Quick answer: This vegan salad has 32 grams of protein and 11 grams of fiber per serving, at 400 calories. Crispy tofu and edamame over shredded red cabbage and carrot, in a sesame lime dressing. It takes about 20 minutes and serves 3. Both protein sources are soy, which means both are complete proteins.
Most vegan salads don’t reach a real protein number. They reach 12 grams, call it high protein because there are chickpeas in it, and leave you hungry.
The way around that isn’t a bigger portion — it’s pairing two concentrated sources. Here it’s tofu and edamame, which between them supply 29 of the 32 grams. Both are soy, both contain all nine essential amino acids, and neither needs to be combined with a grain to “complete” anything.
It’s also the highest-fiber recipe in the high protein salad collection after the lentil salad, at 11 grams per serving — roughly a third of a day’s target.
Why This Vegan Salad Has 32 Grams of Protein
| Source | Per serving |
|---|---|
| Firm tofu (100 g) | 17.3 g |
| Edamame (100 g shelled) | 11.9 g |
| Cabbage, carrot, sesame seeds and dressing | 3.0 g |
| Total | 32.2 g |
Neither soy source gets there alone at a sensible portion — 100 grams of tofu is 17 grams of protein, and you’d need close to 300 grams of it to match this salad. Together, at 100 grams each, they clear 29 without either portion looking unreasonable.
On complete proteins: soybeans are one of the few plant foods containing all nine essential amino acids in useful proportions. The old advice about combining beans and rice at every meal doesn’t apply to soy, and it’s the reason tofu and edamame do the work here that lentils or chickpeas couldn’t.
What You Need
Serves 3.
For the salad
- 10.5 oz firm tofu (300 g), about ¾ of a standard block
- 2 cups shelled edamame, cooked (300 g)
- 2½ cups shredded red cabbage (200 g)
- 1⅓ cups grated carrot (150 g), about 2 medium
- 4 scallions, sliced (40 g)
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds (10 g)
For the sesame lime dressing
- 1½ tablespoons toasted sesame oil (20 g)
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (30 g), about 1 lime
- 4 teaspoons soy sauce (20 g)
- 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger (10 g)
- 2 small cloves garlic, grated (6 g)
Notes on the ones that matter:
Firm tofu, not silken or soft. Silken tofu will not crisp under any circumstances — it disintegrates. Extra-firm works too and needs less pressing.
Frozen shelled edamame is the practical option and is what these figures assume. Boil for 4 to 5 minutes, drain, and cool. Fresh in the pod is lovely and takes three times as long to prepare.
Red cabbage rather than green. It holds its crunch longer against dressing, and the color makes a bowl of beige tofu look like a meal.
Toasted sesame oil is for the dressing only. It has a low smoke point and turns acrid in a hot pan — see the method below.
How to Get Tofu Actually Crisp
This is the whole recipe, technically speaking. Everything else is chopping.
Press it properly, for at least 15 minutes. Wrap the block in paper towels or a clean dish towel, put it on a plate, and weigh it down with something heavy — a skillet, a few cans, a full kettle. Skipping this step is the single reason tofu ends up as a pale sponge instead of crisping: water inside the block turns to steam in the pan, and steamed tofu cannot brown.
Cut into cubes of about ¾ inch, and dry the cut faces too.
Use a hot nonstick pan, dry. Firm tofu releases enough of its own fat to brown without added oil, and this is why the sesame oil stays in the dressing. Get the pan properly hot before the tofu goes in.
Then leave it alone. Four to five minutes per side without moving anything. Tofu sticks at first and releases itself once a crust forms — if you try to turn it early, you tear the crust off and it never recovers. Turn twice, not six times.
Optional: a cornstarch coating. Tossing the pressed cubes in a tablespoon of cornstarch before they hit the pan gives a noticeably crisper, more uniform shell. It also requires a little oil in the pan to work properly. It adds roughly 20 calories and 4 grams of carbohydrate per serving beyond the figures on this page, plus whatever oil you use.
How to Make It
- Press the tofu for at least 15 minutes under something heavy, then cube it and pat the cut faces dry.
- Cook the edamame for 4 to 5 minutes in boiling water, drain, and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking.
- Shred the cabbage and grate the carrot while the tofu presses.
- Whisk the dressing: sesame oil, lime juice, soy sauce, grated ginger and garlic.
- Crisp the tofu in a hot dry nonstick pan, 4 to 5 minutes per side, turning only twice.
- Toss the cabbage, carrot, scallions and edamame with the dressing, then add the hot tofu on top and scatter with sesame seeds.
Tips
Dress the vegetables, not the tofu. If the tofu goes into the dressing it softens within minutes and you’ve undone the work. Toss everything else, then place the tofu on top.
Add the tofu hot. The contrast between warm crisp tofu and cold crunchy cabbage is most of the pleasure here, and it lasts about ten minutes.
Salt the cabbage if you have time. Fifteen minutes with a pinch of salt, then squeezed dry, makes shredded cabbage noticeably less watery. It also seasons it from the inside, which matters in a bowl this large.
Grate the ginger and garlic rather than chopping. In a dressing with no emulsifier, chopped pieces sit at the bottom of the bowl. Grated, they disperse.
A Note on Sodium
At 442 mg per serving, this is one of the lower-sodium recipes on the site. Almost all of it — 1,099 mg of the recipe’s 1,327 mg total — comes from the soy sauce.
That makes it unusually easy to adjust. Reduced-sodium soy sauce contains roughly 40% less, which would bring the salad to about 295 mg per serving with no change in flavor that most people would notice. Tamari behaves the same way and is the gluten-free option.
Substitutions
Tempeh instead of tofu works and carries slightly more protein. It’s firmer, nuttier, and doesn’t need pressing.
Green cabbage or a bagged slaw mix in place of red cabbage. A slaw mix saves the shredding and costs you nothing nutritionally.
Lime → rice vinegar if you have no lime. Slightly less bright, equally effective.
Peanut butter for a richer dressing: a tablespoon whisked in turns this into a satay-style bowl and adds about 30 calories and 1.3 grams of protein per serving.
Add-ins worth trying: sliced red chili, chopped cilantro, cucumber ribbons, or a handful of roasted peanuts for crunch.
Storage
Undressed components: 3 days. Assembled: same day.
Crisp tofu does not survive refrigeration — it goes leathery, and reheating helps only partly. This is a salad to eat when you make it.
If you want it for lunches, prepare the cabbage, carrot and edamame ahead and keep the dressing separate. Then press and crisp the tofu fresh, which takes 10 minutes. Alternatively, skip crisping altogether and use the tofu cubed and marinated in the dressing — different salad, still 32 grams of protein, and it keeps 3 days.
For a vegetarian salad genuinely built for the fridge, the chicken and quinoa mason jar salad format works well with the tofu swapped in.
High Protein Edamame and Crispy Tofu Salad
Ingredients
Method
- Press the tofu under something heavy for at least 15 minutes, then cut it into ¾-inch cubes and pat the cut faces dry.
- Boil the edamame for 4 to 5 minutes, drain, and rinse under cold water.
- Shred the cabbage, grate the carrot and slice the scallions.
- Whisk the sesame oil, lime juice, soy sauce, grated ginger and garlic together.
- Heat a nonstick pan until hot and add the tofu dry, without oil. Cook 4 to 5 minutes per side without moving it, turning only twice, until golden and crisp.
- Toss the cabbage, carrot, scallions and edamame with the dressing, then top with the hot tofu and scatter with sesame seeds. Serve immediately.
Notes
- The sesame oil is for the dressing only. It has a low smoke point and turns bitter in a hot pan.
- Reduced-sodium soy sauce brings the salad from 442 mg to about 295 mg of sodium per serving.
- For a crisper shell, toss the pressed tofu in a tablespoon of cornstarch and use a little oil in the pan. This adds roughly 20 calories and 4 g of carbohydrate per serving.
Nutrition
Per serving (recipe makes 3):
| Calories | 400 |
| Protein | 32 g |
| Carbohydrates | 26 g |
| Fiber | 11 g |
| Fat | 23 g |
| Sodium | 442 mg |
These figures are calculated ingredient by ingredient from a USDA-sourced nutrition database and divided by the serving count. They’re calculated values rather than laboratory-tested ones, and they’ll shift with your brands — tofu in particular varies between manufacturers, with protein content ranging from about 12 to 18 grams per 100 g. Edamame is a cooked, shelled weight. Carbohydrates include fiber, so net carbs are about 14 grams per serving. The figures assume the tofu is crisped dry, without added oil.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much protein is in this vegan salad?
32 grams per serving. About 17 grams come from 100 g of firm tofu and 12 from 100 g of shelled edamame, with the rest from the cabbage, carrot, sesame seeds and dressing.
Is tofu a complete protein?
Yes. Soybeans contain all nine essential amino acids in useful proportions, which makes both tofu and edamame complete proteins. Unlike most plant foods, they don’t need to be paired with a grain — which is exactly why this salad reaches 32 grams without any rice, quinoa or bread in it.
Why won’t my tofu get crisp?
Almost always water. Tofu that hasn’t been pressed releases moisture in the pan, that moisture becomes steam, and steamed tofu can’t brown. Press the block under something heavy for at least 15 minutes, dry the cut faces, use a properly hot pan, and don’t move the cubes for the first four minutes — tofu sticks until a crust forms and then releases on its own.
Can I make this salad ahead of time?
The vegetables and dressing can be prepared up to 3 days ahead, but crisp tofu doesn’t survive the fridge — it turns leathery. Either crisp the tofu fresh, which takes 10 minutes, or skip crisping and marinate the cubes in the dressing instead. The marinated version keeps 3 days and has the same protein.
What can I use instead of tofu?
Tempeh works directly and carries slightly more protein, with a firmer texture and no pressing needed. Doubling the edamame is the other option, though the salad loses its textural contrast.
More High Protein Salads
This is one of fifteen recipes in the high protein salad collection, grouped by no-cook, low carb, vegetarian and meal prep, with protein and calories compared across all fifteen.
Made this? Leave a rating and tell me how it went in the comments — especially if you changed something that worked.
The crispy tofu and edamame gave this a lot more texture than most vegetarian salads. Pressing the tofu first took a little extra time, but it was worth it because the tofu actually browned instead of steaming.