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.
Gajendra Singh Rathore द्वारा6 मिनट का पाठ
यह पोस्ट फ़िलहाल केवल अंग्रेज़ी में उपलब्ध है।
संक्षेप में जवाब
- A katori of ordinary home dal with modest tempering is about 120 to 160 kcal; the same dal made richly is 200 to 260.
- Different lentils differ by less than 10 per cent per 100 g raw; the tempering, cream and butter account for nearly all the variation between dals.
- Dal makhani is the outlier at 280 to 380 kcal per katori, because it contains butter and cream by design.
- A katori of dal supplies roughly 7 to 9 g of protein, which is useful but less than most people assume.
Dal is the dish people most want a number for and the dish where a single number is least useful. Not because lentils are mysterious — they are among the best-characterised foods in any composition table — but because a dal is lentils plus whatever the cook did at the end.
The lentils barely differ
Start with the boring part. Raw pulses sit in a narrow band, roughly 330 to 360 kcal per 100 g, and they are similar in protein.
| खाना | मात्रा | कैलोरी | प्रोटीन (ग्राम) | कार्ब्स (ग्राम) | फैट (ग्राम) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toor (arhar) dal | 100 g raw | 335 | 22 | 58 | 1.5 |
| Moong dal | 100 g raw | 334 | 24 | 57 | 1.2 |
| Masoor dal | 100 g raw | 340 | 25 | 57 | 1.3 |
| Chana dal | 100 g raw | 350 | 21 | 57 | 5 |
| Urad dal | 100 g raw | 341 | 24 | 57 | 1.6 |
स्रोत: IFCT 2017
The spread between the lowest and highest is about 5 per cent. One tablespoon of oil added to a pot is worth more than that difference across the entire dish.
So the answer to "which dal is lowest in calories" is: whichever one you make with less fat.
A katori, cooked
Dry lentils absorb two to three times their weight in water. A standard 150 ml katori of finished dal typically contains 25 to 35 g of the dry pulse, depending on how thick the household likes it.
| खाना | मात्रा | कैलोरी | प्रोटीन (ग्राम) | कार्ब्स (ग्राम) | फैट (ग्राम) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thin dal, light tadka | 1 katori | 118 | 7 | 18 | 2 |
| Everyday dal | 1 katori | 152 | 7 | 18 | 6 |
| Rich dal, ghee and butter | 1 katori | 214 | 7.5 | 19 | 12 |
| Dal makhani | 1 katori | 330 | 9 | 24 | 21 |
Note what stays constant across the first three rows: the protein and carbohydrate. Only the fat moves, and it moves the calorie total by 80 per cent.
Dal makhani is a different food
It deserves its own line because it is not a variation, it is a category change. Urad dal and rajma, cooked slowly with butter and finished with cream, is a dish whose defining ingredients are dairy fat.
A restaurant dal makhani can exceed 400 kcal per katori. A home version made with less cream lands at 280 to 330. Either way, logging it against a generic dal entry understates it by more than half — which is exactly the failure mode described in why two apps give the same roti different calories.
The tempering, counted honestly
A tadka is where the calories enter. Typical quantities for a family pot:
- 1 tsp oil: 40 kcal
- 1 tbsp oil: 120 kcal
- 3 tbsp oil: 360 kcal
- 1 tbsp ghee: 126 kcal
- 2 tbsp cream: 100 kcal
- 1 tbsp butter: 100 kcal
Divided across six katoris, three tablespoons of oil is 60 kcal per serving. Add ghee and cream and you are at 120 per serving from fat alone. More dish-by-dish numbers in how much oil is actually in your curry.
The protein reality check
A katori of dal gives roughly 7 to 9 g of protein. That is genuinely useful and considerably less than the reputation suggests.
Two katoris a day is 15 g. Someone targeting 110 g of protein is getting about an eighth of it from dal. This is the arithmetic that surprises vegetarians most, and it is worked through in protein in dal, chana, rajma and the rest and vegetarian protein worth the calories it costs.
Dal's real contribution is fibre and satiety per calorie, which is a good reason to eat it and a different reason from the one usually given.
Calibrating your own dal
Do this once and stop guessing.
Next time you cook dal, weigh the dry lentils and measure the oil and ghee. Add up the total from the tables above. Count how many katoris the pot filled. Divide.
You now have a number for your dal. Most people land somewhere between 130 and 190 per katori and are surprised by which end. The full procedure is in how to calculate the calories in a recipe you cooked.
Restaurant dal
Assume the top of every range. Restaurant kitchens temper generously and finish with butter, and a katori-equivalent serving of restaurant dal fry is commonly 250 to 300 kcal.
A restaurant portion is also usually larger than a home katori — often closer to 250 ml — so the per-serving figure can be double what you would log at home for what looks like the same dish.
The practical summary
The lentil hardly matters. The tempering decides the number. Measure the fat going into your pot once, divide by the katoris it made, and you will have a figure more reliable than anything you can look up.
अक्सर पूछे जाने वाले सवाल
- How many calories are in one katori of dal?
- A standard 150 ml katori of home-cooked dal with a normal tempering is around 120 to 160 kcal, supplying about 7 to 9 g of protein. Richer preparations with generous ghee, butter or cream run from 200 to 260, and dal makhani reaches 280 to 380.
- Which dal has the fewest calories?
- Per 100 g raw, moong and masoor are marginally lower than chana and urad, but the difference is under 10 per cent and disappears next to the tempering. A moong dal with four tablespoons of ghee has more calories than a chana dal with one teaspoon of oil.
- How much protein is in a katori of dal?
- Roughly 7 to 9 g for a standard katori, depending on how thick it is. Dal is a useful protein contributor rather than a primary source: reaching 100 g of protein a day on dal alone would take around twelve katoris.
- Is dal good for weight loss?
- Yes, when the tempering is modest. Lentils are high in fibre and protein for their calorie content, which makes them filling. What turns dal into a calorie-dense dish is the fat added at the end, not the lentils themselves.
स्रोत
- 1.Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 — ICMR–National Institute of Nutrition
- 2.FoodData Central — USDA Agricultural Research Service
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