What 20 grams of Plant-based Protein Looks Like at Each Meal

Your go-to high-protein vegan and vegetarian meal ideas.

Plant based, or primarily vegan or vegetarian diets are rapidly becoming more mainstream — and righteously so. If you haven’t heard already, a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains and plant-proteins is associated with numerous health benefits.

A recent systematic review on plant-based eating showed that these dietary patterns compared to an omnivore diet reduce body weight, regulate blood glucose and HbA1C and lower cholesterol and lipid levels — risk factors for cancer and heart disease. One study also hypothesized that consuming a plant-based diet in the long-term could favourably change our gut microbiome, such as reducing appetite and regulating weight.

Despite ample evidence and popularity regarding plant-based, vegan and vegetarian diets, those who decide to forego meat and follow this healthy lifestyle pattern continue to come across the infamous query: Where do you get your protein from?

Many people fail to realize that protein comes from many different sources, and certainly not only from meat. Even those who follow omnivore diets typically source nearly 30% of their protein from plants. Nonetheless, there is a massive misconception that swapping out meat for beans, tofu, legumes, nut butters and quinoa will leave you shrivelling in a plant-based mess. While the latter is certainly untrue, a bit of planning goes a long way in answering these queries with…