High fiber vegetables, from lentils to lettuce
Most high fiber vegetables lists bury the actual answer: legumes. A cup of cooked lentils carries about 15.6 g of fiber, black beans about 15 g. Cooked broccoli lands near 5 g per cup, raw spinach under 1 g.
A fiber in vegetables chart, sorted by serving
These are approximate USDA values for a common serving, cooked unless noted. Per-100-gram tables flatter leafy greens; per-serving numbers show what actually lands on a plate.
| Vegetable or legume | Serving | Fiber |
|---|---|---|
| Navy beans, cooked | 1 cup | ~19 g |
| Split peas, cooked | 1 cup | ~16 g |
| Lentils, cooked | 1 cup | ~15.6 g |
| Black beans, cooked | 1 cup | ~15 g |
| Chickpeas, cooked | 1 cup | ~12.5 g |
| Kidney beans, cooked | 1 cup | ~11 g |
| Acorn squash, baked | 1 cup cubed | ~9 g |
| Green peas, cooked | 1 cup | ~9 g |
| Edamame, shelled | 1 cup | ~8 g |
| Artichoke, cooked | 1 medium | ~7 g |
| Broccoli, cooked | 1 cup chopped | ~5 g |
| Carrots, cooked | 1 cup sliced | ~4.7 g |
| Spinach, cooked | 1 cup | ~4.3 g |
| Brussels sprouts, cooked | 1 cup | ~4 g |
| Green beans, cooked | 1 cup | ~4 g |
| Sweet potato, baked with skin | 1 medium | ~3.8 g |
| Russet potato, baked with skin | 1 medium | ~3.8 g |
| Beets, cooked | 1 cup | ~3.4 g |
| Cauliflower, cooked | 1 cup | ~2.9 g |
| Kale, cooked | 1 cup | ~2.6 g |
| Romaine lettuce, raw | 1 cup shredded | ~1 g |
| Spinach, raw | 1 cup | ~0.7 g |
Legumes are the category that moves the number
Beans, lentils, split peas and chickpeas are legumes; US guidance counts them in both the vegetable and protein groups, which is why vegetable lists tend to skip them and top out around 5 g a serving.
The fiber in beans runs roughly 11–19 g per cooked cup depending on variety, with black beans near 15 g. The fiber in lentils is about 15.6 g per cup, split peas about 16 g. Even a half-cup side delivers 6–9 g — more than a cup of leafy greens.
That gap is hard to see by eyeballing a plate, since the salad looks like the bigger pile. Fiber Tracker, a fiber tracking app for iPhone, tends to make it obvious fast — salad-heavy days often land about 10 g short of bean-heavy ones that felt like the same amount of food.
Cooked versus raw changes the serving, not the fiber
Heat doesn't destroy dietary fiber, it collapses volume. A cup of raw spinach weighs about 30 g and holds roughly 0.7 g of fiber; a cup of cooked spinach weighs about 180 g and holds about 4.3 g.
The fiber in broccoli behaves the same way: roughly 2.4 g per raw cup (91 g) against about 5 g per cooked cup (156 g). The practical effect is speed — a cooked cup goes down faster than a raw one, which is why cooked vegetables tend to push daily totals higher.
Boiling can leach some soluble fiber into the water, so discarding the liquid costs a little; steaming, roasting, or eating the broth keeps it. See soluble versus insoluble fiber for why the split matters.
Skin on or peeled: roots and tubers
Peeling costs more in some vegetables than others. A medium russet potato baked with the skin has about 3.8 g of fiber; peeled, roughly 2 g remains — the skin is close to half the total. The fiber in sweet potato is lower than most assume: about 3.8 g with the skin, closer to 3 g peeled. Carrots barely notice, since fiber sits throughout the root, not just under the skin.
Cooling cooked tubers before eating also creates resistant starch, which behaves like fiber in the colon — label numbers don't capture it, so a cold potato salad performs a little better than its listed number suggests.
Frozen and canned vegetables keep their fiber
Fiber is structural, not a fragile vitamin, so freezing and canning don't meaningfully reduce it. Frozen peas and broccoli, canned beans and canned pumpkin all carry fiber close to their fresh-cooked equivalents.
What changes is sodium and vitamin C, both sensitive to storage time. Draining and rinsing canned beans removes much of the added sodium without touching the fiber.
Three servings that get vegetables to 12–18 g
Published guidelines set adequate intake at about 14 g of fiber per 1,000 calories — roughly 25 g a day for adult women and 38 g for adult men under 50. The FDA's Daily Value on nutrition labels is 28 g. More on how those daily fiber targets are set.
A three-part structure covers about half of that from vegetables:
- A half-cup of legumes in a soup, bowl or side — 6–9 g.
- A dense cooked vegetable at the main meal, such as broccoli, green peas, Brussels sprouts or winter squash — 4–9 g.
- A skin-on root or a large raw base — a baked potato or sweet potato with the skin, or a full salad — 2–4 g.
Order matters less than including legumes — drop them and the same structure lands closer to 7 g. Guidance suggests raising fiber gradually over a couple of weeks; jumping from 12 g to 30 g in a day is a common source of bloating.
High fiber vegetables for gut health
Gut bacteria don't ferment every fiber equally. The fermentable fractions — resistant starch, inulin, galacto-oligosaccharides — feed bacteria that produce short-chain fatty acids. Legumes are dense in galacto-oligosaccharides; onions, leeks and Jerusalem artichokes carry inulin; cooled potatoes and green bananas carry resistant starch. Celery and lettuce pass through largely intact, mainly adding bulk. Both kinds have a role — see how fiber feeds gut bacteria.
Variety seems to matter as much as total grams here, since different bacteria specialize in different substrates. A rotation across legumes, alliums, crucifers and roots covers more ground than a large volume of one vegetable.
FAQ
Which vegetable has the most fiber?
Among true vegetables, artichoke and winter squash lead at roughly 7–9 g per serving. Counting legumes as vegetables, which US guidance does, navy beans top the list at about 19 g per cup, ahead of split peas and lentils.
Is broccoli or spinach higher in fiber?
Broccoli leads either way: about 5 g per cooked cup against 4.3 g for spinach, and 2.4 g against 0.7 g raw. The raw gap looks bigger because a cup of raw spinach weighs only about 30 g, a third of a cup of raw broccoli.
Do vegetables have to be raw to get the fiber?
No. Cooking collapses volume rather than destroying fiber, so a cooked cup usually contains more than a raw one. Boiling and pouring off the water costs a little soluble fiber; steaming and roasting avoid that.
Are potatoes a high fiber vegetable?
Only with the skin, and only modestly. A medium baked russet with the skin has about 3.8 g — roughly half in the skin — dropping to around 2 g peeled. Sweet potatoes land in the same range.
How much fiber can vegetables realistically supply in a day?
Three well-chosen servings, one of them legumes, supply about 12–18 g — roughly half of published adult targets. The rest typically comes from whole grains, fruit, nuts and seeds.
Free Fiber tools
- Bristol Stool ChartCompare your stool with the seven-point Bristol bowel movement chart to see what the form indicates about gut transit time and general dietary levers.
- Carrot Fiber CalculatorEstimate the fiber in carrots by entering an amount, carrot size or weight, and whether they are raw or cooked.
- Daily Fiber CalculatorEstimate how much fiber each day fits your age, sex and life stage. See the personal target beside the FDA Daily Value used on nutrition labels.
- Fiber for Weight Loss CalculatorUse your calorie target or estimate one from your body measurements and activity. Get a daily fiber target and a gradual ramp-up schedule.
- Fruit Fiber ChartChoose a fruit, enter its serving size and compare fiber grams with other fruits from the same list.
- Fiber Ramp-Up PlannerWondering how much is too much fiber? Enter your current and target intake to get a week-by-week ramp-up schedule with matching fluid context.
- High Fiber Foods ChartUse this high-fiber foods chart for constipation to compare plant foods by category and sort them by fiber per 100 g or typical serving.
- High-Fiber Meal Plan BuilderChoose a daily fiber target, number of meals and food preference to create a one-day combination with fiber per meal and progress toward your target.
- Prune and Prune Juice Fiber CalculatorEstimate how much fiber and approximate sorbitol you get from prunes or prune juice, including how much prune juice for constipation questions may miss: juice has much less fiber than whole prunes.
- Soluble vs Insoluble Fiber ChartCompare soluble and insoluble fiber values by food and serving size for Fiber Tracker logging.
- Sweet Potato Fiber CalculatorEstimate how much fiber in a sweet potato based on its weight, cooking method and whether you eat the skin. See fibre, calories, carbs and daily target share.