Protein is the one nutrient almost everyone under-eats and over-complicates. You don't need powders, macros apps, or a fridge full of chicken breast to get enough of it, you need a handful of genuinely protein-dense foods you actually enjoy, eaten consistently. Here are ten of the best, plus an honest look at the protein inside bone broth and how to use it properly.
How Much Protein Do You Actually Need?
The official minimum is around 0.8g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight — but that figure is the amount needed to avoid deficiency, not the amount needed to thrive. Most research on body composition, healthy ageing, and recovery points somewhere higher:
- Generally active adults: 1.2–1.6g per kg of bodyweight per day
- Training hard or building muscle: 1.6–2.2g per kg per day
- Over 50: toward the higher end — muscle becomes harder to build and easier to lose
For a 65kg woman, that's roughly 80–105g a day. Spread across three meals, it's around 25–35g per sitting — which sounds like a lot until you see what that actually looks like on a plate.
The 10 High-Protein Foods Worth Building Your Day Around
1. Bone Broth — 21g per cup
Our Chicken Bone Broth delivers 42g of protein per 500ml bottle — 21g per cup, from nothing but whole chicken, water, and real aromatics. It's the rare protein source that's also a hot drink: no chewing, no cooking, no digestive effort. If you struggle to eat in the morning or want something restorative after training, this is the easiest protein you'll get all day. (More on exactly what kind of protein below — it matters.)
2. Edamame — 18g per cup
Young green soybeans, steamed and salted. A cup of shelled edamame gives you around 18g of complete plant protein plus 8g of fibre — a combination almost nothing else in the plant kingdom manages. Unlike most plant proteins, soy contains all nine essential amino acids in useful amounts, so it stands on its own without needing to be paired with grains. Keep a bag in the freezer: five minutes of steaming turns it into the best high-protein snack there is.
3. Chicken Breast — 31g per 100g
The benchmark for a reason. Skinless chicken breast is roughly 31g of protein per 100g cooked with very little fat, and it carries whatever flavour you give it. Poach it in broth rather than water and you build protein on protein.
4. Greek Yoghurt — 17g per 170g pot
Strained yoghurt loses the whey liquid and keeps the protein, which is why a single pot delivers around 17g — roughly double regular yoghurt. It's also rich in live cultures, so it feeds the gut while it feeds the muscle. Choose full-fat and unsweetened; the flavoured versions can carry as much sugar as dessert.
5. Wild Salmon — 25g per 100g
Around 25g of protein per 100g, alongside the omega-3 fats (EPA and DHA) that lower inflammation and support brain and heart health. Very few foods do protein and anti-inflammatory fats at the same time this well. Two portions a week is a reasonable target.
6. Eggs — 6g each
The reference protein — eggs score so highly on amino acid quality and absorbability that nutrition science measures other foods against them. At roughly 6g each, a three-egg omelette is 18g before you've added anything. Eat the yolk: that's where the choline, vitamin D, and B12 live.
7. Cottage Cheese — 25g per cup
Quietly one of the most protein-dense foods in any supermarket, at around 25g per cup. It's mostly casein — a slow-digesting protein that releases amino acids gradually over several hours, which makes it a genuinely good thing to eat before bed.
8. Lentils — 18g per cooked cup
Around 18g of protein per cooked cup, plus 15g of fibre, iron, and folate. Lentils are low in the amino acid methionine, so pair them with rice, quinoa, or a spoonful of yoghurt to round out the profile. Cook them in bone broth instead of water and you cover the gap and deepen the flavour in one move.
9. Tempeh — 19g per 100g
Fermented whole soybeans, pressed into a firm cake. At about 19g per 100g it out-proteins tofu, and the fermentation makes its minerals more absorbable and its fibre easier on the gut. Firm, nutty, and it holds up to a hot pan far better than tofu does.
10. Pumpkin Seeds — 9g per 30g handful
The most protein-dense seed worth snacking on, at roughly 9g per small handful, plus magnesium and zinc — two minerals that quietly govern sleep quality, recovery, and immune function. Scatter them over yoghurt, salads, or a bowl of soup.
Let's Talk About the Protein in Bone Broth
Bone broth gets described as "high protein" so often that the detail gets lost — and the detail is the interesting part. What's actually in the cup is not the same protein you get from a chicken breast, and understanding the difference is what lets you use it well.
It's Collagen Protein — and That's a Specific Thing
When bones, joints, and connective tissue are simmered for 16 hours, the collagen inside them breaks down into gelatin, and gelatin breaks down further into collagen peptides — short chains of amino acids small enough for your body to absorb and put to work. That's where the protein in broth comes from, and it has an unusual amino acid signature: extremely high in glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline, which are exactly the amino acids your body needs to rebuild its own connective tissue.
Glycine
Roughly a third of collagen protein is glycine — a proportion you'll find in almost no other food. Glycine calms the nervous system, supports deep sleep, feeds the production of glutathione (your body's master antioxidant), and helps regulate inflammation in the gut lining. Modern diets built on muscle meat are notably short of it, because we stopped eating the parts of the animal where it lives.
Proline & Hydroxyproline
These two are the structural backbone of collagen itself. Supplying them directly gives your body the raw materials to rebuild skin, tendons, cartilage, and the gut wall — the tissues that degrade first as collagen production naturally declines from your mid-twenties onward.
Glutamine
The preferred fuel of the cells lining your intestines. When the gut is inflamed or working hard, those cells burn through glutamine faster than the body replaces it. Broth delivers it in a form that's ready to use immediately.
The Honest Part: Collagen Isn't a Complete Protein
Collagen is low in tryptophan and light on a few other essential amino acids, which means it shouldn't be the only protein you eat. That's not a flaw — it's a job description. Bone broth is a complement: it supplies the specific amino acids that muscle meat, eggs, and dairy leave out, while those foods supply what collagen lacks. Eat both and you cover the whole spectrum, which is exactly how humans ate for most of history — the muscle and the bones.
Chicken or Beef?
Our Chicken Bone Broth is the protein one — 42g per bottle, bright with young ginger and wild turmeric, and built for muscle repair, recovery, and daily sipping. Our Beef Bone Broth is the collagen one — richer, deeper, more umami, drawn from Galician grass-fed bones, and aimed squarely at skin, joints, and gut lining. Most people who take this seriously drink both, and alternate.
A Day That Adds Up Without Trying
Protein targets look intimidating until you map them out. Here's what an unremarkable, non-restrictive day actually adds up to:
- On waking: a warm cup of Chicken Bone Broth — 21g
- Breakfast: three-egg omelette with a pot of Greek yoghurt after — 35g
- Lunch: salmon fillet over lentils, pumpkin seeds on top — 52g
- Afternoon: a bowl of steamed edamame — 18g
- Dinner: tempeh or chicken with vegetables — 30g
That's around 155g — comfortably past what most people need, so scale the portions to your own target rather than copying it wholesale. The point isn't the total. It's that no powders and no counting were involved: just protein-dense food, eaten at every point in the day where you were going to eat anyway.
Start With the Easiest One
If you change one thing this week, make it the first cup of the day. A warm mug of broth before coffee is 21g of protein, a dose of collagen and glycine your diet is almost certainly missing, and roughly thirty seconds of effort — the kind of habit that holds because it never asked much of you in the first place.
At The Broth Bar we slow-simmer for 16 hours. No powders, no concentrates, no additives — just bones, water, and time. Start with the Chicken Bone Broth for protein, the Beef Bone Broth for collagen, or take the Bundle and stop choosing.
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