Chickpeas vs Tofu

Chickpeas and tofu are both filed under plant protein, but only one is protein-first: firm tofu carries 17.3g of protein per 100g against chickpeas' 8.86g. That is close to double, and it comes for fewer calories: 144 against 164. Per 100 calories that gap widens to 12g of protein against 5.4g. If you are swapping one for the other to hit a protein number, the swap is not one-for-one — matching tofu's 17.3g from chickpeas takes about 195g of them, which costs 320 calories instead of 144.

The reason is that they are not the same kind of food. Chickpeas are a carbohydrate that happens to carry protein: 27.4g of carbohydrate per 100g against tofu's 2.78g, nearly ten times as much, and 7.6g of fiber against 2.3g, more than three times. Net of fiber that is 19.8g against 0.48g, a gap wide enough to decide on its own whether either one fits a low-carb day. Tofu pays for its protein in fat instead — 8.72g against 2.59g, and 1.26g of that saturated against 0.27g. Neither of those is a fault; they are two different jobs on a plate.

Two of the biggest gaps on this page are gaps between preparations, not between foods, and both are written on the labels. Tofu shows 683mg of calcium against 49mg, about fourteen times more — but this row is firm tofu set with calcium sulfate, so the coagulant is inside the figure. What a differently set tofu reads is not something this page holds a row for. The chickpea row shows 243mg of sodium against 14mg, about seventeen times more — and that row is chickpeas boiled with salt, so the number describes the cooking as much as the legume; there is no unsalted chickpea row here to say where it would land. Iron is the honest tie: 2.89mg against 2.66mg, within a quarter of a milligram.