Fitness & Health

This is for those meat-lovers who scoff at the lack of protein in vegetarian/vegan diets! Photo: Dolly Cepeda Montufar.
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Getting protein into your vegetarian diet

The most popular query vegetarians hear on a regular basis is how they get enough protein throughout the day.

With this surprisingly easy recipe, it will be a breeze for you to get your daily dose, as one serving of the stew has 21 grams of protein. Here’s how it goes.

Ingredients

  • Two tablespoons of olive oil in a pot
  • Two tomatoes, diced
  • One large potato, diced
  • One cup of dry lentils (not red), rinsed
  • ½ cup of barley
  • Four cups of vegetable broth plus one cup of water
  • One teaspoon of salt
  • ½ teaspoon of garlic powder
  • ½ Jamaican all-spice
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • One package of veggie ground round beef
  • Optional: basil for garnish
  • Serves four

Instructions

For the Main Stew:

  1. Heat olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the tomatoes and sauté for about 10 minutes at medium high heat.
  2. Add lentils, barley, potatoes, vegetable broth, water, one teaspoon of salt, ½ teaspoon of garlic powder, ½ teaspoon of Jamaican all-spice. Let the soup reach a boil, then reduce heat to low-medium and cover for about 35 minutes, or until lentils and potatoes are softened.
  3. Remove from heat and stir through the pot. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with basil (optional).

For the veggie ground beef:

  1. Put one tablespoon of olive oil on a pan.
  2. Crumble up the veggie ground beef and put it on the pan on medium-high.
  3. Stir and cook for five minutes. Be careful, any more and you might burn it (I did).

And assuming you don’t burn it, serve and get that sweet, sweet protein!