How much protein does a portion of vegetables actually provide?

A typical 200-gram portion of most vegetables provides around 4 to 7 grams of protein. Edamame is the exception: just 150 grams of it provides around 16 grams. So vegetables do count towards your daily total, but they rarely make up that total on their own.

How much protein does a portion of vegetables provide?

For a standard portion, you can expect 4 to 7 grams of protein, with edamame being the outlier at around 16 grams. Below is a breakdown of what six commonly eaten vegetables provide in the amounts you’d actually serve yourself.

The per-portion values are calculated from rounded averages in standard nutritional tables (NEVO from the RIVM and USDA FoodData Central) and then rounded to whole grams. Please treat these as a rough guide rather than exact figures: variety, season and preparation method can affect the outcome. If you’d like to see the figures per 100 grams, you’ll find them in our vegetable overview.

Why do vegetables provide relatively little protein per portion?

Leafy vegetables, cabbage and stem vegetables consist of 85 to 95 per cent water. You’re eating a large volume with little dry matter, and therefore little protein per mouthful. Edamame falls outside this range, containing around 70 per cent water, and it is precisely this extra dry matter that explains why these beans top the table.

That same water content makes isolated figures misleading. Dried soya beans contain around 36 grams of protein per 100 grams, but that’s a product with no water, not a plateful of vegetables. As soon as you soak and cook them, that figure drops to around 11 grams per 100 grams, which is the figure used for edamame in the calculation above. So, whatever the nutritional figure, check the state of the food: raw, cooked or dried.

In practical terms, this means that to reach 60 grams of protein from vegetables alone, you’d have to eat well over two kilos of broccoli a day. That’s not realistic in terms of volume and fibre content. Vegetables make a useful contribution to your daily total, but they’re no substitute for concentrated sources.

How can you incorporate these six protein-rich vegetables into your diet?

Edamame

Edamame are young, still-green soya beans. They are the only vegetable on this list whose protein content comes close to that of pulses, which makes sense, as botanically speaking, they are indeed pulses. Boil or steam them for a few minutes, sprinkle with a little sea salt and eat them straight from the pod. Once shelled, they work well in a salad, stir-fry or bowl, and are then substantial enough to count as a main component rather than a side dish.

Brussels sprouts and broccoli

Brussels sprouts provide around 3.4 grams of protein per 100 grams and are also a source of vitamin C: around 85 milligrams per 100 grams, slightly more than the daily reference intake of 80 milligrams. Vitamin C contributes to the normal function of the immune system. Their reputation for being bitter mainly comes from overcooking. Cut them in half and roast them in the oven for 20 minutes with a little olive oil; this will give them a nutty flavour.

Broccoli contains around 2.8 grams of protein per 100 grams. If you boil it for too long in plenty of water, you’ll wash away some of the water-soluble vitamins. Steaming or briefly stir-frying helps to preserve more of the texture and flavour. Incidentally, the stalk is perfectly edible: peel it and slice it.

Spinach

Spinach provides around 2.9 grams of protein per 100 grams of raw leaves and is also a source of iron. It shrinks considerably: 300 grams of fresh spinach reduces to about 100 grams when cooked. This makes it difficult to regard spinach as a primary source of protein, but easy to use it to bulk up a dish. Lamb’s lettuce and kale fall into the same category of leafy vegetables with a relatively high protein content.

Asparagus and artichokes

Asparagus provides around 2.2 grams of protein per 100 grams. About five medium-sized spears weigh around 100 grams in total, so you can expect just over 2 grams of protein per portion in a classic spring dish. Green asparagus doesn’t need peeling and cooks in just a few minutes.

Artichokes provide around 3.3 grams of protein per 100 grams, although the edible part of a fresh artichoke is limited: after peeling, a medium-sized artichoke yields around 60 to 80 grams. Cooking them fresh takes 30 to 40 minutes, so many people use jarred or tinned artichoke hearts. These work well in a pasta sauce, on a tray bake or in a salad.

What should you pair vegetables with to get your protein?

Serve vegetables alongside a concentrated source of protein, and the portion size will do the trick. Pulses (lentils, chickpeas, beans), grains, nuts, dairy, eggs, fish and meat provide many times more protein per mouthful than vegetables do, simply because they contain far less water.

There’s another factor to consider with plant-based combinations: plant-based protein sources differ in their amino acid composition. Cereals contain relatively little lysine, whilst pulses contain relatively little methionine. If you eat both throughout the day (for example, lentils with rice or chickpeas with wholemeal bread), you’ll consume a broader range of amino acids. In practical terms, this means combinations such as roasted Brussels sprouts with lentils, spinach in an omelette, or edamame in a bowl with tofu and wholegrains.

Protein contributes to a growth in muscle mass. Protein contributes to the maintenance of muscle mass. Protein contributes to the maintenance of normal bones. This contribution depends on your total daily intake, not on a single vegetable or a single meal. If you want to know how many grams of protein you’re getting each day, read about how much protein you need per day.

When can protein powder help?

If you consistently fall short of your daily total on busy days, a scoop of unflavoured protein powder (whey or plant-based) is a practical way to add a few grams, for example by mixing it into yoghurt, porridge or a smoothie. Our vegan protein range features plant-based protein powders with a short list of ingredients, available in an unflavoured version and in flavoured varieties. In the section on the benefits of protein powder, you can read about what to look out for when choosing one, and in our round-up of protein-rich smoothie recipes, you’ll find two smoothies featuring protein powder, porridge and fruit.

Frequently asked questions

Does cooking alter the protein content of vegetables?

Hardly at all. Protein is stable when heated, so you lose very little of it. What does change is the water content, and with it the figure per 100 grams: a cooked product doesn’t weigh the same as a raw one. Cooking in plenty of water mainly depletes water-soluble vitamins, rather than protein. Steaming or stir-frying briefly minimises that loss.

Why do the protein values differ from one table to another?

Nutritional tables provide averages based on samples, and these samples vary in terms of variety, season, growing conditions and storage time. Furthermore, one source may report raw values whilst another reports cooked or dried values, and this makes a significant difference because the water content changes accordingly. So always compare the same state, and treat a difference of a few tenths of a gram as noise.

Do you need to combine pulses and grains in a single meal?

Not necessarily. Your body utilises the amino acids that become available throughout the day, not per plate. As long as you eat both pulses and grains during the day, it doesn’t matter in what order or in which meal you eat them.

Are soya beans actually a vegetable?

Botanically speaking, they are pulses. Edamame are, however, eaten and prepared as a vegetable in the kitchen, which is why they’re included in this list. For protein calculations, the classification doesn’t matter: only the content per portion counts.