10 High Protein Legumes You Should Add to Your Kids Diet

Legumes are a good choice of protein for kids because they are versatile in culinary use, from curries and cutlets to wraps and sandwiches, they go well in most of the recipes. This article discusses what are legumes, suggests high protein beans and legumes, which legume has highest protein along with high protein legume recipes, highlighting some interesting legume recipe for kids.

Table of contents

• Why Legumes Are a Protein Powerhouse
• What Are Legumes?
• Top 10 High Protein Legumes You Need to Know
• High Protein Beans and Legumes: The Complete Nutritional Picture
• High Protein Legume Recipes For Kids
• How to Include More Legumes in Your Daily Diet
• Conclusion

Why Legumes Are a Protein Powerhouse

Legumes are plant based foods which provide high amounts of protein and hence are called a protein powerhouse. Legumes also offer other nutrients of importance such as energy, fiber, vitamins and minerals.¹

What Are Legumes?

Protein rich legumes are a staple in many diets around the globe and form part of third-largest family of flowering plants, called Leguminosae or Fabaceae family. Examples: Beans (kidney beans, moong beans, soybean), fresh green peas, chickpeas, horse gram, etc.²

Legumes vs pulses – quick distinction:

A legume refers to any plant including stems, leaves, and pods from the Leguminosae family. The pulse is the edible seed in the legume plant and includes lentils, peas, and beans. Example- pea inside the pod is a pulse, and the pea pod is a legume.²

Role in a vegetarian and vegan diet:

Legumes are best sources of protein in a vegetarian diet and the most important one in a vegan diet. In a vegetarian diet, after dairy foods, high protein legumes are the preferred choice for protein foods. In a vegan diet, protein rich legumes form the major source of protein along with nuts and seeds.³

Top 10 High Protein Legumes You Need to Know⁴:

1. Kidney beans (Rajma)
2. Green gram (Moong beans)
3. Soybean
4. Black gram (Urad)
5. Fresh green peas (Matar)
6. Chickpeas (Chana)
7. Dried peas (Vatana)
8. Horse gram (Kulith)
9. Brown lentils (Whole masoor)
10. Moth beans (Matki)

High Protein Beans and Legumes: The Complete Nutritional Picture (Per 100g)

The table below displays nutritional profile of high protein beans and legumes. It also includes information on legumes protein per 100g⁴–

Which legume has highest protein? Soybean is the legume having highest protein content, providing 35.5g legume protein per 100g.

All protein rich legumes also provide good amounts of fiber. Fiber from high protein legumes helps in easy defecation and prevents constipation. This also helps maintain healthy gut flora in our body, preventing various diseases. If your child is a picky eater and takes out vegetable pieces from food, sneaking high protein beans and legumes in various dishes can help support fiber intake.

High Protein Legume Recipes For Kids

Here are some protein rich legume recipes that your child would enjoy without any fuss-

• Sprouts tikki: Steam and blend moong or matki sprouts along with vegetables and spices to for a delicious sprouts tikki. Pan fry and enjoy as protein rich snack or use it as stuffing in roti wraps for an on-the-go meal.
• Beans curry with rice/Rajma chawal: Swap your regular dal with rajma curry as rajma is a high protein legume and is loved by many kids.
• Brown lentil tikki: Another addition to tikkis list is high protein legume “brown lentil tikki”. This comes in handy when you’ve forgotten to sprout legumes. Just soak brown lentil for a few hours or overnight, blend with spices, pan fry and voila! Quick legume recipe for kids is done.
• Soya tikki: If your child is a meat lover and you are looking for an alternative to chicken cutlets with a similar taste and texture, soychunks tikki is the best fit and also has the highest legume protein per 100g. Simply soak soychunks in hot water, squeeze out excess water, blend with spices, and you are ready to pan fry and relish.
• Beans Sandwich: Your regular potato sandwich is all calories, and no protein. Boil and mash any of these high protein beans and legumes for a tasty yet healthy sandwich filling.
• Lobia dosa: Swap regular rice dosa with this high protein legume recipe made from black eyed beans (lobia). Blend soaked lobia with water and spices to get a smooth batter for dosa and swirl into a crispy dosa.
• Matar paratha: Stuff in mashed matar into plain paratha for a nutritious enhancement and an easy legume recipe for kids.
• Chickpea falafel: This middle-eastern recipe has now become quite common in India. This is among the high protein legume recipes made from chickpeas that are soaked and blended with spices to form small round falafel balls that are fried or baked. Enjoyed as it with hummus like a snack or roll into a wrap for a complete meal.

How to Include More Legumes in Your Daily Diet:

• To get a protein punch, add legumes to salads
• Enjoy legume curries with rice or roti
• Include legume based snacks such as dosa, chana chaat, ragda, etc.
• Add legume flour to roti atta to improve protein content and quality

Conclusion:

We have understood what are legumes, which legume has highest protein, high protein legume recipes and legume recipes for kids. Proteins are important for wear and tear, repair and growth and maintaining immunity levels in your child. At times you may be unable to meet nutritional needs through foods alone. To support nutritional care, you can add a nutritional drink like Complan to their balanced diet. It provides 63% more protein than the leading malt-based nutrition drink and total of 34 vital nutrients to support growth and development.

Source:

1. Guo F, Danielski R, Santhiravel S, Shahidi F. Unlocking the Nutraceutical Potential of Legumes and Their By-Products: Paving the Way for the Circular Economy in the Agri-Food Industry. Antioxidants (Basel). 2024;13(6):636. Published 2024 May 24. doi:10.3390/antiox13060636

2. Legumes and Pulses, The Nutrition Source, Available at: https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/legumes-pulses/. Accessed on 3^rd July 2025.

3. Mariotti F, Gardner CD. Dietary Protein and Amino Acids in Vegetarian Diets-A Review. Nutrients. 2019;11(11):2661. Published 2019 Nov 4. doi:10.3390/nu11112661

4. T. Longvah, R. Ananthan, K. Bhaskarachary and K. Venkaiah, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017.