Looking for high protien veggie options

blapabrew22

I may be repeating previous posts here, but was looking for some help in sourcing some high protein, veggie options. Been filling my protein needs far too much with fatty, expensive meat options, so looking for healthier, cheaper alternatives. I've gone down the token tofu route, and wasn't a massive fan, so was wondering if there is anything else out there that's available (in Dublin area stores preferably) that any vegetarians might suggest? Thanks!

Snacking on pots of cottage cheese.
I add some fruit yoghurt for flavour.

holding

Quinoa is a complete protein - can't go wrong with that! Treat it like couscous or rice. Speaking of which, couscous is also high in protein.

Second on my list of STAR proteins are peanuts. Use the butter on bread or sauces, or the nuts themselves in curries and salads.

Third I would rate chickpeas. So unbelievably versatile. Make hummus, falafel, any kind of flavoured dip, or chuck in wherever you would have normally put shredded chicken or mincemeat. All beans are fantastic. Buy the dried bags, cook up a big pot, and freeze in 2 cup portions so that you always have cooked beans to hand.

Tofu is hit and miss tbh. You need to taste it when it's properly prepared, and so often it isn't. When you buy it in that watery pack, you need to drain the crap out of it, and press it for a few hours so that there is no liquid left, before you marinate it and fry/ bake it. It's not supposed to be jelly-like when it's cooked, but loads of people make it that way anyway.

Fast options you could try are the Linda McCartney range of sausages and pies, the Quorn meat replacements, the Tesco own brand meat replacements, or the frozen 'meat' stuff in Nourish or Asia Market.

Zombienosh

I second the above, Quinoa is awesome.

All my dinners have a base of either Quinoa / Cous Cous or a mixture of Lentils and Wholegrain Rice.
This is a nice protein filled base there.
Then I'll add beans/peas. Beans are filled with protein.
Kidney beans, Chickpeas, Black Beans, Butter Beans, Soya Beans. etc
I'll then have something like Tofu, Bean Curd, Some Imitation chicken or linda mccartney "meat", Eggs or Egg based thing.
Then I'll throw a load of green beans or brocoli with it.
That will usually give around 40 to 50 grams of protein.

Other things throughout the day are peanut butter, nuts and seeds, homemade protein bars/cakes yum.

blapabrew22

Thanks everyone for their suggestions, have never heard of this Quinoa, but will source some soon to give it a try!

holding

Blapabrew it sounds very different and exotic but really you can just treat it like rice. 1 cup of quinoa in a pot with 2 cups water and a stockcube, bring to boil, let simmer for 15 minutes til water absorbed, stir, eat! Enjoy

rubadub

Gram flour.

Gram flour: 20.7% protein, GI of only 8, €1.92 per kilo

Some may vary. I saw tesco own brand gram flour and it was relatively low.

Typical Values 100g contains -
Energy 1500kJ (360kcal) -
Protein 12.8g -
Carbohydrate 60.0g -
Sugars 2.8g -
Fat 5.0g -
Saturates 0.5g -
Fibre 9.7g -
Sodium* 0.1g -
*Salt Equivalent 0.1g

blatantrereg

gram flour is ground chickpeas
I agree with most of what has been said already. Tofu varies hugely. I really like good tofu, and would throw out bad tofu rather than eat it. Biona and taifun are the nicest ones I think. The latter offer flavoured products, but their plain one is the nicest. The trick is to fry it for a long time so it develops a chewy texture. A few people might be surprised to see that Linda McCartney meat analogues are pretty much tofu.

Chickpeas vary almost as much in my opinion. Tesco tinned chickpeas are bad; they just don't turn out well the way I like to prepare chickpeas. Batchelors tinned chickpeas are very good though. I like to fry those too, in plenty of cumin, mustard seed, garlic and stuff like that.

Quinoa is more reliable, though I've found tiny stones in couple of types before. The main thing with quinoa is not to use too much water when you cook it, or it turns out soggy. I think the Tesco packets say use 5 parts water to one part quinoa, but I'd use a good bit less water than that myself.

Lentils are awesome too. You can make very good curries with them.

I wouldn't use peanuts as a primary protein source. They don't have a great amino acid profile, and they are very high in fat, and usually salted too.

holding

Agree with everything you said there Blatantrereg except re the peanuts - they score very highly in vegetable protein bioavailability - http://foodguru802.blogspot.ie/2012/01/protein-bioavailability-list.html (or google for tons of other stuff about it). Their fat is a good fat, and you don't have to have them salted at all unless you buy them that way

--LOS--

Tada! 50 great vegetarian sources of protein

Peanut

holding wrote: »

Tofu is hit and miss tbh. You need to taste it when it's properly prepared, and so often it isn't. When you buy it in that watery pack, you need to drain the crap out of it, and press it for a few hours so that there is no liquid left, before you marinate it and fry/ bake it. It's not supposed to be jelly-like when it's cooked, but loads of people make it that way anyway.

Also the style of Tofu varies considerably between brands. The "Silken" variety has that jelly consistency and is not great for frying since it tends to stick, but you can sometimes get these in the Asia Market in Dublin (Drury St. one) and it's much easier:




Just €1.50 a pack, if you can find them!

Clear Spot is quite good too but slightly more expensive. Cauldron is pretty good too if you can find it in Tesco.
There's also that "Natural Green" variety made in Dublin but not sure if it's that great or not.

Blazing Salad's takeaway sesame tofu is very nice and worth trying at least once, not sure how they get that consistency - maybe they do the freezing trick to change the texture.

Zombienosh

Peanut wrote: »

Also the style of Tofu varies considerably between brands. The "Silken" variety has that jelly consistency and is not great for frying since it tends to stick, but you can get sometimes get one of these in the Asia Market in Dublin (Drury St. one) and it's much easier:




Just €1.50 a pack, if you can find them!

Clear Spot is quite good too but slightly more expensive. Cauldron is pretty good too if you can find it in Tesco.
There's also that "Natural Green" variety made in Dublin but not sure if it's that great or not.

Blazing Salad's takeaway sesame tofu is very nice and worth trying at least once, not sure how they get that consistency - maybe they do the freezing trick to change the texture.

+1 for that brand, its awesome, I also like the yellow/black ones they do.

long range shooter

Greek yogurt good protein source