The Best Vegetarian Sources of Protein

Happy Monday, good friends! Our weekend was complete thanks to the candy bars that we received from Al's parents  all the way in Australia. Between Al's family and my cousin who spends a lot of time in England, we get spoiled with packages of Cadbury chocolates. Although we can get some of these goods in the States (Snickers are quite abundant here, but they are one of Al's most-liked candy bars), we can't get them all.  We don't have Cherry Ripes or Picnic Bars. I talked about some of my Cabury faves (or favourites) in this post a few years ago. 

Now, on to the vegetarian part of my blog post (even though these scrumptious candy bars are mostly, if not completely, vegetarian). I had the pleasure of attending a University of Illinois at Chicago alumni event for my College of Applied Health Sciences, where I received my masters in Nutrition, over the weekend. One of my friends from my program now teaches a class for nutrition majors at UIC called Food as Medicine that is a part-lecture, part-cooking class. It educates about therapeutic diets that include gluten-free, ketogenic, diabetic, low-sodium diets, and more. I took this class as a student, and it's exciting that one of my friends now teaches it. On Saturday, she led a continuing education class (all RDs must get 75 continuing education credits every five years) for UIC alumni that focused on a vegetarian diet. Each station was stocked with cooking supplies and vegetarian ingredients. We were instructed to split into groups and create our own dishes. 

Our group made a variety of dishes. One of our group members made black bean "meatballs" and used bread crumbs as a binder (instead of eggs) so that they were vegan. 

Other foods for our spread included quinoa "fried rice" (different from the recipe I made last week and was also delicious), edamame hummus, salt-and-vinegar roasted chickpeas, and a creamy Greek yogurt dipping sauce for the black bean "meatballs". In true fashion of some of the cooking classes that I took at UIC, we tried everyone's dishes after we presented them. People made great things!

Our teacher friend provided food for us to snack on while we were creating our dishes, including veggies and dip and these amazing peanut butter cookies and brownies made with only black beans and brownie mix. 

Before we started cooking, she gave us a brief lecture on the best vegetarian sources of protein. This inspired me to put my own post together. It's important to understand that you can still get significant protein in your diet without eating meat, poultry, pork, or fish. While animal flesh can provide our bodies with good nutrition, it's expensive and doesn't need to be eaten every day. Here are other ways that you can eat good sources of protein that are completely vegetarian:

• Tempeh (1 cup= 31 grams protein)
• Soybeans, cooked (1 cup= 29 grams)
• Greek yogurt (1 cup= 20 grams)
• Lentils (1 cup=17 grams)
• Beans, including black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, chickpeas/garbanzo beans, lima beans (1 cup=15 grams)
• Black Eyed Peas (1 cup= 13 grams)
• Tofu, firm (4 oz= 11 grams)
• Quinoa (1 cup= 8 grams)
• Spaghetti (1 cup= 8 grams)
• Peas (1 cup= 8 grams)
• Cow's Milk or Soy milk, plain (1 cup= 7 grams)
• Peanut Butter (2 Tablespoons= 8 grams)
• Almonds (1/4 cup= 7 grams)
• 1 large egg (6 grams)
• Oatmeal (1 cup= 6 grams)
• Cashews (1/4 cup= 5 grams)
• Spinach, cooked (1 cup= 5 grams)
• Broccoli, cooked (1 cup= 4 grams)

While meat products generally have more protein than vegetarian products, you can still easily meet your requirements by eating a variety of these foods. As we saw on Saturday, we made outstanding and nutritious meals without eating meat. I like eating vegetarian a few days a  week for many reasons, and two of them are that you can eat your food before you cook it (like when we tried the black bean "meatballs" before they went into the oven) and you don't have to obsessively scrub your hands and utensils clean after interacting with raw chicken or meat. Of course, there are also ethical reasons for avoiding meat products. At the end of the day, vegetarian meals are budget-friendly, have endless possibilities for creativity and deliciousness, and can be nutritious. I already have a lot of vegetarian recipes on this blog, and I promise you will see more in the future!