Top 25 High-Protein Vegetarian Foods: Protein Density, Leucine Content, and Cooking Prep

The best high protein vegetarian foods (the core of our high-protein foods, meal prep and cost guide) are soya chunks, tofu, tempeh, seitan, Greek yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese or paneer, eggs (if you eat them), and dals and beans in sensible portions. On a dry-weight basis, vital wheat gluten and soya chunks beat everything else by a wide margin. Dairy has the most leucine per gram of protein, but trials suggest that matters less than hitting your daily total.

This is the full high protein vegetarian foods list we use for planning: 25 foods with protein, carbohydrate, fat, calories and leucine per 100 g. For costs and meal prep logistics, the parent guide has the rest.

Quick warning before the table. Most lists online quote protein for dry soya chunks next to cooked chicken. That is not a fair fight, and I will show you how to read the numbers properly.

How to read these numbers (dry vs cooked)

All figures below come from USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy), per 100 g, for raw or dry food unless noted (USDA FoodData Central). Tempeh, tofu and edamame are listed as sold or prepared, since you do not cook them from a dry state.

Dals, rajma, chana, soya chunks and quinoa soak up water when cooked. A cooked bowl of moong therefore has far less protein per 100 g than the raw number suggests. Neither number is wrong. They just describe different weights.

My rule is simple. Weigh legumes and soya dry, log them dry, and cook the whole batch. If you only have a cooked weight, pick a “cooked” entry in your tracker instead of guessing.

Two other honest caveats:

• Soya chunks are not a separate USDA entry. I used defatted soy flour, the raw material they are made from. Brands vary, so read your pack.
• Paneer has no USDA entry that matches Indian paneer, and brands differ a lot in fat. Use the label, or cottage cheese as a rough stand-in.

The 25 foods, ranked by protein per 100 g

#	Food (per 100 g)	Protein (g)	Carbs (g)	Fat (g)	kcal	Leucine (g)
1	Vital wheat gluten (seitan base)	75.2	13.8	1.9	370	not listed
2	Soy flour, defatted (soya chunk proxy)	51.5	33.9	1.2	327	3.83
3	Soybeans, dry	36.5	30.2	19.9	446	3.31
4	Skimmed milk powder	36.2	52.0	0.8	362	3.54
5	Lupin beans, dry	36.2	40.4	9.7	371	2.74
6	Hemp seeds, hulled	31.6	8.7	48.8	553	2.16
7	Pumpkin seed kernels	30.2	10.7	49.1	559	2.42
8	Peanuts, raw	25.8	16.1	49.2	567	1.67
9	Lentils (masoor), dry	24.6	63.4	1.1	352	1.79
10	Mozzarella, part skim	24.3	2.8	15.9	254	2.37
11	Moong (green gram), dry	23.9	62.6	1.2	347	1.85
12	Rajma (kidney beans), dry	23.6	60.0	0.8	333	1.88
13	Lobia (cowpeas), dry	23.5	60.0	1.3	336	1.80
14	Toor dal (pigeon pea), dry	21.7	62.8	1.5	343	1.55
15	Black beans, dry	21.6	62.4	1.4	341	1.73
16	Sunflower seed kernels	20.8	20.0	51.5	584	1.66
17	Chickpeas (chana), dry	20.5	63.0	6.0	378	1.47
18	Tempeh	20.3	7.6	10.8	192	1.43
19	Tofu, firm	17.3	2.8	8.7	144	1.39
20	Quinoa, dry	14.1	64.2	6.1	368	0.84
21	Egg, whole	12.6	0.7	9.5	143	1.09
22	Edamame, prepared	11.9	8.9	5.2	121	0.75
23	Egg white	10.9	0.7	0.2	52	1.02
24	Cottage cheese, low-fat (2%)	10.5	4.8	2.3	81	1.05
25	Greek yogurt, plain nonfat	9.5	3.4	0.2	54	0.95

The ranking by raw protein density is a little misleading, because you do not eat 100 g of dry hemp seeds. A dessert-spoon of seeds on curd adds a few grams, not a meal. The table is a reference, so use it to build plates, not to crown a winner.

Which vegetarian foods give the most protein per calorie?

This is the cutting-phase question. If you are eating 1,800 kcal and need 130 g of protein, calories matter as much as grams.

On protein per 100 kcal, the leaders are egg white (about 21 g), vital wheat gluten (about 20 g), nonfat Greek yogurt (about 18 g), soy flour (about 16 g), low-fat cottage cheese (about 13 g) and firm tofu (about 12 g). Tempeh and edamame sit near 10 g.

Dals, rajma and chana land near 5-7 g per 100 kcal. That is fine, but remember what comes with the protein: about 60 g of carbohydrate per 100 g dry. Nuts and seeds land at about 4-6 g per 100 kcal, because most of their calories are fat.

Leucine: do vegetarian foods have enough?

Leucine is the amino acid most closely tied to switching on muscle protein synthesis. That is why you see it everywhere on supplement labels. (For the mechanism in full, see our deep dive on the leucine threshold and mTOR.)

Using USDA numbers, I divided leucine by protein for each food. Dairy lands around 10%, whole soybeans about 9%, tofu and rajma about 8%, soya chunks, lentils and tempeh about 7%, and quinoa and peanuts about 6%. So dairy and eggs are richer in leucine per gram of protein, and a few plant foods are lower.

Here is the part people skip. Does this gap show up in real life? The evidence says it is smaller than the gym rumour mill suggests.

• A 2018 meta-analysis of 9 trials (266 participants) found that soy protein supplementation produced similar strength and lean mass gains to whey and other animal proteins (Messina et al., 2018).
• A 2021 meta-analysis of 16 trials found that protein source did not change absolute lean mass or strength overall, but animal protein had a small advantage for percent lean mass, and in adults under 50 it also showed a small edge for absolute lean mass (Lim et al., 2021).
• A 2025 controlled-feeding trial of 40 active young adults compared vegan and omnivorous diets at 1.1-1.2 g/kg/day of protein. Over 9 days of resistance training, myofibrillar protein synthesis rates did not differ between diets or between balanced and unbalanced protein distribution (Askow et al., 2025).

Why do they differ? Messina’s review pooled supplement studies, mostly soy versus whey. Lim’s pooled a broader range of plant proteins and measured percent lean mass, which is more sensitive to small differences. Askow’s trial was short and measured protein synthesis rather than muscle size. So the fair reading is: animal protein may have a slight edge in some analyses, soy looks close to it, and none of this shows plant diets failing to build muscle.

For a deeper look, our article on plant vs animal protein for hypertrophy goes through the completeness argument.

Do you need to pair proteins like dal and rice?

The old advice says you must combine cereals and pulses in the same meal. The direct evidence on this is thin.

A 2026 randomized crossover trial gave 11 young adults 20 g of protein from black beans and rice, or a nutrient-matched mix of crystalline amino acids and other ingredients, after resistance exercise. Muscle protein synthesis did not differ between the two. In an exploratory comparison, ground pork produced a greater response than either (Zupancic et al., 2026).

Note what this trial did and did not test. It showed a whole-food beans-and-rice meal worked as well as its isolated amino acid equivalent, but it never fed beans or rice alone, so it cannot settle whether same-meal pairing matters. It was also small, in young active people, over 5 hours. In practice the question rarely comes up on a typical Indian plate, because dal with rice or roti is already a mix.

Protein quality scoring tells a similar story. A 2020 review of the digestible indispensable amino acid score (DIAAS) found soy and whey classed as high-quality, while pea, rice, oat and hemp proteins scored below 75, though blends of potato, soy and pea scored higher (Herreman et al., 2020). That is a lab score, not a muscle outcome, but it supports mixing sources: soya plus dal plus dairy beats one food on repeat.

How much protein do you actually need?

A 2018 meta-analysis of 49 trials (1,863 participants) found that protein supplementation improved strength and muscle size during resistance training, and that benefits for fat-free mass levelled off above total intakes of about 1.62 g/kg/day (Morton et al., 2018). Benefits were smaller with increasing age and larger in trained people.

So about 1.6 g/kg/day is a sensible target for most lifters. Some people eat more for fullness on a cut, which is fine. Note that this is a population average, not a personal ceiling.

The protein calculator gives you a number for your weight and goal. If you want it laid out in meals, our Indian diet plan tool builds one.

How to cook and prep the main foods

Soya chunks. Soak in hot salted water for 10-15 minutes, squeeze hard, then cook in masala, pulao or a dry stir-fry. Squeezing is what stops them tasting like sponge. For safety questions, see our soya chunks protein profile guide.

Tofu and tempeh. Press tofu for 10 minutes, cube it and pan-sear or bake. Tempeh can be steamed for 10 minutes and then fried. Our tofu and edamame guide for Indian kitchens has recipes.

Dals and rajma. Soak overnight, pressure-cook in batches and freeze portions. Moong cooks fastest. Log the dry weight before cooking. Our guide to dals and pulses covers the protein myth in detail.

Paneer and curd. Pick a low-fat paneer or make chenna at home from toned milk, and compare labels for protein and fat per 100 g. Our paneer vs low-fat paneer guide walks through it. Thick hung curd or Greek yogurt is the easiest 15-20 g protein snack.

Seitan. Mix vital wheat gluten with spices and water, knead, simmer and slice. It is chewy, very high in protein, and not suitable if you are coeliac or gluten-sensitive.

Seeds. Hemp, pumpkin and sunflower seeds are small add-ons for crunch and minerals. Treat them like a topping, not a protein plan.

A simple vegetarian day built from this list

Here is a sample day for a 70 kg lifter aiming for roughly 110-115 g of protein. It is an example, not a prescription, and the numbers use USDA values above.

• Breakfast: 200 g plain nonfat Greek yogurt (about 19 g) with a handful of peanuts.
• Lunch: 40 g dry soya chunks (about 21 g) cooked in a masala, plus roti and salad.
• Snack: 150 g firm tofu (about 26 g) or tempeh (about 30 g). Two whole eggs give only about 12-13 g, so add whites if you go that route.
• Dinner: 80 g dry moong or toor dal (about 17-19 g) with rice and a bowl of curd.
• Optional top-up: a scoop of whey or a glass of milk if you fall short.

With a handful of peanuts and a bowl of curd counted, that lands at roughly 95-105 g. Extra curd, milk or the optional whey fills the rest. Compare it with the top 30 foods ranked by protein per calorie if you want to swap items, and our guide on Indian vegetarian meal prep shows how to batch it.

When to talk to a doctor

Eating more protein is safe for most healthy adults, but not everyone. If you have kidney disease, are pregnant, have a soy or gluten allergy, or take thyroid medication, check your plan with a doctor or registered dietitian before you push protein or lean on soya. Persistent fatigue, hair thinning or unusual weakness on a vegetarian diet is also worth a blood test rather than a guess.