High-protein vegetarian on a real budget
Protein per rupee, ranked — and why the imported tub is the worst answer.
The short answer
Read this bit if nothing else
Most high-protein advice written for India is written for people who can spend three thousand rupees a month on a supplement. This page is the opposite. Every item below is a normal grocery-shop item, and the list is ordered by how much protein your rupee actually buys.
ਸਰੋਤ·Computed from ThaliFacts food data·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
What it adds up to
The cheapest 30 g of vegetarian protein in India
- Soya Chunk Curry ×1195 kcal
- Roti (Chapati) ×2187 kcal
- Curd (Dahi) ×190 kcal
Ranked by protein per rupee
| # | What | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soya chunks | Around 52 g of protein per 100 g dry, at roughly a fifth of the price of paneer per gram of protein. Nothing else in an Indian kirana shop comes close. |
| 2 | Kala chana and chole | Cheap, filling, high in fibre, and they turn into four different dishes. Buy dry, not tinned. |
| 3 | Sattu | Roasted gram flour. A glass with water, salt and lemon is about 25 g of protein for a few rupees, and it needs no cooking at all. |
| 4 | Peanuts | Cheapest nut in India by a distance, and a quarter protein by weight. Roasted, not fried and salted. |
| 5 | Dal, all of it | Not the cheapest per gram of protein, but the one you will actually eat twice a day. Chana dal and urad dal carry more than toor. |
| 6 | Curd and milk | Set at home and it is cheaper again. Curd is also the easiest way to add protein to a meal you did not cook. |
| 7 | Paneer | Genuinely high quality protein and genuinely expensive. Treat it as twice a week, not daily — and make it at home from toned milk if you eat it often. |
What actually works
- Protein powder is a convenience, not a requirement.
- It is the most expensive protein in this list per gram. If a tub fits your budget, fine. If it does not, nothing is lost.
- Soak, sprout, ferment.
- All three raise how much of the protein you actually absorb, and all three cost nothing.
- Spread it across the day.
- 60 g of protein in one dinner is not the same as 20 g at three meals. The Indian eating pattern already has five eating occasions — use them.
Put it into a week
Guides are for the awkward days. The plans are for the ordinary ones.
The other awkward days
What people ask about this one
High-protein vegetarian on a real budget?
Most high-protein advice written for India is written for people who can spend three thousand rupees a month on a supplement. This page is the opposite. Every item below is a normal grocery-shop item, and the list is ordered by how much protein your rupee actually buys.
Are these figures exact?
They are computed from Indian food composition data at the serving sizes shown, which makes them a good estimate of home cooking and a conservative estimate of restaurant cooking. A restaurant version of any dish here can run 30 to 60% higher, almost entirely because of fat.
Calories and macros are computed from the ThaliFacts dataset, which is based on the Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (ICMR–NIN), plus the regional dishes estimated for this site and marked est wherever they appear. Energy reconciles against 4P + 4C + 9F on every build. Every source, with the date it was last checked, is listed on the sources page. General information only — not medical or nutrition advice. These are illustrative plans built on average values; they are not prescriptions and cannot account for allergies, conditions or medication.
ਸਰੋਤ·Computed from ThaliFacts food data·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
The people behind these sites
Follow the build
This site and nine others like it are built and photographed by two people: Amit Sharma — behind the build; Geeta Patel — the poses, demonstrated. New work goes up on Instagram and Facebook before it reaches a page here.
Amit Sharma
@amitsharmaofficial
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@geetapatelnz
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Geeta Patel
GeetaPatelYoga
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