How Much Protein Is in Broccoli?

In 2022, Adam went through a phase where he refused almost everything. White rice. Chicken nuggets. That was the entire menu for weeks. I was in Singapore, watching a pediatrician nod at me saying "he'll grow out of it," while I quietly tracked protein intake in a notes app at 10pm like some anxious nutritional accountant. Broccoli was the one green thing he would accept, but only when I called it "tiny trees." I started wondering: could the tiny trees actually be doing something? Were they pulling any protein weight?

How Much Protein Does Broccoli Have?

The honest number: 2.82g of protein per 100g raw, straight from USDA FoodData Central (FDC ID 170379). Chopped raw, that's about 2.5g per cup at 88–91g. Cook it and the cup gets denser. A cup of steamed broccoli at 156g gives you closer to 3.7g (USDA FDC ID 170379).

There's a 4.2g figure floating around for a single broccoli spear that appears in Google's answer box. That number doesn't hold up. At 2.82g per 100g, a 31g spear calculates to about 0.87g. The 4.2g figure likely references a much larger cooked spear. I'd trust the per-100g USDA figure first.

In practical terms, a side serving of broccoli lands somewhere between 2g and 4g of protein depending on portion size and cooking method.

Is Broccoli a Complete Protein?

Broccoli has all 9 essential amino acids, including leucine, lysine, and tryptophan (USDA FDC ID 170379). But having all 9 doesn't make it a complete protein in practice. The limiting factor is methionine, which broccoli is low in. Nutritionists rank protein quality using PDCAAS and DIAAS scores, and broccoli doesn't fare well on those scales compared to animal proteins or edamame.

What "complete protein" really means for daily eating is whether a single food can cover all your amino acid needs reliably. Broccoli can't do that alone. But pair it with legumes, grains, or eggs and those gaps close easily.

Broccoli vs Chicken, Eggs, and Other Vegetables

There's a viral claim that broccoli has more protein than steak. Per calorie, technically true. Broccoli runs about 8.3g of protein per 100 calories (USDA FDC ID 170379). Steak scores lower on that same metric. So yes, equal calories, broccoli "wins."

But here's the number that actually lands: to get 20g of protein from broccoli, you'd need to eat 700g of it. That same 20g from steak? About 80g of meat. The per-calorie comparison looks clever on paper. It's just not how anyone eats.

Source: USDA FoodData Central

Broccoli, spinach, and kale all land within a tenth of a gram of each other. Edamame is where plant protein becomes genuinely practical for hitting daily targets.

Does Cooking Broccoli Change Its Protein?

The protein itself doesn't break down from heat. What changes is water content, which shifts the protein per cup. A cup of steamed broccoli is heavier and more compact than raw, so you're getting more grams of food and more protein per cup.

Where boiling can matter is water-soluble content. When you boil broccoli and discard the water, some amino acids and vitamins leach into the cooking liquid. Steaming keeps more intact. I steam almost everything now anyway, and the texture is better. When I do boil broccoli, I use it in soups where the water becomes the broth.

For more detail, the raw vs cooked nutrients page covers how cooking method affects what you absorb. Broccoli's fiber content holds up well across methods too.

Should You Eat Broccoli for Protein?

Honestly, no. Not as a primary source. I stopped counting the tiny trees toward Adam's protein goals a while ago. The number is real, just not big enough to plan around.

What broccoli does brilliantly is everything else. Vitamin C at 89.2mg per 100g, which is 99% of the daily value. Vitamin K at 102mcg per 100g, 85% of daily value. Fiber, folate, sulforaphane from the glucoraphanin that activates when you cut or chew it (USDA FDC ID 170379). These are the reasons broccoli belongs on the plate. Protein is a bonus, not the argument.

When Alfi needs more protein and doesn't want meat, I'm reaching for eggs, edamame, or beans and rice together, not loading up on broccoli. That's the honest redirect.

If you want to see how chicken and broccoli actually work together to hit protein targets, the chicken and broccoli page explains why that combination became the bodybuilder default.

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