25 High Protein Trader Joe's Recipes

What’s so special about Trader Joe’s? Is it their focus on quality ingredients, unique product offerings, high protein finds, or affordable pricing? I think it’s a combination of all those things and more.

Being able to find lean proteins like 96/4 ground beef and prepared proteins like grilled chicken breast, low carb options like riced cauliflower stir fry and hearts of palm pasta, and a wide variety of fun sauces and seasoning blends makes a weekly TJ’s run a necessity.

April 2026 Update: I first published this post in 2021. We all know Joe likes to occasionally sunset products, even some fan favorites. So I’ve updated the recipe collection to include recipes with currently available Trader Joe’s ingredients.

1. High Protein Teriyaki Noodles

Trader Joe's knife cut noodles, ground turkey, broccoli, and soyaki sauce in a stainless steel pot

What better way to kick things off than with a 4-ingredient recipe? These noodles combine extra lean ground turkey breast and broccoli florets with Trader Joe’s Soyaki sauce and knife cut squiggly noodles. You’ll see these squiggly noodles pop up more than a few times on this list. So, buckle up.

Calories: 465
Protein: 40g
Carbs: 60g
Fat: 8g

Recipe: High Protein Teriyaki Noodles

2. Creamy Red Pepper Pasta with Calabrian Chili Beef

fire roasted red pepper pasta in a green bowl

Ah, our first blended cottage cheese sauce in this collection. This pasta combines Trader Joe’s fire roasted red peppers with low fat cottage cheese to make a super creamy but low calorie pasta sauce for pappardelle.

The pasta is topped with crispy extra lean ground beef that’s been caramelized in a combination of TJ’s Italian Bomba pepper sauce (Calabrian chili paste), balsamic vinegar, honey, and garlic. It’s spicy, fruity and sweet, and ultra savory. So good!

Calories: 465
Protein: 32g
Carbs: 69g
Fat: 7g

Recipe: Creamy Red Pepper Pasta

3. Ground Beef and Zucchini Street Corn Bowls

ground beef and zucchini street corn salad bowls with lime wedges, rice, and tortilla chips

I’m sure you’ve seen the viral street corn salad and ground beef bowls. This version swaps the sweet potatoes for lower calorie roasted zucchini and makes a lower calorie esquites topping. Don’t worry, the honey drizzle is still there to finish things off.

Calories: 315
Protein: 33g
Carbs: 24g
Fat: 9g

Recipe: Beef and Zucchini Street Corn Bowls

4. Creamy Gochujang Noodles with Crispy Beef

a bowl of gochujang knife cut noodles topped with crispy ground beef and green onions

Blend Trader Joe’s gochujang and low fat cottage cheese together to unlock a crazy flavorful sauce for the knife cut squiggly noodles. Then top the creamy noodles with a crispy sesame ground beef and you’re rocking noodle bowls with 40 grams of protein and just 8 grams of fat. For creamy unctuous noodles?!

Calories: 500
Protein: 40g
Carbs: 69g
Fat: 8g

Recipe: Creamy Gochujang Noodles

5. Creamy Gochujang Broth Bowls with Crispy Beef and Rice

gochujang broth in a bowl with steamed rice, beef crumbles, and diced cucumber

I loved the creamy gochujang so much I had to turn it into broth to make another viral trend I’m a big fan of in brothy rice bowls. The creamy gochujang broth is served over steamed jasmine rice (from TJ’s freezer section for convenience) and topped with more crispy sesame beef and fresh cucumber. The serving sizes are big, making this one of the most filling high protein meals in this group.

Calories: 530
Protein: 36g
Carbs: 73g
Fat: 5g

Recipe: Creamy Gochujang Broth Bowls

6. Loaded Burger Bowls

roasted butternut squash zig zags with ground beef crumbles, lettuce, tomato, pickles, cheese, and burger sauce

Burger bowls are great, but it’s not easy to squeeze more than a minuscule serving of french fries into a healthy diet. This recipe swaps standard fries or sweet potato fries for Trader Joe’s butternut squash zig zags, a much lower calorie fries option. Extra lean ground beef is cooked with TJ’s onion salt and a few other ingredients then served with the roasted zig zags, low fat burger sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles.

Calories: 595
Protein: 59g
Carbs: 40g
Fat: 24g

Recipe: High Protein Loaded Burger Bowls

7. Crispy Beef Noodle Bowls

Trader Joe's knife cut squiggly noodles with stir fried coleslaw and crispy ground beef crumbles

Allow me to introduce Trader Joe’s hoisin sauce, arguably my favorite sauce on their shelves. It’s often described as “Asian bbq sauce” and I’d say that’s pretty accurate. It’s very aromatic and umami, and it’s perfect for sprucing up extra lean ground beef and coleslaw mix before tossing with instant noodles.

Calories: 350
Protein: 28g
Carbs: 41g
Fat: 7g

Recipe: Crispy Ground Beef Noodle Bowls

8. Sticky Garlic Chicken Noodle Bowls

a bowl of squiggly noodles with honey garlic ground chicken

This recipe calls for a couple of ingredients you can’t get at Trader Joe’s in chili garlic sauce and Chinese black vinegar, but you can totally swap them for TJ’s sriracha and balsamic vinegar.

Calories: 380
Protein: 34g
Carbs: 50g
Fat: 7g

Recipe: Sticky Honey Garlic Chicken Noodles

9. Pesto Chicken Salad Focaccia Sandwich

holding a quartered pesto chicken salad sandwich on Trader Joe's focaccia

Trader Joe’s focaccia is a star product in their bakery section. It’s not low calorie or macro friendly in any way, but that’s okay when you combine it with a super high protein chicken salad. Combine the TJ’s cashew pesto with their cooked chicken breast, cruciferous crunch collection, blended cottage cheese, and a few other ingredients for a stellar sandwich filling.

Calories: 490
Protein: 33g
Carbs: 55g
Fat: 18g

Recipe: Focaccia Sandwich with Pesto Chicken Salad

10. 20-Minute Cruciferous Crunch Stir Fry

cruciferous crunch chicken stir fry over rice garnished with chili onion crunch in a white bowl

After recipe testing the pesto chicken salad sandwiches, I settled on half a bag of Trader Joe’s Cruciferous Crunch worked best. So, I felt it was only fair that I developed another easy recipe to use the other half of the bag. This stir fry does that by combining the crunch mix with more of the cooked chicken breast and TJ’s Thai sweet ginger sauce.

Calories: 360
Protein: 33g
Carbs: 28g
Fat: 13g

Recipe: High Protein Chicken Stir Fry

11. Beef and Rice Broth Bowls

ground beef, herbs, cucumbers, limes, and rice in a bowl of coconut miso peanut broth

A 20-minute recipe that combines extra lean ground beef cooked in Trader Joe’s hoisin sauce and a few other ingredients with a miso ginger, coconut, and peanut broth. Served over TJ’s steamed jasmine rice. Super flavorful and easy to make

Calories: 490
Protein: 38g
Carbs: 46g
Fat: 15g

Recipe: Crispy Ground Beef and Rice Bowls

12. Sticky Hoisin Beef Noodles

noodle bowl with hoisin steak and knife cut noodles

Trader Joe’s beef shaved steak is a recent discovery with big potential. I passed this product for years, assuming shaved steak was like shaved ribeye or chuck (high fat cuts). So I was surprised when I turned the packaging around to see only 7g fat per serving. I grabbed a few pounds and immediately combined it with my favorite TJ’s hoisin sauce and more Cruciferous Crunch and knife cut noodles. Behold, steak noodle bowls with only 13g fat per serving.

Calories: 495
Protein: 32g
Carbs: 59g
Fat: 13g

Recipe: Hoisin Beef Noodles

13. Black Pepper Beef and Broccoli

beef and broccoli over rice in a green bowl

Next up on the shaved steak development run was a spin on beef and broccoli that uses a homemade black pepper sauce. Served over steamed jasmine rice or a blend of jasmine and cauliflower rice, this stir fry situation is great for a quick weeknight dinner.

Calories: 520
Protein: 30g
Carbs: 68g
Fat: 12g

Recipe: Beef and Broccoli

14. Chili Crunch Chicken Salad

chili crunch chicken salad on a toasted baguette slice

If you can’t tell from this recipe collection so far, I’m a big fan of Asian flavors. So when the cucumber salad trend was at its peak a couple years ago, I had to make a high protein option with chili crunch, green onion, soy sauce, etc. This led me to a great product discovery in Trader Joe’s hardwood smoked chicken in their prepared proteins section. It’s perfect for things like chicken salad, stir fries, sandwiches, and a lot of the recipes in this group.

Calories: 160
Protein: 19g
Carbs: 9g
Fat: 5g

Recipe: Chili Crunch Cottage Cheese Chicken Salad

15. Street Corn Chicken Salad

dipping a tortilla chip in a bowl of street corn chicken salad

Think: esquites meets chicken salad. This makes a really great dip with tortilla chips, baked chicharrones, or fresh pepper boats. You can also make some really great greens salads or lettuce wraps for lower calorie meal options.

Calories: 210
Protein: 26g
Carbs: 16g
Fat: 4g

Recipe: High Protein Street Corn Salad

16. Mongolian Beef

hearts of palm noodles with Mongolian style ground beef

This ground beef spin on Mongolian beef highlights Trader Joe’s hearts of palm noodles to make low carb noodle bowls. If you like the look of all the noodle recipes in this guide but don’t have the carbs to spare, you may want to look at this as an option.

Calories: 165
Protein: 23g
Carbs: 4g
Fat: 4g

Recipe: Mongolian Ground Beef

17. Korean-Inspired Cheesy Gnocchi

cheesy gnocchi in a white bowl topped with beef crumbles and sliced green onion

Similar to the noodles and broth bowls above, this gnocchi dish combines blended Trader Joe’s white miso paste, gochujang, and cottage cheese to make a cheesy and creamy potato gnocchi. Combined with garlic sesame extra lean beef crumbles, this is like the perfect blend of gnocchi bolognese and tteokbokki.

Calories: 475
Protein: 37g
Carbs: 58g
Fat: 10g

Recipe: Cheesy Gochujang Gnocchi

18. Thai Curry Noodle Soup

Thai red curry noodle soup in a bowl with chopsticks and a spoon

Trader Joe’s Thai red (and yellow) curry sauces are one of the best shortcut ingredients you can find. All the chiles and aromatics have already been cooked down and combined for you. In this soup, curry sauce is combined with instant noodles, extra lean ground turkey, and miso ginger broth. All that’s missing is a bit of lime juice and fresh herbs for a quick ‘n’ easy dinner.

Calories: 390
Protein: 30g
Carbs: 45g
Fat: 10g

Recipe: Easy Thai Curry Noodle Soup

19. Creamy Kimchi Noodles

kimchi noodles and a fried eggs with chili oil and sliced scallions

Simultaneously a decent hidden veggies option and a way to get more gut-friendly foods in your diet, these blended kimchi noodles are worth a look. They follow a similar blueprint of blending Trader Joe’s kimchi with low fat cottage cheese to make a sauce for knife cut noodles. Topped with fried eggs, each serving has nearly 30 grams of protein. Not bad for a meatless meal.

Calories: 480
Protein: 27g
Carbs: 70g
Fat: 10g

Recipe: Kimchi Noodles

20. Spicy Chicken Fried Cauliflower Rice

cauliflower rice stir fry with chicken on a white plate

Look, I know we’re all getting tired of cauliflower rice. But Trader Joe’s riced cauliflower stir fry is really solid thanks to the added sesame oil, soy sauce, and other veggies. It’s great on its own or worked into recipes like this chicken fried rice.

Calories: 275
Protein: 31g
Carbs: 8g
Fat: 13g

Recipe: Chicken Fried Cauliflower Rice

21. Low Carb Cheeseburger Skillet

cheeseburger casserole in a cast iron skillet

Pan roasted keto potatoes (radishes) team up with burger beef, sauce, and cheese in this one-pan casserole style meal.

Calories: 325
Protein: 30g
Carbs: 6g
Fat: 16g

Recipe: Low Carb Bacon Cheeseburger Skillet Casserole

22. Cheesy Tex-Mex Rotisserie Chicken Dip

serving cheesy chicken corn dip out of a white bowl with a wooden spoon

If I brush my teeth with BBQ sauce, Trader Joe’s cowboy caviar is my mouthwash. I can’t get enough of the stuff. So when I saw their Kickin’ Corn Dip recipe, I had to make a Kinda Healthy copycat. My version adds pulled rotisserie chicken and the TJ’s light cream cheese to make an ultra creamy, cheesy cowboy caviar dip that’s packed with protein.

Calories: 220
Protein: 22g
Carbs: 12g
Fat: 9g

Recipe: Cheesy Cowboy Caviar Chicken Dip

23. 5-Ingredient Chicken Sausage Pasta for Two

a bowl of sliced chicken sausage with farfalle and burst tomatoes

If you’re not using shallots in your kitchen, this is a great introduction. The shallots and tomatoes in this recipe create this almost jam-like flavor explosion that will have you wondering how a 5-ingredient pasta could ever taste so good.

Calories: 410
Protein: 31g
Carbs: 32g
Fat: 19g

Recipe: Chicken Sausage Pasta for Two

24. Chicken Sausage and Mushroom Cauliflower Gnocchi

cauliflower gnocchi and chicken sausage in a white bowl

Need a one pan meal? This sausage and mushroom gnocchi pairs Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi with, you guessed it, chicken sausage and a spicy tomato sauce.

Calories: 310
Protein: 24g
Carbs: 23g
Fat: 13g

Recipe: Chicken Sausage and Mushroom Cauliflower Gnocchi

25. Italian Chicken Sausage and Veggie Pasta Bake

wooden spatula in a pan of chicken sausage pasta

If you’re not totally down with the cauliflower gnocchi, this pasta will be more your speed. It’s got tons of veggies and is made with farfalle or your choice of wide pasta, which makes for great eating!

Calories: 265
Protein: 20g
Carbs: 27g
Fat: 4g

Recipe: Italian Sausage and Veggie Pasta Bake

A Rough Shopping List

Below you’ll find (mostly) everything you need to make a lot of the recipes in this group. Some things like pantry staples and frozen goods you can stock up on in one trip.

Proteins

extra lean ground beef
ground turkey breast
chicken sausages
beef shaved steak (with only 7g fat per serving)
just chicken/salsa verde chicken/smoked chicken/lemon grilled chicken (as needed)

Pantry Staples

instant knife cut noodles
soyaki sauce
gochujang
chili onion crunch
miso ginger broth
reduced fat coconut milk
hoisin sauce
Italian bomba sauce
chili onion crunch
coconut aminos
toasted sesame oil
maple syrup

Frozen

frozen garlic and ginger cubes
frozen steamed jasmine rice
fajita veggies (onion and pepper blend)
cauliflower rice/cauliflower rice stir fry
fire roasted corn

I’m sure I’m leaving some things off, but that’s a great start. I hope you found this post helpful and have fun cooking.

If you liked this post and are looking for more high protein recipe ideas, check out some of my other collections like cottage cheese, pasta, and rotisserie chicken next!