High Protein Beans: Soybeans Have 31 g a Cup

Among high protein beans, boiled soybeans lead with 31.3 g in a cup (172 g). Lupins come next at 25.8 g and edamame at 18.5 g. The beans in a chili, such as black, pinto and kidney, hold about 15 g a cup. I compared ten types from USDA records, all cooked without added salt, using the cup weight in each record.

Which are the high protein beans?

Soybeans, lupins and edamame lead by a wide margin. Everything else sits between 14.5 and 17.4 g a cup. A cup of cooked beans isn’t a fixed weight, so the table gives each record’s own cup in grams.

Bean (cooked, no salt)	1 cup	Protein	Energy	Protein per 100 kcal	Share of energy from protein	Carbs	Fiber
Soybeans	172 g	31.3 g	296 kcal	10.6 g	42.3%	14.4 g	10.3 g
Lupins	166 g	25.8 g	198 kcal	13.1 g	52.3%	16.4 g	4.6 g
Edamame, frozen, prepared	155 g	18.5 g	188 kcal	9.8 g	39.4%	13.8 g	8.1 g
White beans	179 g	17.4 g	249 kcal	7.0 g	28.0%	44.9 g	11.3 g
Adzuki beans	230 g	17.3 g	294 kcal	5.9 g	23.5%	57.0 g	16.8 g
Pinto beans	171 g	15.4 g	245 kcal	6.3 g	25.2%	44.8 g	15.4 g
Kidney beans	177 g	15.3 g	225 kcal	6.8 g	27.3%	40.4 g	11.3 g
Black beans	172 g	15.2 g	227 kcal	6.7 g	26.8%	40.8 g	15.0 g
Lima beans, large	188 g	14.7 g	216 kcal	6.8 g	27.1%	39.3 g	13.2 g
Chickpeas	164 g	14.5 g	269 kcal	5.4 g	21.6%	45.0 g	12.5 g

White beans have the most per cup among the familiar ones. Chickpeas come last, per cup and per calorie. Each figure is the record’s value per 100 g times its cup weight, so 8.86 g × 1.72 gives 15.2 g for black beans.

Are beans really high in protein?

Measured by their share of energy, they are. Protein gives 4 kcal per gram, and every bean in the table gets at least 21.6% of its energy from it. Under the British claims rule, a food may be called high in protein at 20% of energy. By that yardstick all ten pass.

Per calorie, meat does better. Roasted chicken breast has 31.0 g of protein and 165 kcal per 100 g, which is 18.8 g per 100 kcal. Black beans give 6.7 g. To match the chicken you’d eat about 2.8 times the calories in black beans. What beans add is fiber: 15.0 g in a cup of black beans, and none in chicken.

So I count beans as a protein source that comes with fiber, and I don’t expect them to replace chicken one for one. Soybeans and lupins come closest.

Is canned as good as home-cooked?

Per calorie, canned beans come close. They carry more water, so per 100 g they hold less protein, and they carry salt. The table shows three beans in both forms.

Bean	Protein per 100 g	Energy per 100 g	Protein per 100 kcal	Sodium per 100 g
Chickpeas, boiled, no salt	8.86 g	164 kcal	5.4 g	7 mg
Chickpeas, canned, drained, rinsed	7.04 g	138 kcal	5.1 g	212 mg
Black beans, boiled, no salt	8.86 g	132 kcal	6.7 g	1 mg
Black beans, canned, low sodium	6.03 g	91 kcal	6.6 g	138 mg
Kidney beans, boiled, no salt	8.67 g	127 kcal	6.8 g	1 mg
Kidney beans, canned	5.22 g	84 kcal	6.2 g	296 mg

Protein per 100 kcal moves by 0.6 g at most, but sodium jumps. One can of chickpeas (254 g drained and rinsed) holds 17.9 g of protein and 351 kcal. That can holds about 538 mg of sodium, which is 27% of the World Health Organization limit of 2,000 mg a day. The drained-solids record has 246 mg per 100 g against 212 mg once rinsed, so rinsing takes off about 14%.

I buy low-sodium cans or cook a big pot on Sunday. Cans get rinsed. Either way beans sit in the weekly shop next to eggs and chicken, and the high protein grocery list shows how the staples add up.

How do I log dry beans?

Weigh them in the state you eat them. Dry beans soak up water as they cook, and the records show how much that changes the numbers. Raw chickpeas have 20.47 g of protein and 378 kcal per 100 g. Boiled ones have 8.86 g and 164 kcal.

So 100 g of dry chickpeas holds 20.5 g of protein. Log 100 g of dry beans as cooked and you record 8.9 g, which is 57% too little. The same goes the other way. Weigh your cooked portion, or weigh the dry amount before the pot and log that. Don’t mix the two.

Which beans fit a low-carb plan?

Soybeans, lupins and edamame. A cup of each has 13.8–16.4 g of carbohydrate, against 39.3–57.0 g for the other seven. Carbohydrate in these records includes fiber, and I haven’t subtracted it. There is no standard cutoff for “low carb” in the sources I read, so I only give the grams.

A lunch built on them is one cup of edamame, half a cup of firm tofu and a handful of spinach. For more to put in that bowl, high protein vegetables ranks greens and edamame alongside the rest.

Ingredient (state)	Grams	Protein	Energy	Carbs
Edamame, frozen, prepared	155 g	18.5 g	188 kcal	13.8 g
Tofu, firm, raw	126 g	21.8 g	181 kcal	3.5 g
Spinach, raw	30 g	0.9 g	7 kcal	1.1 g
Total		41.1 g	376 kcal	18.4 g

That is 41.1 g of protein, with 44% of the energy from protein.

What does a 35 g bean meal look like?

A black bean bowl. One cup of black beans, two eggs, 28 g of cheddar and a little spinach come to 35.1 g of protein and 496 kcal. It has 43.5 g of carbohydrate and 15.6 g of fiber. If I finish with fruit it is dessert, because even the best of the high protein fruits comes nowhere near a cup of beans.

Ingredient (state)	Grams	Protein	Energy
Black beans, boiled, no salt	172 g	15.2 g	227 kcal
Eggs, whole, large	100.6 g (2 eggs)	12.5 g	148 kcal
Cheddar	28 g	6.5 g	114 kcal
Spinach, raw	30 g	0.9 g	7 kcal
Total		35.1 g	496 kcal

Skip the eggs and cheese for a vegan bowl, and the beans carry 15.2 g. Add the tofu from the lunch above to get to 37.0 g.

The 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines give 1.2–1.6 g of protein per kg of body weight a day, which is 84–112 g at 70 kg. This bowl covers 31–42% of that range, and how much protein you should eat a day covers the rest of it.

Your own weight goes into the protein calculator, which applies the same range.

With kidney disease, during pregnancy or breastfeeding, or under 18, ask a doctor for your protein figure before you lean on a pot of beans.

I save each pot in Calsa as a recipe and weigh the beans in the state the entry names, which keeps the 57% dry-versus-boiled gap out of my diary.