How much protein is in one katori of dal?

Roughly 7 to 9 g, depending on how thick it is. A standard 150 ml katori contains about 25 to 35 g of the dry pulse, which at 22 to 25 g of protein per 100 g dry gives 6 to 9 g in the bowl.

Which dal has the most protein?

Moong, masoor and urad are marginally highest at around 24 to 25 g per 100 g dry, with toor and chana slightly lower at 21 to 22. The differences are under 15 per cent and are far smaller than differences in how thick the dal is made.

Is dal enough protein for a vegetarian?

Not on its own. Reaching 100 g of protein from dal alone would take around twelve katoris a day. Dal works as a daily contributor of 15 to 25 g alongside dairy, soya, paneer or eggs, which is how most successful vegetarian protein targets are built.

Do I need to eat dal with rice to get complete protein?

Not at the same meal. Cereals are limited in lysine and legumes in methionine, so together they complement each other, but the body maintains a pool of free amino acids and variety across the day is sufficient.

Protein in dal, chana, rajma and the rest

A katori of dal is 7 to 9 g of protein. Useful, and less than its reputation. What each pulse supplies, and where legumes fit in a protein target.

By Gajendra Singh RathorePublished October 7, 20265 min read

The short answer

Dry pulses are 21 to 25 g of protein per 100 g, but a cooked katori contains only 25 to 35 g of the dry pulse, so it supplies 7 to 9 g.
Chana, rajma and lobia in whole form carry similar protein per dry gram and more fibre than split dals.
Legume protein is limited in methionine, which is covered by eating cereals and dairy across the day rather than at the same meal.
Soya is not a pulse in nutritional terms: at 52 g of protein per 100 g dry it is in a different category entirely.

Dal has a reputation as the protein of Indian vegetarian food. It contributes usefully, and the arithmetic surprises most people who do it for the first time.

Dry versus cooked, which is the whole confusion

Pulses per 100 g dry. A cooked katori contains only 25 to 35 g of this.

Food	Serving	kcal	Protein (g)	Carbs (g)	Fat (g)
Moong dal	100 g dry	334	24	57	1.2
Masoor dal	100 g dry	340	25	57	1.3
Urad dal	100 g dry	341	24	57	1.6
Toor dal	100 g dry	335	22	58	1.5
Chana dal	100 g dry	350	21	57	5
Rajma	100 g dry	330	23	58	1.3
Kabuli chana	100 g dry	360	19	61	5.5
Soya chunks	100 g dry	345	52	33	0.5

Source: IFCT 2017

Look at the protein column and dal seems excellent. Then note that a katori of cooked dal contains 25 to 35 g of the dry pulse, because it absorbed two to three times its weight in water.

A katori of dal is 7 to 9 g of protein. Two katoris a day is 15 g. Someone targeting 130 g is getting about a ninth of it from dal.

Which dal, honestly

The spread between the highest and lowest common pulse is under 15 per cent per dry gram, and that difference disappears entirely next to how thick the household makes its dal.

A thin dal at 25 g of pulse per katori and a thick one at 40 g differ by 60 per cent in protein. The variable that matters is consistency, not variety — which is why measuring the dry pulse once, as described in calories in a katori of dal, is more useful than switching pulses.

Whole legumes carry more fibre

Rajma, kabuli chana, lobia and whole moong retain their seed coat, which means substantially more fibre per serving than split, hulled dals.

For a protein target this is neutral. For fullness it is a real advantage, and it is one reason a rajma-chawal meal keeps people satisfied longer than a thin dal and rice of the same calorie content — see fibre, fullness, and the macro nobody counts.

Soya is not in the same category

It is listed in the table above for comparison and it does not belong with the others.

At 52 g of protein per 100 g dry and almost no fat, soya chunks supply roughly 2.2 times the protein of toor dal per dry gram. Thirty-eight grams dry gives 20 g of protein for 130 kcal, which is better than almost any vegetarian source available in India.

They also behave like a pulse in a gravy, which makes them a straightforward addition to food people already cook. This is the single most effective change available to most vegetarians under their protein target, as argued in vegetarian protein worth the calories it costs.

The amino acid profile

Legumes are limited in methionine; cereals are limited in lysine. Together they complement each other, which is the nutritional basis for dal-chawal and dal-roti being staples across a subcontinent.

The important correction to the folk version: this does not need to happen at the same meal. The body maintains a pool of free amino acids, and variety across a day is sufficient. Eating dal at lunch and curd at dinner works exactly as well as eating them together. See amino acid.

What dal is actually good at

Fibre. A katori supplies 4 to 6 g, which is a fifth of a day's target.

Satiety per calorie. High fibre plus moderate protein plus volume is a good combination for a deficit.

Cost. Per gram of protein, pulses are among the cheapest foods available anywhere.

Micronutrients. Iron, folate, magnesium and potassium in useful amounts.

None of those is "it is a complete protein source", and none of them requires it to be.

How to use dal in a protein plan

Treat two katoris a day as a reliable 15 g and build the rest elsewhere: curd, paneer, soya, eggs if you eat them.

If you want more protein from the dal itself, the lever is thickness rather than choice of pulse. A thicker dal made from 45 g of dry pulse per katori gives 10 to 11 g instead of 7. That is a real 3 g and it costs 60 more calories, which is a fair trade in most diets and worth knowing rather than assuming.

The target this all feeds into is set in how much protein do you actually need per day.

Questions people ask

How much protein is in one katori of dal?: Roughly 7 to 9 g, depending on how thick it is. A standard 150 ml katori contains about 25 to 35 g of the dry pulse, which at 22 to 25 g of protein per 100 g dry gives 6 to 9 g in the bowl.
Which dal has the most protein?: Moong, masoor and urad are marginally highest at around 24 to 25 g per 100 g dry, with toor and chana slightly lower at 21 to 22. The differences are under 15 per cent and are far smaller than differences in how thick the dal is made.
Is dal enough protein for a vegetarian?: Not on its own. Reaching 100 g of protein from dal alone would take around twelve katoris a day. Dal works as a daily contributor of 15 to 25 g alongside dairy, soya, paneer or eggs, which is how most successful vegetarian protein targets are built.
Do I need to eat dal with rice to get complete protein?: Not at the same meal. Cereals are limited in lysine and legumes in methionine, so together they complement each other, but the body maintains a pool of free amino acids and variety across the day is sufficient.

Sources

1.Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 — ICMR–National Institute of Nutrition
2.Protein and amino acid requirements in human nutrition (WHO Technical Report 935) — WHO, FAO and UNU

Vegetarian protein worth the calories it costs
Ranked by calories per gram of protein, not by grams per 100 g. Which vegetarian sources are efficient, which are not, and how to build a 130 g day.
Calories in a katori of dal: nine dals compared
Toor, moong, masoor, chana, urad and the rest, per katori, with the tempering counted. The lentils barely differ; the oil and cream decide everything.
How much protein do you actually need per day?
The RDA is a floor, not a target. What the evidence supports for people who train, how to reach it on Indian food, and why it is the one macro worth counting.
Paneer or tofu: the protein comparison in full
Tofu gives similar protein for half the calories; paneer gives more calcium and better taste to most palates. The full comparison, with the numbers.