Protein powerhouses that answer the question every vegetarian asks

One of the first questions you will be asked if you are on a vegetarian diet is how do you get your protein?

“If I had a dime for every time people ask me: How do you get your protein? By now, I was pretty rich, says vegetarian nutrition coach and personal trainer Gigi Gracia.

There are still a lot of misconceptions about protein and that vegetarians can’t get all the nutrients they need from food – which I think the scientific literature is really clear about, there’s no question at all. But somehow there are a lot of myths about it floating around in cyberspace, which is a bit difficult if you are not a nutritionist or an expert in nutrition and food.

As a PT runner and ultra-marathoner who also happens to be a vegetarian, getting enough protein for proper fueling is a priority for the 32-year-old Gracia.

“It’s one of the three macronutrients we need – we have protein, fat and carbohydrates,” explains London-based Grassia. “If we exercise, not only is it really beneficial to build muscle and repair tissue, but protein is almost everywhere in our body – so we really need enough of it.”

The vegetarian diet has something of a public relations problem, Gracia adds: “Culturally, we have this idea that the only way to get protein is through meat or dairy. But the fact is that the building blocks of protein are called amino acids. We have nine amino acids that our bodies cannot produce on their own and must get through nutrition, and that can be through a meat-based diet, or an omnivore diet, or a plant-based diet. be All plants contain essential amino acids in varying amounts.

Most of us are well aware that protein can help build muscle, but it’s not just for gym rats—if you don’t get enough, Grassia suggests, you may suffer from “fatigue” and “lower energy levels.”

Whether you’re going full vegan in 2025, dealing with veganism, or just want to incorporate a few more plant-based meals into your week, making sure you’re getting enough protein is easy.

Hero protein-rich compounds

Putting protein-rich ingredients front and center in your meals makes all the difference—think tofu, tempeh, beans, and more.

The first time I tried tofu, I was like, it tastes like cardboard, why do people like it? Gracia recalls.

“But tofu is like a white canvas, like a sponge—it’s really there to enhance your favorite flavors. It’s really versatile—a lot of people don’t know that tofu can be eaten ‘raw’ because that’s how you buy it.” “It’s pre-cooked from the supermarket. Technically, you can slice it and eat it, but it’s not really good.”

That’s why you can incorporate tofu into your meals in more innovative ways, Gracia says.

I make a lot of pasta sauces – I take it and mix it with vegetables or sun-dried tomatoes and olives, and you make this really good pasta sauce – either in stir-fries or soups. “Any food you can name, you can use it.”

Eat protein-rich foods

Much of Gracia’s inspiration comes from her upbringing in northern Italy, and the dishes in her first cookbook, Plant Protein – include recipes for minestrone soup (full of beans and nutritional yeast), tofu gnocchi, and smoked tofu carbonara. can be seen .

However, he adds, “Being Italian can sometimes be very limiting because we think our food is the best and there’s nowhere else to go… but there really is a world to explore.”

From traveling and living in places like China and South America, Gracia has tried many other foods—and, she says, some of them lend themselves incredibly naturally to a protein-rich, plant-based diet.

Eat Indian food: “Traditionally it’s a food that uses a lot of pulses – so lentils, beans… now it’s high in protein. And if you mix in some nutritional yeast and some tofu, you can really up the protein. Foods that use a lot of legumes are a great base [for protein-rich vegan dishes]”

Find hidden protein powerhouses

Beans and tofu are vegan favorites: but what about lesser-known protein powerhouses? Nutritional yeast is very important to Grassia, who admits that it’s “not very appealing on the outside” because it looks like “fish food,” but “it’s generally high in vitamins and micronutrients and high in protein.”

100 grams of nutritional yeast has about 50 grams of protein – that’s huge. It’s so versatile – you can use it in soups, you can use it in stir-fries as a sauce, you can add a tablespoon or two to your meal, or you can put it on pasta. sprinkle

She was also surprised to learn how much protein is in soba noodles—which is why she has recipes in her cookbook for a quick coconut-lime soup, as well as a spicy soba noodle salad with crispy tempeh.

“If you’re going to have a high-protein diet, a lot of it comes down to knowing which foods to choose,” he explains. For example, try it when you’re eating a good bowl of pasta [choose] Pasta made with durum wheat instead of pasta, because durum wheat has a mix of flours that don’t have as much protein as durum wheat.

“A lot of it has to do with food choices.”

Plant-Based Protein: 80 Healthy and Delicious High-Protein Plant-Based Recipes by Gigi Grassia is published by Greenfinch at £22. Photography by Kimberly Spinel. Available January 2.