Adding plant-based protein into your diet isn’t just for vegans or vegetarians!
Including plant-based protein is something we can all do to lead healthier lives.
It's is also probably easier and cheaper than you think.
Use the info below to add more plant-based protein into your cooking.
TOFU
When someone says “plant-based protein” we used to just think of hard block of tofu. It’s actually a great alternative to beef, chicken, or seafood in many recipes. Just swap it in!
The main difficulty of using tofu is how to make it taste delicious, because let's just admit, it's quite bland if not done properly. So how do you do it?
The first step is to get rid of the liquid. To do this, drain a tofu block and dry it with paper towels.
Next, cut the tofu into cubes and marinate it for about 10 minutes. Your recipe will help you decide how to marinate it! Maybe Garlic, Soy sauce, Ginger, Lime...anything you are using in the recipe!
Finally, if you want to make it a crispy, put it on a tray and let the high heat of the oven, grill or frying pan on the stovetop do its work. It's super easy!
beans
Dried or canned beans are the cheaper plant based protein. When you want to cook dried beans, you will need to soak them overnight in salted water to get tender, evenly cooked beans (when you cook them). Don't skip this step if they are dried!
You can add beans to any dish, such as chilli, stew, tacos, anything!
To flavour the beans while they’re cooking, add some chopped onion, bay leaf, herbs, or garlic. Let the recipe guide you.
lentils
Unlike beans, lentils don’t need to soak overnight before cooking, but you can flavour them with herbs, onion, salt and pepper whilst you cook them!
Lentils are an excellent source of protein in place of ground beef, or can be added to soups, stews, curries and much more.
PLAN YOUR MEALS
Meat provides a good amount of protein for a dish. It's a great idea to swap meats for plant based proteins for some meals, but we need to be careful that we are getting enough protein.
Sometimes, plant based proteins don't provide quite enough protein for a healthy diet.
For example... Chicken has 27g of protein per 100g, but lentils only have 9g of protein per 100g.
So, to get enough protein in your diet you might need to
eat more plant based protein than you would meat.
plant based meat alternatives
The selection of plant-based meat alternatives includes almost every animal protein (beef, chicken, pork, seafood, eggs) in every meal category from breakfast to dinner—including appetisers and snacks. These days there is a lot of choice, like burgers, for example.
A word of warning though... these foods are often advertised as good, healthy meat alternatives.
But the truth is, some of them contain A LOT of additives to get them close to meat. This makes some of them unhealthy, almost like junk food. So choose carefully!
