Soya bean vs Paneer: nutrition per 100 g

These two vegetarian protein foods are weighed in very different states. Soya bean is listed dry, with only 5.5 g of water per 100 g, while paneer is a fresh cheese holding 52.0 g. Once soaked and cooked, soya beans take up water and their per-100 g values fall a long way. So the figures on this page show what each brings per 100 g as bought, not per 100 g on the plate. Even allowing for that, soya is the denser protein source by a wide margin.

Dry soya bean has 35.6 g of protein per 100 g, about 1.9 times the 18.9 g in paneer, and covers 66 per cent of a man's daily requirement. Paneer still ranks 1st of the three dairy foods in IFCT 2017 for protein. Soya has more energy, 381 kcal against 258 kcal, because it is so dry.

The fats differ in kind. Paneer has 8.85 g of saturated fat per 100 g against 3.09 g in soya, about 2.9 times as much. Soya's fat is mostly polyunsaturated, 11.28 g, including 1310 mg of the plant omega-3 fat ALA, ranking 7th of 203 foods. Soya also has 21.6 g of fibre, while paneer, like every dairy food, has none.

Paneer has 476 mg of calcium per 100 g, ranking 11th of 242 foods and covering 48 per cent of an adult's daily need. Soya has 239 mg, covering 24 per cent, which is still high for a bean. On other minerals soya leads clearly: 8.29 mg of iron against 0.9 mg, about 9.2 times as much; 259 mg of magnesium against 27 mg; and 1613 mg of potassium against 64 mg, ranking 5th of 243 foods. Zinc is 4.01 mg against 2.74 mg.

Soya is also rich in B vitamins. Its 297 micrograms of folate covers 99 per cent of a man's daily need, against 93 micrograms in paneer, and it has 0.59 mg of thiamine against 0.02 mg. Paneer, like milk, is a weak source of iron and of most B vitamins in these tables.

Paneer is the north Indian vegetarian centrepiece: palak paneer, paneer tikka, bhurji, matar paneer, and in Bengal the fresh chhena behind rasgulla and sandesh. Whole soya beans are less common in mainstream kitchens, but they are eaten as bhatmas in Sikkim and Darjeeling, fermented as hawaijar in Manipur and axone in Nagaland, and cooked as curry in Madhya Pradesh, India's main soya state. Tofu works in place of paneer in most recipes. Soya chunks are defatted soya, a different product from the whole bean.