

12. Lynch H, Johnston C, Wharton C. Plant-Based Diets: Considerations for Environmental Impact, Protein Quality, and Exercise Performance. Nutrients. 2018;10(12):1841. Published 2018 Dec 1. doi:10.3390/nu10121841