High Protein Vegetarian Foods, Ranked by Calories per 20 g

The high protein vegetarian foods that cost the fewest calories are egg whites, plain Greek yogurt, cottage cheese and firm tofu. To get 20 g of protein you need about 187 g of egg white for 103 kcal, or 86 g of cheddar for 350 kcal. I ranked fourteen vegetarian foods by that cost, using USDA records. Cheese tops the lists by weight and sits near the bottom of this one.

Which high protein vegetarian foods cost the fewest calories?

I sorted the table by the energy it takes to reach 20 g of protein, because that number decides what fits in a day. Parmesan, mozzarella and cheddar hold the most protein by weight, yet they land at 251–350 kcal for the same 20 g.

Food (state)	Protein per 100 g	Energy per 100 g	Food for 20 g protein	Energy for 20 g protein
Egg white, raw	10.7 g	55 kcal	187 g	103 kcal
Greek yogurt, plain, nonfat	10.3 g	61 kcal	194 g	118 kcal
Cottage cheese, lowfat 2%	11.0 g	84 kcal	182 g	153 kcal
Firm tofu, raw	17.3 g	144 kcal	116 g	167 kcal
Tempeh, cooked	19.9 g	195 kcal	100 g	196 kcal
Edamame, frozen, prepared	11.9 g	121 kcal	168 g	203 kcal
Whole egg, large	12.4 g	147 kcal	161 g	237 kcal
Ricotta, part skim	11.4 g	138 kcal	176 g	242 kcal
Mozzarella, low moisture, part-skim	23.7 g	298 kcal	84 g	251 kcal
Milk, 1% fat	3.4 g	43 kcal	592 g	254 kcal
Lentils, boiled	9.0 g	116 kcal	222 g	257 kcal
Parmesan, grated	29.6 g	420 kcal	68 g	284 kcal
Cheddar	23.3 g	408 kcal	86 g	350 kcal
Feta	14.2 g	265 kcal	141 g	373 kcal

Read it from the top, and you need about five and a half egg whites to reach 20 g, or 3.2 whole eggs and 237 kcal, because the yolk adds energy. Milk is the odd one out. You’d drink 592 g, about two and a half cups, to get there.

How much protein is in a normal portion?

More than you’d guess, for the dense foods. Nobody weighs eggs by the hundred grams, so these are household portions, the kind you actually spoon out. The weights come from the portion lists in the same USDA records. I scaled the protein to each weight myself.

Food (state)	Household portion	Protein	Energy
Whole egg, large	1 egg (50.3 g)	6.2 g	74 kcal
Greek yogurt, plain, nonfat	1 container (156 g)	16.1 g	95 kcal
Cottage cheese, lowfat 2%	1 cup (220 g)	24.2 g	185 kcal
Ricotta, part skim	half a cup (124 g)	14.1 g	171 kcal
Firm tofu, raw	half a cup (126 g)	21.8 g	181 kcal
Edamame, frozen, prepared	1 cup (155 g)	18.5 g	188 kcal
Lentils, boiled	1 cup (198 g)	17.9 g	230 kcal
Mozzarella, low moisture, part-skim	1 cup shredded (86.2 g)	20.4 g	257 kcal

A cup of cottage cheese and half a cup of tofu each clear 20 g. One egg gives 6.2 g. A two-egg breakfast sits at 12.5 g. I’d rather count the yogurt container and the cottage cheese cup than the eggs. They’re the easy wins. If carbs are what you watch, high protein low carb foods ranks seventeen foods by what 30 g of protein costs.

Which cheese has the most protein?

Grated parmesan has the most per 100 g, at 29.6 g. Nobody eats 100 g of it, though. In my kitchen it stays a garnish. Per calorie, part-skim ricotta and mozzarella are close at 8.3 and 8.0 g per 100 kcal. Grated parmesan has 7.0, cheddar 5.7 and feta 5.4. Cottage cheese beats them all at 13.1 g, which is why it’s the cheese I keep for protein.

The 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines say to include full-fat dairy with no added sugars. My table uses lowfat cottage cheese and part-skim cheeses, because the question here is protein per calorie. Full-fat versions cost more energy for the same protein. Weigh them.

Do vegetarians get enough protein?

In most cases they do. A 2019 review by Mariotti and Gardner in Nutrients concluded that most vegetarians, vegans included, have an adequate protein intake. Classic vegetarian diets, it found, supply more than enough. The authors put the digestibility of milk protein at 95% and egg at 91%, against 89–92% for soy, pea and wheat. That is a gap of a few percent. The modest risk they see is in a fraction of vegans. If you also skip eggs and dairy, high protein vegan foods ranks fourteen foods by protein per 100 kcal.

The Guidelines place the usual shortfalls elsewhere, in vitamins D and E, choline and iron. Eggs help with choline. They don’t cover the list. If you’re vegetarian, ask your doctor which of those to check.

What does a vegetarian day of 89 g of protein look like?

Five ordinary foods cover it. A 70 kg adult at the Guidelines’ 1.2 g/kg needs 84 g a day. I built a day from the same records and added the rows myself.

Ingredient	Grams	Protein	Energy
Whole eggs, large (2)	100.6 g	12.5 g	148 kcal
Greek yogurt, plain, nonfat	156 g	16.1 g	95 kcal
Lentils, boiled	198 g	17.9 g	230 kcal
Cottage cheese, lowfat 2%	150 g	16.5 g	126 kcal
Firm tofu, raw	150 g	25.9 g	216 kcal
Total		88.9 g	815 kcal

The day comes to 88.9 g of protein and 815 kcal, and tofu carries the most with 25.9 g. The yogurt and the cottage cheese add 32.6 g between them for 221 kcal, the cheapest protein of the day.

That leaves plenty of calories for rice, bread, fruit, vegetables and oil. Whole plates built from these foods are in high protein vegetarian meals, and high protein vegan breakfast covers the first slot without eggs or dairy. A higher goal needs one more row. Add 50 g of mozzarella and the day gains 11.9 g of protein for 149 kcal.

A smaller goal works the same way in reverse. At 55 kg the low end is 66 g, and without the lentils the day is 71.0 g for 585 kcal.

Your own daily number comes from the macro calculator. It gives protein, fat and carbs in grams for your calorie goal, with protein at 1.2–1.6 g per kg of reference weight.

For this week, find the two foods you eat most and look up their rows. Swap one for a cheaper row when you want the same protein for fewer calories. Cottage cheese in place of ricotta saves 89 kcal per 20 g of protein. Weigh each food in the state its row shows.

Your doctor, not this table, sets the protein target if you have kidney disease. Pregnancy and breastfeeding also call for other numbers, and the figures here are for adults.

In Calsa you can pick several foods in one search and set grams for each, so eggs, yogurt and cottage cheese become a single lookup.