But if you're vegan or otherwise don't eat eggs, you can make some easy swaps. (2024)

Those are the top nutrients that vegetarians may fall short on, Tara Ostrowe, MS, RD, a New York City-based registered dietitian and exercise physiologist, tells BuzzFeed Life.

An app like Wholesome can help you log what you eat every day, and it'll tell you how close you are to your daily recommended allowance of each nutrient. It can also give you tips for which foods you might want to eat to hit the nutrients you're low on.

Pictured above are cheesy black-bean–stuffed sweet potatoes with poached eggs, which come with 19 grams of protein (and 365 calories). Get the recipe here, and check out 22 High-Protein Meatless Meals For Under 400 Calories for a few more ideas.

"Something I do to ease my clients into becoming vegetarian is I encourage them to mix base proteins and animal meat until they're able to wean themselves off," Nita Sharda, RD, owner of Carrots and Cake Balanced Nutrition Consulting, tells BuzzFeed Life.

Some examples: "If you're making beef patties for the grill, add in a handful of lentils to the beef mixture, and that way you're easing your taste buds into the taste a bit," Sharda says. Or if you're going to make a chili, use less ground beef and double the amount of beans you'd normally use. Or when you're making tacos, use less meat and add in a can of lentils. You get the idea.

Pictured above is an easy vegetarian chili that you can ease into if you'd like.

Not that there's anything wrong with protein powder. But before you turn to supplements, you might want to try natural sources of protein like cottage cheese, peanut butter, almond butter, and Greek yogurt, Sharda says. Here are 17 Natural Ways To Add Protein To Your Smoothies for some more ideas.

Pictured above is a fruit and yogurt smoothie. Get the recipe here.

There are two types of iron, Sharda says — the kind that comes from animals, and the kind that comes from plant-based foods and grains. Unfortunately, the iron from plants and grains doesn't absorb into your body as well as animal-based iron. So vegetarians need to eat a lot MORE iron than non-vegetarians, in order to get as much as they need.

(Here's what the CDC recommends in terms of daily iron intake. But, again, you'll likely want to eat much more than that, so that your body actually absorbs the right amount.)

Plant-based foods rich in iron include beans, lentils, kale, spinach, soy, and more. That kale and black bean burrito pictured above from Cookie and Kate is a good place to start. And here are 26 recipes that will make you fall even more in love with kale, if it helps.

Add blueberries to your oatmeal and bell peppers to your brown rice, for example. Or any combo of a food with vitamin C + a food with iron. That's because eating vitamin C alongside iron can help your body absorb more of the iron than if you'd just eaten the iron all by itself, Ostrowe says.

Get the recipe for that blueberry banana-nut oatmeal here. And here are a few different ways to eat more vitamin C, if you need some ideas.

If you're not super active, Ostrowe recommends aiming for roughly a gram of protein per kilogram of body weight, or a little less. She suggests finding your weight in kilograms and then multiplying that by 0.8 to 1 — that's how many grams of protein you should eat in a day. So, for example, a 150-pound woman would weigh 68 kilograms. 68 x 0.8 = 54.4. So she would want to aim for between 54.4 grams of protein and 68 grams of protein per day.

THAT SAID, the number goes up with your activity level. "If you're working out regularly, you'd multiply that number by 1.2 to 1.4; and if someone is working out hard and is a competitive athlete, your needs would be 1.6 to 2.2 times that number," Ostrowe says.

That means:

Regularly working out = 81 to 95 grams of protein per day if you're at 150 pounds (68 kilograms)

Competitive athlete = 109 to 150 grams of protein per day

Kale, collard greens, broccoli, and spinach all have calcium in them, as do soybeans and almonds.

You can get the recipe for that bean artichoke spinach cauliflower burger here.

Eggs are a GREAT source of protein — about seven grams per egg, Ostrowe says. Here's exactly how to boil an egg, if that's what you like. And here are 31 of the most delicious things you can do with eggs, for some more inspiration.

Here's a starter guide on egg substitutions.

The perfect lunch to prep on Sundays and grab and go each morning. Here are 18 Mason jar salads that make perfect healthy lunches.

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Both Ostrowe and Sharda recommend that their vegetarian clients take vitamin D supplements, because it can be incredibly hard to get with limited sunlight and no meat. (Dairy has some, but usually not enough to keep you from being deficient.)

Proteins are made up of amino acids — essential amino acids, and non-essential amino acids, Sharda says. "To make sure you're getting a good complement of all the different amino acids, you want to make sure you're eating a variety," she says.

Make sure you eat a variety of sources of protein every single day. "Certain vegetables will give you some protein, grains will give you protein, beans, lentils, tofu, tempeh, hummus, and more," Ostrowe says.

Here are 12 Complete Proteins Vegetarians Need To Know About, via Greatist.

Here are 13 Different Ways To Make Hummus, via Shape.

When you boil vegetables the vitamins can escape into the water, Ostrowe says. That's all good if you're making soup, but if you're just going to be taking the veggies out of the water, you're losing a lot of the nutrients you'd otherwise get. Steam them instead, if you have the choice.

That said, if you prefer boiled (or stir-fried) veggies to steamed...have at it. Preparing veggies in a way that makes them tasty and enjoyable means you'll be more likely to want to eat them! If you're going to boil, steam, or microwave, Kid Spot has you covered.

"I don't think you need a specific repertoire of gadgets to help you become a vegetarian or do it nutritionally," Sharda says. That said, having a slow cooker will definitely be helpful in prepping beans and lentils. And a blender can be GREAT for all those smoothies.

That vegetarian red lentil dal pictured above was made in a slow cooker, for example. Get the recipe here.

"I always try to reiterate to my vegetarian clients that it’s always about the purpose and their intentions," Sharda says, "to always get them to pause and reflect on why they’re choosing this". If you're choosing to eat vegetarian because of environmental reasons, there are ways to do it that are more environmentally friendly: by eating foods that are in-season and locally grown, for instance. If you have the option to join a CSA, that might be a great way to start.

Image from The Best American Infographics.