How to Add Protein to Your Vegan Diet

Protein is vital to the human body. It plays a big role in tissue growth and repair, muscle formation, metabolism function, enabling blood to carry oxygen to the body and formation of antibodies. While the diets of meat-eaters and ovo-lacto vegetarians are typically high in protein, vegans often have trouble getting enough protein in their diets because they do not consume meat, eggs or dairy.

The good news for vegans is that you can add protein to your diet simply, and without overhauling your entire repertoire of recipes. The following tips are easy ways to “sneak in” that much-needed protein, using convenient, no-hassle foods.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Brown rice
• Canned beans, such as kidney, pinto, garbanzo and black beans
• Nuts, such as unsalted peanuts, slivered almonds, pecans, walnuts and hazelnuts

1. 
    
   Brown v. White - Brown rice has more protein!

   NIX THE WHITE RICE.
   White rice has had the bran and germ removed from it. Unfortunately, that’s where most of the vitamins, minerals and nutrition are located – including the protein. Switching from white to brown rice will increase your protein intake naturally.

2. 
    
   Canned beans make for quick additions of protein!

   ADD BEANS.
   Add a can of drained and rinsed kidney beans to your pasta sauce. Toss a handful of garbanzo or black beans on top of your salad. Add a can of drained and rinsed beans to any soup or stew. Adding just 1/2 cup of beans per day can increase your daily protein intake by 7 grams!

3. 
    
   Nuts make a tasty, crunchy topping for salads and stir-frys!

   GO NUTS!
   Add chopped peanuts or slivered almonds to stir-frys. Sprinkle your favorite nuts over your salad. Find creative ways to use nuts when baking, such as adding slivered almonds to apple pie or chocolate cake.

[sullysee]

on 9/7/2009 Good article on adding protein to a vegan diet. 5*, rec.

[newstime1999]

on 8/20/2009 Good article. Beans and nuts are a good source of protein.

[cookvegan]

on 7/9/2008 You can also try drinking lots of soy milk, which falls under the bean category, but goes a lot better with cereal than most other beans and legumes.

[Felicity]

on 6/3/2008 Thank you for making it clear that vegans do get protein from their diet! A very informative and clear article.

[momandpopoften]

on 5/31/2008 Very helpful tips! Thanks!