Several vegetables pack a surprising amount of protein, especially when you eat them cooked. Green peas lead the pack at about 8 grams per cup, but leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, and starchy options like corn and potatoes all contribute meaningful amounts. While no single vegetable will match a chicken breast, eating a variety of high-protein vegetables throughout the day adds up fast.
Green Peas and Legumes Top the List
Green peas deliver roughly 8 grams of protein per cup, making them the highest-protein option you’ll find in the produce aisle. Technically they’re legumes, but most people treat them as vegetables in cooking, and they show up in frozen vegetable mixes everywhere. Raw green peas clock in at about 7.9 grams per cup, and sprouted mature peas push past 10 grams.
Other legumes you might use as vegetables are even more protein-dense. Edamame provides about 9.8 grams of protein in a small 80-gram serving (roughly two-thirds of a cup). Lentils deliver around 8.8 grams per 100 grams cooked, and chickpeas come in at 7.6 grams per 100 grams. Lima beans offer about 3.2 grams per 100-gram serving. If your goal is to maximize protein from plant sources, legumes are the single most efficient category.
Leafy Greens Are More Protein-Dense Than You’d Expect
Cooked spinach stands out here. A cup of cooked spinach contains 5.3 grams of protein, and an impressive 50% of its total calories come from protein. That ratio beats most foods in any category. The catch is volume: raw spinach cooks down dramatically, so you need a large pile of fresh leaves to get a full cup cooked.
Collard greens are close behind at 5.1 grams per cup cooked, and mustard greens provide about 3.6 grams per cooked cup. These numbers may not sound huge, but consider that a side dish of cooked greens alongside a grain and a legume can easily push a meal’s total protein into the 20- to 30-gram range.
Per 100 grams, raw spinach has 2.9 grams of protein on just 23 calories. Asparagus is similarly lean, with 2.2 grams of protein per 100 grams and only 20 calories, meaning 44% of its calories come from protein.
Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, and Cruciferous Vegetables
Broccoli gets a lot of attention as a “protein vegetable,” and it does hold up reasonably well. A 100-gram serving has 2.8 grams of protein and 34 calories, so about a third of its calories come from protein. A typical cooked cup of chopped broccoli lands around 3.7 grams. Brussels sprouts trail slightly at about 2 grams per cooked cup, though they’re still a solid addition to a high-protein plate.
These aren’t going to single-handedly meet your daily needs, but cruciferous vegetables have an advantage: they’re easy to eat in large volumes. Roast a big sheet pan of broccoli and Brussels sprouts as a dinner side and you’re adding 5 to 7 grams of protein to your meal before counting anything else.
Starchy Vegetables With Hidden Protein
People rarely think of potatoes as a protein source, but a large baked russet potato (skin on) contains 7.9 grams of protein. That’s on par with a cup of green peas. The key is eating the whole potato. A half-cup of boiled, peeled potato drops to just 1.3 grams, so the skin and full size matter.
Sweet corn is another solid option. A cup of canned or frozen corn provides 4 to 5 grams of protein, and a large ear of fresh corn gives you about 4 grams. Corn does carry more calories than leafy greens, so the protein-to-calorie ratio is lower, but the absolute grams per serving make it a useful contributor.
Mushrooms Add Protein With Minimal Calories
Mushrooms aren’t technically vegetables, but they’re sold and cooked like them. White button mushrooms contain about 3 grams of protein per 100 grams raw, and oyster mushrooms are close at 2.75 grams per 100 grams. Since mushrooms are low in calories and easy to add to stir-fries, omelets, soups, and grain bowls, they’re a simple way to bump up a meal’s protein count without adding much else.
Quick Comparison by Serving
- Green peas (1 cup cooked): ~8 g protein
- Baked russet potato (1 large): ~7.9 g
- Spinach (1 cup cooked): ~5.3 g
- Collard greens (1 cup cooked): ~5.1 g
- Sweet corn (1 cup): ~4–5 g
- Mustard greens (1 cup cooked): ~3.6 g
- Broccoli (100 g): ~2.8 g
- Mushrooms (100 g): ~2.75–3 g
- Asparagus (100 g): ~2.2 g
- Brussels sprouts (1 cup cooked): ~2 g
Why Amino Acid Balance Matters
Protein isn’t just about grams. Your body needs nine essential amino acids, and most vegetables are low in at least one of them. Vegetables as a group tend to be limited in methionine, one of those nine essentials. This means that eating only vegetables for protein could leave gaps in your amino acid intake over time.
The fix is simple: pair vegetables with grains, nuts, or seeds. Rice and peas, corn tortillas with beans, a spinach salad topped with sunflower seeds. These combinations fill in each other’s gaps. Grains are low in lysine, while legumes are rich in it. Legumes are low in methionine, while grains supply it. You don’t need to combine them in the same meal; eating a variety throughout the day is enough.
How Much Protein You Actually Need
The most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2025–2030) raised protein recommendations for adults to 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. That’s 50 to 100% higher than the old minimum recommendation. For a 150-pound person (68 kg), that works out to roughly 82 to 109 grams of protein daily.
Vegetables alone won’t get you there for most people. But they play a more meaningful role than they get credit for. If you eat three cups of cooked vegetables across a day’s meals, choosing from the higher-protein options on this list, you could easily get 15 to 20 grams of protein just from vegetables. Add legumes like lentils, chickpeas, or edamame, and the numbers climb fast. A cup of cooked lentils alone provides around 17 to 18 grams. Vegetables work best as one layer in a broader protein strategy, not the whole plan.