Hi, certified vegan bypasser here! 🤓 It's totally doable, and I've had no issues at all hitting my protein goals both with and without vegan protein water. The protein water has been a big help, but honestly, even if I wasn't vegan I'd still be using the protein water as there are days when I just want to eat vegetables and don't want to deal with heavy seitans.
Speaking of, seitan (wheat meat/faux meats) are the best source of high protein I've found. The best ones can be sourced from good Chinese grocers in the freezer section. If you have a Trader Joes or Wholefoods near you, I expect they'd have a great vegan section. Some examples of the protein counts in the seitans I have access to:
Chinese supermarket Not Pork 100g serve = 165 cal, 21g protein
Chinese supermarket Not Duck 100g serve = 150 cal, 19g protein
Princess G brand "Crispy G" 100g serve = 266 cal, 17g protein
Sayur Not Pork 100g serve = 155 cal, 21g protein
Lamyong is another great faux meat brand. But if you can't source good faux meats, good old tofu comes through:
Firm Tofu (½ cup/126g) = 181 cal, 21.8g protein
Marinate that tofu in something delicious, and fry it up with some asian greens!
Some mung bean pastas are high in protein. Not the nicest wheat pasta substitute, but with a nice tangy tomato sauce and a little vegan Parmesan, it's acceptable. Also check the nutritional info on the back of Gardein products, I think they're pretty easy to find.
Soy milk has about 8g of protein per serve, so that's another way of slipping some extra protein in, especially if you can tolerate protein shakes. Protein fortified soy milk (10g per serve) in a plant based protein shake gives me a whopping 40g of protein in one go, so again, on days when I'm just craving vegetables, I can do a shake for breakfast and a protein water or two throughout the day and easily hit my goals.
Some vegetables are also higher in protein, like edamame, but I honestly just stick with protein water and seitans, as that's what I enjoy.
Hope that helps!