Plant-Based Proteins
Protein in Broccoli: Protein, Calories, and Meal Ideas
Steamed broccoli is a vegan vegetable with about 2.8 g protein per 100 g serving, so it works best as a supportive, micronutrient-rich side beside a stronger protein source.
Protein per serving
2.8g
100 g steamed broccoli florets / about 3.5 oz
Calories per serving
41
100 g serving
Protein per 100g
2.8g
41 calories per 100 g
Protein density
6.8g
protein per 100 calories
Broccoli Nutrition Snapshot
| Measure | Amount | Protein | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical serving | 100 g steamed broccoli florets / about 3.5 oz | 2.8g | 41 |
| Per 100 g | 100 g | 2.8g | 41 |
| Protein density | 100 calories | 6.8g | 100 |
Representative source entry: Broccoli, cooked, as ingredient. These values fit cooked broccoli. Raw, steamed, boiled, roasted, restaurant, frozen, and oil-cooked entries can vary slightly, and added fat changes calories.
Good for weight loss? Excellent
Broccoli is useful for weight-loss meals because it adds volume and micronutrients for few calories, but the meal still needs a separate protein anchor.
Good for muscle gain? Supportive
Broccoli supports muscle-gain meals with vegetables and micronutrients, but it does not provide enough protein to anchor the meal by itself.
Meal Ideas with Broccoli
Steamed broccoli with chicken breast and rice
Broccoli tofu stir-fry with brown rice
Broccoli chickpea bowl with tahini yogurt sauce
Salmon, sweet potato, and steamed broccoli plate
How to Use Broccoli
Quick Answer
Steamed broccoli florets have about 2.8 g protein per 100 g serving. That makes broccoli a low-protein vegetable by itself, but it is useful as a supportive food because it adds volume, fiber, micronutrients, and a small amount of plant protein.
- Protein class: low because broccoli provides less than 5 g protein per 100 g.
- Protein quality: partial plant protein, so broccoli should support a meal rather than anchor it.
- Best format: steamed, boiled, roasted, or lightly sauteed florets paired with a higher-protein food.
100 g, 1 Cup, and Large Portions
Broccoli searches often ask whether it is high in protein. It is higher than many watery vegetables, but the practical protein amount is still small compared with legumes, soy foods, dairy, eggs, meat, or fish.
- 100 g steamed broccoli florets: about 2.8 g protein and about 35-40 calories.
- A larger 200 g cooked broccoli side: about 5.6 g protein before any oil, cheese, or sauce.
- To get 25 g protein from broccoli alone would require an unrealistic amount of broccoli, so use it as a side.
Raw vs Steamed Broccoli
Raw and cooked broccoli entries are close, but they are not perfectly interchangeable because cooking changes water content and final weight. Steamed florets are a practical tracking format because they are common in meal prep.
- Use cooked weight if you weigh broccoli after steaming, boiling, roasting, grilling, or sauteing.
- Use raw weight if you log raw florets for salads, snacks, or meal prep before cooking.
- Track oil, butter, cheese, breadcrumbs, creamy sauces, and dips separately because they change calories more than protein.
How to Pair Broccoli for Better Protein
Broccoli works best beside a clear protein anchor. In vegan meals, pair it with legumes, soy foods, seitan, grains, or protein powder. In vegetarian or omnivore meals, pair it with eggs, dairy, fish, poultry, or lean meat.
- Vegan pairings: tofu, tempeh, edamame, chickpeas, lentils, black beans, seitan, quinoa, or pea protein.
- Vegetarian pairings: eggs, Greek yogurt sauce, cottage cheese, paneer, skyr, or whey.
- Omnivore pairings: chicken breast, salmon, tuna, shrimp, cod, turkey, lean beef, or pork tenderloin.
Weight Loss and Muscle Gain Notes
Broccoli is useful in high-protein diets because it helps fill the plate for few calories, but it cannot replace a main protein source. Treat it as a nutrient-dense vegetable that makes protein meals more satisfying.
- For weight loss, use broccoli to add plate volume while the protein anchor comes from tofu, beans, fish, chicken, eggs, or dairy.
- For muscle gain, keep broccoli in the meal for micronutrients and digestion-friendly volume, then add rice, potatoes, pasta, or another carb if calories are too low.
- For meal prep, steamed broccoli pairs well with chicken and rice, tofu bowls, salmon plates, lentil bowls, or chickpea salads.
How Broccoli Compares for Protein Density
Broccoli works as a plant-based protein source with about 2.8 g protein and 41 calories per 100 g. That equals 6.8 g protein per 100 calories, or about 14.6 calories per gram of protein. This density number is useful because two foods can both look high protein while one needs far more calories to deliver the same protein target.
Broccoli sits close to the related-food average for protein density, so the best choice usually comes down to calories, preparation, taste, and how easy it is to repeat. Plant protein foods often bring fiber, carbohydrates, fats, or all three along with protein. That makes them useful, but it also means protein density can be very different from lean meat, fish, egg whites, or protein powder. Use the comparison table as a planning shortcut: choose the higher-density option when calories are limited, and choose the more calorie-dense option when appetite is low or muscle-gain meals need to be easier to finish.
| Food | Serving protein | Protein / 100g | Protein / 100 cal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asparagus | 2.2g | 2.2g | 10g |
| Broccoli | 2.8g | 2.8g | 6.8g |
| Artichoke Hearts | 4g | 3.3g | 6.2g |
| Brussels Sprouts | 3.4g | 3.4g | 5.1g |
Best Uses for Broccoli
For Weight Loss or Calorie Control
Broccoli is especially useful in a calorie deficit because the protein serving is strong relative to calories. Build the plate around the protein first, then add vegetables, fruit, potatoes, beans, or grains based on hunger and training needs. For this page's representative serving, 100 g steamed broccoli florets / about 3.5 oz gives about 2.8 g protein. If your meal target is 30 g protein, that is roughly 10.7 typical servings, or about 1071.4 g by weight. This is why weighing the first few servings is useful: it turns a vague protein food into a repeatable meal component.
For Muscle Gain or Higher-Calorie Meals
Broccoli supports muscle-gain meals with vegetables and micronutrients, but it does not provide enough protein to anchor the meal by itself. When using broccoli for muscle gain, the question is not only whether it contains protein; it is whether the whole meal has enough total protein, carbohydrates, and calories to support training. If you need a leaner plant option, compare against tofu, seitan, tempeh, edamame, or pea protein powder. If you need more energy, nuts, seeds, peanut butter, pasta, oats, and quinoa can help. A practical muscle-gain plate is to keep the broccoli portion consistent, then adjust rice, pasta, oats, potatoes, bread, beans, oil, nuts, or dairy up or down depending on your calorie target.
For Meal Prep and Repeatable Tracking
Broccoli is easiest to track when the serving method stays the same from week to week. Choose one default serving, log it with the matching raw, cooked, dry, drained, or label-based entry, and then build meals around that known number. Good repeatable options include Steamed broccoli with chicken breast and rice, Broccoli tofu stir-fry with brown rice, Broccoli chickpea bowl with tahini yogurt sauce, and similar meals where the protein portion is measured before sauces and toppings are added.
Exact Serving Conversions
Serving conversions help when your food scale, recipe, or tracking app uses a different unit than this page. For Broccoli, 1 oz is about 28.35 g and provides roughly 0.8 g protein and 11.6 calories based on the representative per-100-g values. Half of the typical serving gives about 1.4 g protein and 20.5 calories, while a double serving gives about 5.6 g protein and 82 calories.
Use gram targets when precision matters. To get 25 g protein from broccoli, you need about 892.9 g, which is roughly 366.1 calories. To get 30 g protein, use about 1071.4 g and 439.3 calories. To get 40 g protein, use about 1428.6 g and 585.7 calories. These estimates are based on the USDA or representative source entry listed below, so the label on your exact product should win when there is a difference.
| Target | Approx. amount | Calories | Typical servings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25g protein | 892.9g | 366.1 | 8.9x |
| 30g protein | 1071.4g | 439.3 | 10.7x |
| 40g protein | 1428.6g | 585.7 | 14.3x |
Raw, Cooked, Dry, or Label Weight?
The best tracking rule for Broccoli is simple: match the database entry to the state of the food when you weighed it. This page uses Broccoli, cooked, as ingredient as the representative source entry, with the serving shown as 100 g steamed broccoli florets / about 3.5 oz. These values fit cooked broccoli. Raw, steamed, boiled, roasted, restaurant, frozen, and oil-cooked entries can vary slightly, and added fat changes calories.
For plant foods, dry versus cooked weight and brand formulation matter. Beans, grains, pasta, seeds, butters, and powders should be tracked using the form you actually weighed. If you batch cook, portion after cooking only when your tracker entry is also cooked. If you weigh before cooking, use a raw or dry entry and divide the finished batch into servings after cooking. If you are eating a packaged product, the label is normally the most specific source because brands can change water, sodium, sugar, fat, fortification, and serving size.
The most reliable workflow is to choose one method and repeat it: weigh the food, choose the matching raw, cooked, dry, drained, or packaged entry, then log oils, sauces, toppings, sides, and drinks separately. This avoids the most common protein tracking error, which is accidentally counting a prepared meal as if it were a plain serving of broccoli.
Common Mistakes with Broccoli
Most mistakes with Broccoli are not about the protein number itself; they are about matching the wrong food form, ignoring preparation, or forgetting the extra ingredients that travel with the serving. Avoid these issues before comparing your intake against a daily target from the protein calculator.
- Using a generic broccoli entry when the actual food is cooked, raw, flavored, breaded, sweetened, packed in oil, or from a specific brand.
- Counting Broccoli as the entire meal even when the real calorie load comes from oil, dressing, sauce, bread, rice, tortillas, cheese, nuts, or toppings.
- Estimating by eye instead of weighing the first few times. A small portion change can move the meal by 5-15 g of protein or by a few hundred calories for calorie-dense foods.
- For plant foods, dry versus cooked weight and brand formulation matter. Beans, grains, pasta, seeds, butters, and powders should be tracked using the form you actually weighed.
- Use cooked weight when the nutrition entry is for cooked or steamed broccoli.
- Treat broccoli as a vegetable side, not the main protein source.
- Track oil, butter, cheese, breadcrumbs, creamy dips, and sauces separately.
- Pair with tofu, beans, lentils, eggs, fish, chicken, dairy, or seitan when the meal needs more protein.
Building a High-Protein Meal with Broccoli
Start with the protein target, not the recipe name. A light snack might only need 10-20 g protein, while a main meal often works better at 30-45 g protein depending on body size, meal frequency, and training. With Broccoli, a 30 g protein meal is approximately 1071.4 g of the representative food before sides and toppings. If that portion feels too large, combine a smaller amount of broccoli with another protein from the related-food list.
A balanced plate usually needs more than protein. Pair broccoli with a fiber source, a carbohydrate source if you train or need energy, and enough fat to make the meal satisfying. For lower-calorie meals, keep sauces light and increase vegetables. For higher-calorie meals, add rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, oats, beans, dairy, nuts, seeds, avocado, or oil depending on the type of food and your goal.
If the meal is meant to be repeated, write down the exact version that worked: the grams of broccoli, the cooking method, the sides, and the sauce. That gives you a reusable meal template instead of a one-time estimate, and it makes future protein targets easier to hit without redoing the math every day.
Tracking Tips
- Use cooked weight when the nutrition entry is for cooked or steamed broccoli.
- Treat broccoli as a vegetable side, not the main protein source.
- Track oil, butter, cheese, breadcrumbs, creamy dips, and sauces separately.
- Pair with tofu, beans, lentils, eggs, fish, chicken, dairy, or seitan when the meal needs more protein.
Compare Similar Protein Foods
Related Calculators and Guides
Common Questions
How much protein is in 100 g of broccoli?
A 100 g serving of steamed broccoli florets has about 2.8 g protein. That is supportive protein, not enough to make broccoli a main protein source.
Is broccoli high in protein?
No. Broccoli has more protein than some vegetables, but it is still low-protein by weight because it provides less than 5 g per 100 g.
Is broccoli a complete protein?
Broccoli is best treated as a partial plant protein. Pair it with legumes, soy foods, grains, eggs, dairy, fish, poultry, meat, or protein powder depending on your diet.
Is steamed broccoli good for weight loss?
Yes. Steamed broccoli is low in calories and adds volume, but a high-protein weight-loss meal still needs a separate protein anchor.
Does cooking broccoli change the protein?
Cooking mostly changes water content and serving weight. The protein from the broccoli stays low, while added oil, butter, cheese, or sauce can change calories quickly.
Sources reviewed
- USDA FoodData Central: Broccoli, cooked, as ingredient - U.S. Department of Agriculture
- International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise - Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition