We all know protein is an important component in the diet, supporting everything from longer-lasting fullness to more stable metabolism and energy levels. Getting sufficient protein doesn’t have to mean just focusing on meat intake. There are plenty of ways to make sure you are consuming enough protein in your diet. Whether you are curious to try out these other methods or you or someone you are cooking for is more selective about eating conventional high protein foods, these tips can prove very helpful and insightful. Read on to learn what they are!
- Make Swaps In Your Recipes:
Increasing the protein content of the dishes you like to cook doesn’t have to change the entire makeup of the food. There are a multitude of exchanges you can use in your cooking that will keep the taste and texture of your food unaltered while boosting the protein level. Here are some ideas to try out:
- Blend firm tofu or cottage cheese into your sauces.
- When making sauces such as pasta sauce, recipes often instruct you to add heavy whipping cream in order to make the sauce thick and creamy. Did you know you can still achieve this texture and add extra protein to the sauce at the same time? Allow a portion of the sauce to cool off and blend it with tofu or cottage cheese, then mix it back into the rest of the sauce. No one will be able to tell the difference!
- Use cottage cheese in place of ricotta.
- Expanding on the previous tip, cottage cheese can be a viable replacement for ricotta in pasta dishes, stuffed shells or vegetables, a topping for toast or crackers, and more.
- Swap sour cream and mayo for nonfat Greek yogurt.
- Both sour cream and mayo have many uses: as a topping, a base for dips, in baking, sauces, etc. In the same concept as previous tips, you can simply substitute nonfat Greek yogurt and mayo for sour cream in any of the ways they would typically be used without changing the outcome of the dish.
- Swap oil/melted butter for Greek yogurt in baked goods.
- Greek yogurt can be successfully used in place of oil or melted butter in most baked good recipes you like to make, and it will still turn out moist and soft. Not only will this elevate the protein content, but it will also reduce saturated fat content and allow the baked good to be a lighter option.
- Replace breadcrumbs with ground nuts or seeds.
- Almond meal, ground flax seeds, and other ground nuts or seeds can be used in place of breadcrumbs. Whether you are using it as breading or mixing it into meatballs, this replacement offers more protein (and fiber) than regular breadcrumbs.
2. Choose The High-Protein Option:
When picking out a food item in the store or making a recipe, consider what variations of an ingredient you could buy or use to optimize the protein content in your meals. Here are some examples:
- Instead of chicken or beef broth, choose bone broth.
- Instead of flour tortillas, buy egg wraps or make lentil wraps.
- If you are dairy-free, choose soy milk or pea protein milk over other alternatives such as oat milk or almond milk.
- Incorporate a high-protein flour as a portion of your recipe. Some examples include chickpea flour, soy flour, and vital wheat gluten.
- Instead of rice, choose quinoa.
- Instead of regular pasta, buy protein pasta.
- Instead of regular pancake mix, buy protein pancake mix.
3. Include Additions to Your Dishes:
One of the most obvious choices when increasing protein in your diet is considering what you can add. As the introduction of this article stated, you don’t have to restrict your creativity to just meat when thinking of what to add to your meals. Here are some ideas as to what else you could add:
-Add cottage cheese to scrambled eggs.
-Add protein powder to baked goods, oatmeal, etc.
-Blend silken tofu into smoothies. If you dislike the taste of protein powder in smoothies, try out silken tofu as a protein addition instead. It won’t significantly alter the taste or texture.
-Top salads with high protein additions such as hemp seeds or pumpkin seeds, edamame, or crumbled tempeh.
-Use nutritional yeast as a seasoning in cooking or a vegetable topping.
-Add mashed white beans to mashed potatoes.
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This article was written by Alyssa Coscino, nutrition intern. Fact checked by Allison Tallman RD.