High Protein Foods for Vegetarians

Steve, 38 has been a complete vegetarian, right from his childhood. It was only once that he tasted some meat at his friend's birthday party. However, he didn't like it and was happy that he has always been a vegetarian. The other holiday, one of his friends, came to his house. Their discussion usually remained business related. But, today they reached somewhere else, into diet and proteins. Steve's friend (a non-vegetarian!) argued that it is only through a non-vegetarian diet, that you can get sufficient proteins in your body. The next day, Steve searched for a list of high protein foods for vegetarians on the Internet. Well, he found out a considerably large list of foods and the protein content in them. So proceed to know about the list...

Needless to say, that along with the other important nutrients in the food, proteins are also required in sufficient quantities, for the proper growth and maintenance of our body functions. Protein rich diets are very much popular amongst bodybuilding freaks, as proteins help in a huge way in muscle building. Many people hold a misconception that a vegetarian diet does not provide enough proteins or there are not many foods in the vegetarian diet that have lots of protein! These people strongly believe that, it is only the non-vegetarian foods such as meat, fish and eggs that have ample proteins in them. I agree to the latter sentence. However, with regards to the former, I would say that the list of high protein foods for vegetarians given below is a contradiction to it! As there are many vegetarian foods that are rich in protein content and you can completely rely upon them to fulfill the protein needs of your body! Some of the popular, vegetarian protein foods are whole grains, legumes, beans, spinach etc. Mentioned below is a detailed list of the same.

High Protein Foods List for Vegetarians

The table below consists a list of some high protein foods for vegetarians, along with the protein content for 1 cup of the respective food item.

Food Item	Weight in gram	Protein Content in gram
Asparagus (boiled, cooked, drained)	60-62 (4 spears )	1.55
Artichokes (boiled, cooked, drained, without salt)	120-122	4.18
Avocados (Raw from California)	28 (1 oz )	0.60
Alfalfa seeds (in raw and sprouted form)	33-35	1.32
Baked Beans (canned)	254-255	12.17
Broccoli (raw)	88-90	2.62
Beets (cooked, boiled, drained)	170-172	2.86
Bulgur (cooked)	182-184	5.61
Cabbage (raw)	70-72	1.01
Carrots (raw)	10-12 (1 medium )	0.08
Cauliflower (raw)	100-102	1.98
Celery (raw)	120-122	0.90
Cucumber (raw and peeled)	119-120	0.68
Dandelion Greens (cooked, boiled, drained, without salt)	105-107	2.10
Endive (raw)	50-52	0.63
Garlic	3 (1 clove)	0.19
Lettuce (raw)	56-57	0.73
Lentils (mature seeds, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt)	198-200	17.86
Mushrooms (raw)	70-72	2.03
Mustard Greens (cooked, boiled, drained without salt)	140-142	3.16
Noodles (chow mein, Chinese)	45-46	3.77
Okra (cooked, boiled, drained, without salt )	160-162	2.99
Olives (ripe, canned)	22-23 (5 large)	0.18
Onions (raw)	110-112 (1 whole onion)	1.28
Oat bran (raw)	94-95	16.26
Pumpkin (without salt, canned)	245-247	2.70
Peppers (green, raw, sweet)	149-150	1.33
Peppers (red, raw, sweet)	119-120 (1 pepper)	1.06
Potato pancakes (homemade)	76-77 (1 pancake)	4.68
Quinoa (cooked)	1 cup	11
Radishes (raw)	4.5-4.6 (1 radish)	0.03
Spaghetti (cooked, whole wheat)	140-142	7.46
Spaghetti (enriched, cooked, without salt)	140-142	6.68
Spinach (raw)	30-32	0.86
Sweet Potato (canned)	255-256	4.21
Tomatoes (sun-dried)	2-3 (1 piece)	0.28
Tempeh	225-226	31
Tofu (firm, made with magnesium chloride and calcium sulfate)	120-122 (1 piece)	7.86
Whole wheat bread	2 slices	5
Watermelon (raw)	286-288 (1 wedge)	1.77
Wheat flour (whole-grain)	125-127	16.44

Read more on sources of protein for vegetarians.

Steve was quite content with the list and therefore concluded that there's no harm being a vegetarian! The other holiday, he showed this list to his friend and even he agreed that vegetarian diet can also provide you a lot of proteins. This was just a short list of high protein foods for vegetarians. Apart from the aforementioned food items, there are many other food items which are equally high in protein content. Most of the above said food items are safe for every individual. However, if you have allergies towards any of these food stuffs, you should always consult your doctor and get appropriate alternatives prescribed for your body type.