---
title: 'A Week of Realistic High Protein Meals (Vegan)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=aV2QkDfVGqA'
video_id: 'aV2QkDfVGqA'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 0
---

# A Week of Realistic High Protein Meals (Vegan)

> Source: [A Week of Realistic High Protein Meals (Vegan)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=aV2QkDfVGqA)

## Summary

This video provides a realistic, week-long look at high-protein vegan meals that are simple, tasty, and easy to prepare. The creator emphasizes that getting enough protein on a plant-based diet doesn't require protein shakes, and shares practical tips like swapping oat milk for higher-protein plant milks. The video features breakfast tacos, crispy tofu, salads, a tofu mousse, and more.

### Key Points

- **Video Introduction** [0:00] — The creator introduces a realistic look at high-protein vegan meals for a week, emphasizing simplicity and taste.
- **Higher Protein Plant Milk Swap** [0:22] — Swapping oat milk for higher-protein plant milks (e.g., Silk protein milk with 10g protein per cup, Ripple pea protein milk, soy milk with 5-10g protein per cup) in morning lattes is a simple way to add protein.
- **Breakfast Tacos with Just Egg and Beans** [1:57] — Breakfast tacos use carb counter tortillas (3g protein each), seasoned black beans, Just Egg, spinach, and optional vegan cheese or avocado. Two tacos provide about 30g protein.
- **Baked Sesame Panko Crusted Tofu** [3:29] — Tofu is frozen, defrosted, pressed, cut into triangles, battered with flour and plant milk, breaded with panko and sesame seeds, then baked at 425°F until golden. Great for snacking or salads.
- **Crunchy Cabbage Salad with Creamy Asian Dressing** [6:01] — A salad with shredded cabbage, carrots, cilantro, edamame, roasted nuts, and a homemade dressing (soy sauce, rice vinegar, almond butter, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, lime juice, brown sugar). One serving without tofu has ~11g protein; adding tofu adds 7-14g.
- **Tofu Peanut Butter Mousse** [7:33] — A dessert made with silken tofu, peanut butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Blended and chilled. The creator is surprised by how good it tastes, with no tofu flavor.
- **Homemade Vegan Deli Meat (Seitan)** [9:42] — A loaf made from extra firm tofu and vital wheat gluten, cost-effective and customizable. Used as cold cuts, in sandwiches, or shredded for barbecue sandwiches.
- **Kale Caesar Salad with Tempeh Bacon and Crispy Chickpeas** [10:33] — Kale is massaged with lemon juice, salt, and olive oil. Topped with crispy chickpeas (rinsed, dried, tossed with oil, salt, pepper, baked at 425°F for 45-50 min), stovetop tempeh bacon, and a tahini-based Caesar dressing (tahini, lemon, capers, Dijon, miso, garlic). One serving has ~20g protein.
- **High Protein Vegan Mac and Cheese** [13:55] — White bean cheese sauce (cannellini beans, nutritional yeast, cashews, carrots, spices, coconut milk) served with protein plus pasta (10g protein per serving). Half cup sauce with one serving pasta provides ~16g protein.

### Conclusion

The video demonstrates that high-protein vegan meals can be delicious, varied, and easy to prepare, with many recipes providing 20-30g of protein per serving. Simple swaps and meal prep can help meet protein needs without relying on shakes.

## Transcript

Greetings! Today,
I'm giving you a realistic look at what
I eat in a week featuring some of my
current favorite high protein vegan
meals that are simple, easy to make,
and super tasty... obviously.
I wanna show you that getting enough
protein on a plant-based diet doesn't have
to be stressful - you don't need to chug
protein shakes all day - and hopefully
I can inspire you to get in the kitchen
and get excited about trying some new
recipes. Before we dive into the recipes,
one really simple thing we've been doing
lately has been to swap out our oat
milk for higher protein plant milk
options in our morning lattes.
So for example,
I have been making Eric's daily iced
latte with the Silk protein milk.
This is a cashew and almond blend and
it's fortified with pea protein and one
cup of this contains 10
grams of plant-based protein,
which is even higher than regular
dairy milk. Another option is Ripple.
It's a pea protein milk too, and we love
it, especially their chocolate milk.
It's really delicious, we
like it for dessert sometimes.
And I usually prefer hot
drinks in the morning,
so I have been rocking with classic soy
milk again because I think it froths
really well and depending on the brand,
one cup can net you anywhere between 5
and 10 grams of protein. Now of course,
I hope it goes without saying that if
you love your oat milk or almond milk
lattes, keep drinking those -
enjoyment is very important.
But this is just one simple substitution
to consider if you aren't necessarily
married to one particular kind of plant
milk and you just want an easy way to
sneak in some extra protein
early on in your day.
I think this can also be especially
helpful if you're someone who doesn't have
much of an appetite early
in the morning like myself,
so usually I'll drink my soy latte right
when I get up just to get something in
my system. I'll drink water, then I'll
go for a run or do my workout at the gym,
and by the time I get home,
I have much more of an appetite
for real food worked up.
And we usually drink our lattes outside
because I recently learned on the
Huberman Lab podcast that getting exposure
to natural daylight first thing in
the morning really helps to
regulate the circadian rhythm,
and it really has made a huge difference
for us over the past few months since
we've been doing it, so
I highly recommend it.
So our current go-to high
protein breakfast has been
these breakfast tacos with
Just Egg and beans, and my
secret ingredient are these
carb counter tortillas,
not because I'm against carbs,
but because these actually have
some sneaky protein in them.
They come in lots of different sizes,
but these tiny little street
taco tortillas each have
three grams of protein.
I like to use either seasoned black beans
or chili pinto beans for extra flavor
without having to mess around with spices.
Just because I really don't
enjoy cooking in the morning,
so I just try to keep breakfast simple
and easy so I can eat it and start my
day. Then you'll also need some
Just Egg and any veggies you like.
We always add some spinach
to get a serving of greens,
and then we'll usually add a little vegan
cheese or some avocado if either one
of those is on sale that
week. So to keep things easy,
I will typically just add my beans
to my tortillas and pop those in the
microwave while I make the scramble.
I give the spinach a headstart,
and this is where you would cook any other
veggies like bell peppers, mushrooms,
or onions if you want those
in your breakfast tacos.
Then I add in two servings of Just
Egg and I cook until they're set.
This does have a tendency
to stick quite a bit,
so I recommend using a good non-stick pan,
especially if you don't wanna use
any kind of vegan butter or oil.
Then I just finish the tacos off with
some kind of salsa or hot sauce for extra
flavor.
Eric usually uses a chipotle salsa and
my current obsession is the Trader Joe's
sriracha. So if you run the numbers,
two breakfast tacos lands us right
around 30 grams of plant-based protein,
12 grams from the Just Egg, 1.3
grams from a cup of spinach,
10.7 grams from the black beans,
and 6 grams from the tortillas.
I also prepped a double batch of my baked
sesame and panko crusted tofu to eat
over the course of a few days. So this
was two blocks of tofu that I froze,
defrosted and then pressed, and I like
to cut into these cute little triangles.
Season the tofu with salt and pepper,
and then prepare a simple batter with
flour and either milk or plain water.
I used all purpose flour and some Ripple
pea protein milk for extra protein.
And then the breading is
just a combination of panko
breadcrumbs and raw sesame
seeds.
Then we just have the somewhat tedious
job of first battering and then breading
all of the tofu nuggies.
I definitely recommend using one hand to
work with the dry stuff and another to
work with the wet so that you
don't end up breading your fingers.
And once you're done,
I think a little bit of spray oil
helps them to brown nicely in the oven,
but it's not strictly necessary.
You're just gonna bake these at
425 until they're golden brown.
And they come out super crispy and the
sesame seeds get toasted and they develop
this really nice flavor.
And these are great just for
snacking on with some kind of dip,
like sweet chili sauce or barbecue sauce.
And I also love to top
my salads with these.
And they're super easy to crisp back up
in the air fryer or in the oven the next
day. Hey friends,
I'm gonna take a quick pause to give a
big shout out to the sponsor of today's
video, Ritual. Ritual is a long
time friend of the channel.
I have been taking their women's
daily multivitamins since 2018.
I love it just for filling in
any gaps in my daily nutrition.
But recently they came out with a
new product called Synbiotic Plus,
and this is a three in one prebiotic,
probiotic, and postbiotic supplement,
and I just take one a day to help support
my gut, digestive, and immune health.
So you may already be
familiar with probiotics,
but prebiotics actually support the
beneficial bacteria in your gut,
and then probiotics help
support the gut lining.
Synbiotic Plus contains two of the
most clinically studied strains of
probiotics,
and they use a delayed release technology
that makes sure that the probiotic
strains make it all the way, not
just to the stomach but to the colon,
which is the actual ideal
place for them to grow.
Your subscription comes straight to
your door every single month with free
shipping, and the capsules
require no refrigeration.
So I actually just keep my
multivitamin and my Synbiotic together.
I take them at the exact same
time every day, so I never forget.
It is vegan friendly, it's
free of all major allergens,
and Ritual is always a hundred percent
transparent about the sourcing and the
environmental impact of all of
their ingredients and materials.
If you're interested in trying out Ritual,
they're currently offering 20% off
your first month using my code,
which I'll have on the
screen. Speaking of salads,
here's one that I've
been eating a lot lately.
It's a crunchy cabbage salad with
a creamy Asian inspired dressing,
and it's surprisingly high in
protein. At the start of the week,
I'll prep the salad base, so I use my
food processor to shred up a half a head,
each of green and red cabbage,
and then a bunch of carrots,
and I like to add a lot of fresh cilantro,
but you could also add mint
or some Thai basil instead.
If you're not a cilantro
person for extra protein,
I add in a serving of edamame
and then some roasted nuts,
something like cashews or almonds.
And you can use a store-bought ginger
sesame dressing or make your own.
So I add soy sauce, rice
vinegar, some almond butter,
or you could use tahini or
peanut butter to make it creamy.
Some minced ginger and a little bit of
minced garlic, some toasted sesame oil,
little bit of lime juice
and some brown sugar.
Then just whisk it up and add in some
water as needed to get a nice thin
pourable consistency and toss
your salad mix with that.
So this week I am topping that salad with
a few pieces of my crispy sesame Panko
tofu. I just reheat those in my air fryer.
It actually takes like under 10 minutes
to get them really nice and crispy
again.
So I added all the ingredients to a
nutrition tracker and one serving of the
salad without the added tofu
already nets you around 11 grams of
protein, which is pretty good.
Then add one or two servings of that
crispy tofu and you're adding seven
to 14 grams of extra protein there.
Then here is Eric just eating some of
that leftover sesame tofu with a vegetable
curry. We really love this
barbecue sauce and again,
the Trader Joe's sriracha
to accompany that.
This next recipe is a dessert that I saw
on one of Mina Rome's latest videos all
about tofu. This is a tofu peanut
butter mousse. I have to admit,
I was very skeptical going into this,
but I wanted to give it a shot
and it has just six ingredients.
It calls for a container of silken tofu,
about three quarters of a cup of peanut
butter - I would imagine you could make
this with any kind of nut butter -
some powdered sugar, vanilla extract,
a dash of cinnamon and a pinch of salt.
Add it all to a blender and blend
until it is completely smooth.
Then divide that mixture up between a few
jars or really any containers you like
and let those chill in the fridge
for a few hours or overnight to set.
Gonna try the tofu peanut
butter mousse, pudding, dessert.
*Mousse*. I'm excited. <laugh>.
I'm excited about this.
Hmm. Oh, it's delicious.
I'm shocked at how much I like it.
I was kind of afraid we're
gonna have to throw it all away.
Oh, no.
Because I feel like I've made
a dessert using silken tofu
before, but I use like the kind
of silken tofu that comes in the,
that aren't in the refrigerated section,
and I feel like those have a really
strong flavor. I don't taste the tofu.
Here. Not at all. It's
extremely peanut buttery.
It just tastes like peanut butter, really.
You could probably make
it with almond butter too.
Cashew butter. Sunflower butter.
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. No -,
no hint of tofu and the texture's really
nice. The consistency is quite nice.
I'll give it back. I promise.
I was thinking we just got this peanut
butter protein granola at Trader Joe's.
Hmm. This is it. This has 11
grams of protein per serving,
so if you wanted to have like an extra
peanut buttery kind of parfait situation,
you could combine these two. I.
Thought you were gonna say
a peanut butter party. Yeah.
That too.
A peanut butter parfait party. Mm-Hmm.
<Affirmative>. I think we're
definitely gonna mix that again. Yeah.
How? How can we make it chocolate?
I want to add a little chocolate.
In there. By adding chocolate.
<Laugh> Let's do that.
Another thing I love to meal prep every
week is a loaf of homemade vegan deli
meat.
I just shared a Short all about how to
make this from scratch and the recipe's
on the blog. It's way more cost
effective than buying Tofurky,
and it's actually
surprisingly easy to make.
The main ingredients are extra
firm tofu and vital wheat gluten,
so it is packed with protein and it's
easy to customize with your favorite
flavors. Honestly, we
love the stuff so much,
sometimes we'll just snack on it as is,
or we'll make little
roll-ups with vegan cheese.
I also love making sandwiches or wraps
using those Carb Balance tortillas,
but it's also worth noting you can just
chop the seitan into cubes and use it in
stir fries in place of tofu,
or you can shred it and
toss it in barbecue sauce
to make like a pulled seitan
barbecue sandwich. It's just a
super versatile protein option,
but usually we do just slice
it up and use it as cold cuts.
Here is another high protein salad we ate
for lunch over the course of the week.
It's a kale Caesar with tempeh bacon,
crispy chickpeas, and a tahini dressing.
It is so good. Step one is to
make some crispy chickpeas,
which will take the place
of croutons in our salad.
And the key with these is to thoroughly
rinse and dry your chickpeas to help
them crisp up and brown
nicely in the oven.
I keep it simple and I just toss
them with olive oil, salt and pepper,
and these take about 45 to 50
minutes in a 425 degree oven,
and you just wanna mix them around a
few times to make sure they cook evenly.
They get super crispy, and I
find these to be so addictive.
I can easily eat a whole can of crispy
chickpeas to myself over the course of a
day.
Try some?
Whoa. Aren't.
They good?
Have you ever made them this
crispy before? It's amazing.
It's that trick of letting them dry out
on the counter first. Mm. Yeah, they're.
Really good. That was really tasty. We
got, I'm gonna stop eating them so you.
Can put them in the salad <laugh>.
We're also gonna whip up a batch of
my stovetop tempeh bacon to boost the
protein in this salad.
Check out the blog or my previous video
featuring four high protein meals for
more about this recipe.
The only thing I did different this time
was to chop the tempeh into little bits
so it would be easier to get some
in every single bite of the salad.
Kale is probably one of my favorite
vegetables, and when I use it in salad,
I always like to massage it
with some fresh lemon juice,
a pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive
oil and massage it for a few minutes.
It shrinks a lot in volume
and it gets dark and glossy,
and this helps to tenderize it and
remove some of its natural bitterness.
Then I also made a simple
vegan tahini-based Caesar
dressing with a quarter cup
of runny tahini, some lemon
juice, some crushed capers,
and a splash of the brine from the
capers in place of traditional anchovies,
some Dijon mustard,
a teaspoon of white miso paste to take
kind of the place of the Parmesan in
traditional Caesar, a clove of
minced garlic, fresh black pepper,
and then just add enough water to
thin the dressing out to a pourable
consistency. To assemble the salad,
just toss together the massaged kale
with the tahini dressing and the tempeh
bacon.
I think some fresh sliced tomato makes
a really nice addition to this too,
if you have some.
Then save the roasted chickpeas for last
so that they stay crispy in the salad.
When I plug all the ingredients
into a nutrition tracker,
one serving of the salad contains
just under 20 grams of protein.
That's good.
That's really good. If you don't
like kale, you're eating it wrong.
Massage.
It. So many people have said
on our videos in the past,
you lost me kale, kale's gross.
I don't think I liked kale either
until you started cooking for me.
Massaging it helps remove the
bitterness, it tenderizes it.
Even when I'm putting a dressing
on, like with the Caesar salad,
I still massage it first. It makes
a difference. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.
I love salads that have
like so many things in it.
Obviously I tried the chickpeas by
themselves and I've had the tempeh many
times. It all really works together.
I mean, obviously it works together.
We knew it was gonna work.
You're addicted to those.
They're so good. I'm ready for
like, true salad season. Mm-Hmm.
<affirmative> like warm
weather, sunny salad season.
Only four more months here in the PNW.
Next up,
we made a high protein vegan mac and
cheese with the white bean cheese sauce
from the blog.
I actually had Eric make this for me
because my period started and I was
getting, uh, mad cramps. So thank
you, Eric. Eric to the rescue.
You need a can of white
beans. We used canelli beans,
some nutritional yeast
for a cheesy flavor,
half a cup of cashews soaked or boiled,
some cooked carrots, mostly for color,
onion powder, garlic powder, and some
smoked paprika. Juice of half of a lemon,
a little bit of miso paste,
some full fat coconut milk
to make it rich and creamy,
then some salt and blend it
all up until it's smooth.
Then we cooked up some of
this protein plus pasta.
I really like this because it
does have extra protein in it.
It's 10 grams of protein per serving,
but it's not a fully gluten-free pasta.
It's not made like entirely of chickpeas,
so it still has a really nice texture.
It's not mushy or gritty. Honestly,
it tastes very similar to regular
pasta to me. So we boiled that up.
Cheese sauce recipe makes a big batch
and we use maybe half of it with half a
box of the pasta. We saved the rest of
the sauce for later to use as a dip.
I really like adding pickled jalapeños
and chopped tomatoes and a few spices to
turn this into like a nacho cheese sauce.
A roughly one half cup
serving of the cheese sauce,
served with one serving of the protein
plus pasta lands us at just about 16
grams of protein.
That isn't quite as high as some of
the other meals we've featured in this
video, but I think compared to a regular
vegan mac and cheese, it's pretty good.
It's basically just like the
regular vegan mac that you make.
And that wraps up this week
of high protein vegan meals.
Thank you so much for watching.
I would love for you to subscribe
if you found this video helpful.
And if you haven't already,
check out my previous video with four
more high protein vegan recipes that I
make all the time. Or check
out my video about easy,
high protein vegan meal
prep. Love you guys so much,
and I will see you in my next video.