High Protein Vegan Salad

As a vegan, one of the most common questions that you’ll get asked is, “where do you get your protein from?”. It’s funny, all the people that ask that question generally don’t pay too much attention to their protein intake and have suddenly become experts on the topic when they hear of your lifestyle choice.

However, let’s leave that debate for another day, shall we?

I’ve been including more protein in my diet in the last few months and have been making a lot of salads. They’ll typically include either tofu or tempeh, some nuts or seeds, a grain like quinoa, buckwheat, or millet, some kind of bean, and lots of leafy greens.

This salad, in particular, has been created to give you a high protein intake. You’ll get it from the quinoa, sweet potato, tamari, tofu, peanut butter, green peas and leafy greens.

How much protein do I need as a vegan?

This question gets asked a lot, and you want to make sure that you’re covering yourself. I know I need around 55 grams of protein each day. According to the DRI (Dietary Reference Intake), this is calculated by your body weight. So for every 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) of body weight, you need 0.8 grams (0.36 grams per pound) of protein. So for me, this would be 0.8 x 68, which is 54.4 grams of protein daily.

If you want to learn more about plant-based protein, our friends at Nutriciously explain it very well.

I don’t pay too much attention to numbers as I eat legumes, beans, fermented soy products, grains and vegetables every day. I did the calculations a while ago just out of curiosity and got a rough idea of how much protein intake that was, and it was more than enough.

I would, however, encourage you (for self-awareness) to track what you eat on a typical day and calculate how much protein you consume to see how much you’re getting. This way, you’ll know if you need more or if you’re doing well.

How much protein is in this salad?

This salad has at least 70-72 grams of protein. It will serve 2-3 people, depending on the portion size. In our house, this would serve two people as we’re big eaters. 

Now, I can’t say how much of your daily protein this will cover for you, as you can see from the calculations above that it will vary from person to person.

But for me, this covers around 66% of my daily protein intake (which would be half of this salad). 

If you want to up the protein in this salad again, you can sprinkle some pepitas (pumpkin seeds) or hemp seeds. That will take it (per ¼ cup) by another 8-10 grams of protein.  

This high-protein vegan salad is a great on-the-go meal

This recipe is wonderful for when you’re on the go and want to prepare some food ahead of time. It only takes 40 minutes to make, and it’s super easy. The best part is that most of these ingredients will already be in your fridge and pantry!

It’s great for lunch at work, school (if peanuts are allowed, otherwise leave the dressing off or swap the peanut butter for tahini in the recipe), out for a picnic or packed in a thermos for walks/hikes.

This salad is:

• Filling
• Hearty
• Healthy
• Full of flavour
• Great balance of nutrients
• Beautiful
• Easy and quick to make
• Colourful
• PACKED with protein

I’ve fallen in love with this salad so much that I’ve added it to my weekly rotation and will often make it for my husband, Michael and I for lunch. It’s great as leftovers as well. I leave the leafy greens and dressing separate, adding it just before eating.

This high-protein vegan salad is perfect, both warm and cold.

Other delicious recipes to try:

1. Rainbow Falafel Salad
2. Roasted Eggplant and Capsicum Buckwheat Salad
3. Eggplant and Mushroom Quinoa Risotto
4. Vegan Mediterranean Couscous Salad
5. Vegan Gado Gado (Indonesian Salad with Peanut Sauce)
6. Healthy Vegan Burrito Bowl
7. Vegan Pesto Pasta Salad with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

If you try this recipe, let me know! We’d love for you to leave a comment and rating below. If you want to go that extra mile, tag us on Instagram or share your photo of the recipe on Pinterest. 

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