If you’re thinking about going vegan but are worried about protein deficiency, then you’ve come to the right place. But you don’t have to worry. Getting enough protein as a vegan is super simple and I’ll walk you through it right now!

   Vegans get their protein from a few main sources: nuts, seeds, and legumes, with the occasional mock meat substitute, if they feel so inclined. Here are some ideas to get you started!

Nuts:

Walnuts, Pecans, Almonds, Pistachios, Hazelnuts, Cashews, Macadamia Nuts and Chestnuts are all viable options. You can roast them off and stick them on a salad, mix them into a nut loaf, put them into trail mix or on top of cereal in the morning. And then, of course, there’s always nut butters. 

Peanuts are often included in the list of nuts (I mean, just look at the name), and (while they are technically legumes) can be eaten and prepared in the same way as the rest of the nuts. 

Seeds:

   For seeds, you find a pretty wide variety of options from chia, flax, sesame and hemp to larger seeds like pumpkin and sunflower. With the smaller seeds, I like to put them into smoothies or (like nuts), on my morning oats. You can also try making a chia seed pudding (very trendy in the vegan foodscape) or put seeds into other desserts for a bit of a nutrition bump. Another very common use of sesame seeds is as a garnish in many asian dishes. It’ll add that little bit of extra texture and flavor that you didn’t know you needed. 

   And of course, never forget pumpkin and sunflower seeds as a trusty snack. Some brands can be a little bit salty but if you’re concerned, you can easily get around that by buying the unsalted variety. Or alternatively, roasting them yourself so you can control how much sodium they’re paired with.

Legumes:

   I’ll be honest, legumes are my favorite source of vegan protein. There’s something just so comforting about a bowl of vegetarian chili or bean burritos that warms my heart. 

   There are all sorts of options here: black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, lentils, peas, black eyed peas and garbanzo beans/chickpeas to name a few. Beans and legumes help to add a sense of heartiness to a dish, without weighing it down, and are absolutely delicious. 

   You can make them into stews or dips, and add them to any starch to round out a meal. I particularly like adding them to pasta salad, in a curry, or just whipping up some good, old fashioned beans and rice. Another good use of legumes is making falafel and hummus– a wonderful, chickpea heavy combination, and something that nonvegans and vegans alike enjoy. (Which, if you’re not familiar, is like chickpea fritters with some dip made of tahini and chickpeas. )

Meat substitutes:

   I couldn’t answer this question without mentioning meat substitutes. Because they’re kind of fun and can add more variety to your rotation of meals. The three main meat substitutes are tofu, tempeh, and seitan. All of which you can make yourself or buy from the store, and all of which have been around for a long time. They each have their own subtle flavor, but will absorb any marinade really well. This makes them effectively taste however you want them to. They’re good in stir fries, roasted, and baked. You can slice them up for sandwiches or in the case of tofu, even use them to mimic the texture of dairy in some recipes. (I’ve got a whole post devoted just to tofu, the vegan powerhouse. You can find it here, if you’re interested in that. )

   As the years go by we’re also getting more and more specialty vegan items that mimic meat. Many of these products are also decent sources of protein, albeit significant sources of fat and sodium as well. These product are nice from time to time, if you have interest in them and can afford them. You can prepare them pretty much the same as you would the animal product they’re trying to mimic, so you can make the same meals you’ve always eaten, which is nice sometimes. But they are by no means necessary in obtaining sufficient protein as a vegan. 

What’s the deal with “complete proteins”?

   So if you’ve considered going vegan (or know someone who has), you may have heard the term complete protein before. It tends to come up when anyone’s talking about a more plant based diet, so I wanted to cover it here. 

   Proteins are made up of amino acids. The amino acids that are necessary for your body to construct proteins are called essential amino acids, and you can get them all through a plant based diet. Something is considered a complete protein if it has all of the essential amino acids. So meat is a complete protein. Things like beans are not. 

   It was posited years ago that you had a short window in which your body processed the amino acids in your system. And for that reason, it was recommended to eat certain foods together. Like grains and legumes, for example. While that wasn’t a big deal, (because eating peanut butter without toast or stir fry without some noodles or rice seems sort of strange) we’ve since found that it’s not necessary to do so. As long as you have a variety of foods with amino acids in them, they’ll combine in your body to form proteins just fine.

   Although there are some vegan foods that are complete proteins, like Quinoa, Buckwheat, and Soybeans. If you want to be sure you have complete proteins at all times, consider adding more of these foods in your diet. 

A better guide

   To figure out how much protein you need as a vegan, as well as a more in depth guide to vegan protein, check out The Vegetarian Resource Group. You can find their help on protein in a vegan diet by clicking here. And don’t worry. Getting protein as a vegan isn’t hard. Do a little bit of research to get a good idea. But after a little bit of practice, it goes on autopilot pretty quick. 

If you’re looking to get more protein in your vegan diet, check out these cookbooks on Amazon all about a high-protein vegan diet! They’ll give you all sorts of new ideas and techniques.

   Thank you so much for reading. Let us know with a comment, what’s your favorite source of vegan protein?