Thank you for the follow up, Kim! 🙂

Thank you so much for your comment and congratulations on making the transition to vegan! I know it can be a big change and protein is definitely a common concern and of course it’s important that we include protein rich foods in our diets. If you have an intolerance or are allergic to soy there are definitely plenty of alternatives, including beans and lentils as you mentioned (my personal favorites as they’re also so filling and versatile!), but you definitely have plenty of other options. Some of these include:
– Quinoa
– Hemp seeds
– Peanut butter
– Tempeh (mostly made with soy but now you can sometimes find varieties made with chickpeas)
– Veggie burgers
– Other vegan meat alternatives made with beans or other legumes, seitan or nuts and seeds
– Seitan which you can even make at home (provided you don’t have a wheat allergy or celiac disease since it’s made out of wheat gluten).
– You can even add vegan hemp, pea or brown rice protein powders to smoothies as a little protein boost.
– Spirulina, a sea vegetable is also very high in protein (although more expensive than the others)

Nuts and seeds like chia seeds, nutritional yeast and of course many other veggies and whole grains also have some amounts of protein, but I always like to make sure I’m including plenty of the ones I mentioned above which are higher in this nutrient.

If you don’t have an allergy or intolerance to soy, if you mix things up and rotate it with other plant based proteins it’s a great source as well (here you could also include soy milk, regular tempeh, tofu and soy based veggie meats).

Hope this helps! There are two books I love that will help you with all the nutritional requirements for vegans: “Vegan for Her” by Virginia Messina and “Vegan for Life” by Virginia Messina and Jack Norris. They are my nutritional bibles! 🙂

Happy cooking!

Hi Kim,

Thank YOU for providing such a great video and useful information! 🙂

Lori