protein

John Mason

i have been a veggie for the last 16 years but recently i have become very forgetful - i lost my car last night in the car!!! anyway, i have been told its a lack of protein in my diet and was recommended to take body building protein shakes - i dont want to go down this road, can anybody tell what i should be eating to get as much protein in my diet as possible

please do not tell me to eat mung beans - that is never going to happen in this life time

Blub2k4

I'd suggest that you try Paneer which I have provided a recipe for in another thread, possibly just under this one at the moment.
It's just ricotta cheese basically but is really nice in proper indian curries.

beefa

irishbird wrote:

ii have become very forgetful - i lost my car last night in the car!!! anyway, i have been told its a lack of protein in my diet.

Yikes is there any scientific truth to this?


Also don't be so hard on mung beans, they may look and taste awful but they're very good for ya!

Tar.Aldarion

From the sticky, so I don't need to type it again.

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Protein:
Many People believe that vegetarian and particularly vegan diets cannot
possibly provide sufficient protein.This is an old wives' tale.
Eight essential amino acids are needed to make a complete protein.Dairy products,eggs and
soya products(tofu,tempeh,soya drinks and desserts)all provide complete protein in themselves.

Combining whole grains(unrefined wheat, rye, millet, barlet, spelt, rice, quinoa)
with pulses(beans, peas, lentils)and supplementing with small amounts of nuts and seeds also
provides plenty of protein.All the essential amino acids are found in combinations
such as beans on toast,lentil curry with brown rice,musli with milk,hummus made from chickpeas
and sesame tahini,peanut butter sandwiches made from wholemeal bread.It isn't even necessary
to combine different food types at the samee meal since our bodies can store amino
acids for later use.

As with meat-eaters,it is important(and normal) for vegetarians to base their eating pattern on a wide variety of high quality foods.

Hope that helps.

Shabadu

Mexican food is a great way to get some good protein into veggies, I find. Corn & pinto beans give you all your EAAs, or essential amino acids, when combined. Throw some quorn mince into the mix and you're set up!

This recipe freezes really well too, so make up a full batch and store it in individual containers for fast dinners. This recipe should feed at lease 4 hungry people when served with rice. I normally make up a little salsa, shred some lettuce, and have it with some natural yoghurt. It's not a particularly authentic chilli, it's more of an emergency midweek dinner in our house.

2 large onions
5 cloves of garlic
2/3 fresh chillis
Pinch of dried chilli flakes
corriander powder (if you don't have these spices, and don't want to buy them, you can get one of those powder sachet thingys, but they're not as nice, and full of additives.)
cumin powder
1 grated carrots
1 bag of quorn mince
1 tins of tomatoes
1 tin of kidney beans
1 tin of pinto beans
1 husk of corn, shucked. (Or a tin.)
Peas! (Not authentic, just yummy)

Sauté onions until mostly brown. Add in garlic. After around 30 seconds, stir in the spices & chopped chillis. Cook for a minute or so. (smells really good now.) Add in the quorn. After the quorn has been cooking for a few minutes soaking up the flavours, add in the tomatoes. You might need 2 tins. Throw in the carrots & beans, pop a lid on, turn the heat right down and cook for at least half an hour. Stir occasionally. 5 minutes before serving, pop in the corn & peas. Also, I generally stir in a bit of oregano here.