This dish is excellent if you are looking for a high-protein vegan meal. I intentionally lean heavily on the split peas in this particular recipe for anyone wanting the extra protein content in their diet. As well as being a delicious meal, it’s especially helpful for anyone who is physically active, running, hiking, doing endurance activity or working out.

How much split pea protein content is in this meal?

A nice big hearty bowl of this stew will contain around 200g of cooked split peas (100g dried weight before cooking).

200g of cooked (about 1 cup if you are doing USA measurements) comes in at around 16g of protein.

split pea stew with roast squash

How much protein do I need on a plant-based diet?

It all depends on age, level of activity that you are doing and whether or not you are actively building muscle. Something to look into.

There’s a lot of confusion in our world about how to get your protein and where to get it from. Personally speaking, I’ve never worried about it. Which comes from having eaten a balanced wholefood plant-based vegan diet for over 30 years.

It’s good to get a higher hit of protein if you are endurance training, muscle building or doing anything that requires growth and repair of the body tissues.

To put protein into perspective, just look at an elephant, cow or hippo. They are plant-based eaters. Most of us couldn’t imagine walking up to a hippo ‘Hey dude, where d’ya get your protein from?’ The truth is that these creatures get enough protein to build all of that muscle mass just from plants.

Other high sources of plant-based protein include…

  • Beans & legumes (lentils, peas etc)
  • Quinoa
  • Nuts seeds
  • Hemp, chia and flax seeds
  • Oats and whole grains

vegan spit pea stew high protein

split pea stew with roast squash

High Protein Vegan Split Pea Stew

Yield: 6 bowls
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 55 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes

A tasty vegan high protein stew with split peas and roast squash.

Ingredients

  • 500g split peas
  • 750ml water
  • 1 to 2 large onions
  • Dash of oil (optional)
  • 400ml (1¾ cup) passata (see below for alternative)
  • 1 large potato
  • 2 celery sticks
  • 500g (or more) winter squash (any variety)
  • 1 heaped teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 2 teaspoon sea salt
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

  1. It will reduce the cooking time if you soak your split peas overnight. This recipe assumes you've forgotten to soak them like I have 🙂
  2. Chop your oinion into small pieces or thin slices.
  3. Optional: saute your onion in oil in the pan for a few minutes to bring out their flavour and sweetness whilst you prepare the other ingredients.
  4. Chop celery into small pieces.
  5. Cube you potato.
  6. Put all ingredients in your pan, except for the squash.
  7. Bring the pan to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. This will take between 45 minutes and an hour to cook before the split peas are soft enough. If you have soaked the split peas ahead of time then it will take less time.
  8. To prepare your squash, remove/discard the seeds and cut into slices with the outer skin still intact.
  9. Place the squash on an oven tray and roast in a hot oven until you can easily pierce the squash with a fork.
  10. When cooked, allow the roast squash to cool a little before scraping the flesh away from the skin.
  11. When the split peas are squishable you know the stew is ready.
  12. Mash the squash with a fork and mix in at the end of the cooking period.
  13. Enjoy!

Notes

Alternative to passata:

Find out what passata is here: https://www.kindearth.net/what-is-passata/

If you don't have passata, swap for a can of tomatoes.

Did you make this recipe?

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