How much protein there really is in plant food

“Lentils have 25 g of protein” and “lentils have 9 g of protein” are both true. The first is about dry lentils, the second about cooked: legumes absorb water while cooking and become three times heavier. This is where most people counting protein get confused. Below are approximate per-100 g values from standard nutrition tables, rounded.

Dry product

• Lentils: 24–26 g of protein, 11 g of fibre.
• Chickpeas: 19–21 g of protein, 12 g of fibre.
• Split peas: 22–25 g of protein, 10 g of fibre.
• Buckwheat groats: 12–13 g of protein, 10 g of fibre.
• Rolled oats: 12–14 g of protein, 10 g of fibre.

After cooking

• Lentils: about 9 g per 100 g.
• Chickpeas: about 9 g.
• Peas: about 8 g.
• Buckwheat: 4–5 g.
• Oatmeal made with water: 2–3 g.

So you have to compare dry with dry, or portion with portion. A 200 g portion of cooked lentils gives about 18 g of protein. A 250 g plate of buckwheat — 11 g. A bowl of oatmeal made with water — about 5 g, and that is the main reason you want a snack again at 11:00 after a “healthy” oatmeal.

What about absorption

Plant protein is absorbed slightly less well than animal protein: legumes are low in methionine, grains in lysine. But these amino acids complement each other if you eat both over the course of the day — not necessarily on the same plate. Buckwheat with mushrooms for lunch and lentil soup for dinner together give a complete amino acid profile.

What that looks like in a cup

One cup of Bonner cream soup is 50 g of dry mix, about half of which is legume purée. The classic lentil contains 20 g of protein per 100 g of dry product, i.e. about 10 g per cup. The ALIVE pea soup with protein — 24 %, i.e. up to 12 g: pea isolate is added to the pea purée. The sweet YUAMMY oatmeals are 12 % protein thanks to a blend of pea protein, flax and pumpkin seeds, i.e. about 7 g per 60-gram cup against 3 g in a bowl of plain oatmeal made with water.

How much of your daily needs

The guideline for an adult is 0.8–1.2 g of protein per kilogram of body weight, i.e. 55–85 g a day at 70 kg. One cup of soup covers 12–18 % of that, two cups — a quarter to a third. The rest comes from ordinary food: tofu (8 g per 100 g), nuts (15–20 g), hummus (8 g), wholegrain bread (8–9 g). It is not hard to count: if every meal has legumes or grains with nuts, the daily amount adds up by itself.