Chole calories
A 200 ml katori of home chole, from about 40 g of dry kabuli chana, has about 265 calories. Chole with 2 rotis is about 455, and a bhatura adds about 185. Oil is the main variable after the chana: each teaspoon adds about 40. Stall or restaurant chole, cooked with more oil, runs about 305 to 345 a katori.
Chole is white kabuli chana, soaked overnight, boiled soft and cooked in an onion, tomato, ginger and spice gravy. Punjabi and Pindi chole are dark and tangy with amla or tea; it's eaten with bhature, kulche, puri or rice, and as a filling for tikki chaat.
Kabuli chana has a little more fat than most beans, about 6%. A thick chole holds a lot of chana in each katori, so it counts for more than a thin dal.
Typical values for a home kitchen, for the portion named next to each number. Other sites often show bigger numbers because they count a bigger serving or a restaurant recipe. Your own katori, roti and oil change the number; Slate adjusts for them.
How many calories are in chole?
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 katori (150 ml) about 150 g | 200 | 7 g | 20 g | 9 g |
| 1 katori (200 ml) about 200 g | 265 | 9 g | 26 g | 12 g |
| 1 katori (250 ml) about 250 g | 330 | 12 g | 33 g | 15 g |
| 1 bowl (30 g dry chana) about 152 g | 200 | 7 g | 20 g | 9 g |
| 1 bowl (40 g dry chana) about 202 g | 265 | 10 g | 26 g | 12 g |
| 100 g about 100 g | 130 | 5 g | 13 g | 6 g |
How does home chole compare with outside?
Chole from a chole bhature stall or a restaurant is usually cooked with more oil, often with oil floating on top, and sometimes finished with butter.
No lab figure exists for street chole, so the range below assumes 1.5 to 2 times the oil of this home recipe. The bhatura is extra: see bhatura, or the whole plate on chole bhature.
| Version | Cals | Fat |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 265 | 12 g |
| Chole bhature stall or restaurant | 305 to 345 | 16 to 21 g |
Calories in chole as a meal
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chole with rice (a katori of each) | 425 | 13 g | 61 g | 12 g |
| Chole with 2 rotis | 455 | 16 g | 65 g | 13 g |
What changes the calories in chole?
- Oil is the main variable after the chana. Each teaspoon adds about 40 calories to the pot.
- A thicker chole holds more chana per katori. Mashing some chana to thicken the gravy doesn't add calories.
- Kala chana has a little less per gram dry: IFCT 2017 puts it at 287 calories per 100 g, against 378 for kabuli chana (USDA).
- Onion, lemon and green chilli on top add almost nothing. Chole tikki and chole kulche add their own.
How were these numbers worked out?
The recipe is the kabuli channa curry in Basic Food Preparation (via the Indian Nutrient Databank): 40 g of dry kabuli chana with 50 g of tomato, 30 g of onion, ginger, garlic, a teaspoon of curd, spices and 2 teaspoons of oil, counted as eaten. IFCT 2017 has only kala chana, so the chana is USDA's raw chickpea; everything else is IFCT 2017. The cooked chana comes from water content, 2.32 times its dry weight as USDA's raw and boiled chickpeas imply, plus the other ingredients, about 202 g, so the pot is 130 calories per 100 g and a 200 ml katori at 1 g per ml is 265. The databank's figure for another textbook's chana curry with 30 g of dry chana, 196 calories a bowl, agrees with the 30 g bowl here within 2%. Chole cooked for chole bhature is oilier, so the stall range uses 1.5 to 2 times this recipe's oil. Every dish on Slate is worked out the same way: how Slate counts calories.
| Ingredient | Raw | Values from |
|---|---|---|
| Chickpeas, white (kabuli chana), dry Dry weight, before soaking | 40 g | USDA FDC 173756 |
| Water Taken up by the chana in soaking and cooking | 52.8 g | no calories |
| Tomato, ripe, hybrid | 50 g | IFCT 2017 D075 |
| Onion, big | 30 g | IFCT 2017 G017 |
| Ginger, fresh | 15 g | IFCT 2017 G014 |
| Garlic | 0.6 g | IFCT 2017 G011 |
| Curd (dahi), whole milk 1 teaspoon | 5 g | USDA FDC 171284 |
| Groundnut oil 2 teaspoons | 9 g | IFCT 2017 T005 |
Sources
- ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. Tomato, onion, ginger, garlic, oil; Bengal gram whole (B002) for comparison; values read from github.com/nodef/ifct2017
- Vijayakumar et al., Indian Nutrient Databank (INDB), Current Developments in Nutrition, 2024. Basic Food Preparation recipe BFP185, kabuli channa curry; The Art & Science of Cooking recipe ASC162, chickpeas curry
- USDA FoodData Central, Chickpeas, mature seeds, raw (173756). Kabuli chana; 7.68% water
- USDA FoodData Central, Chickpeas, mature seeds, cooked, boiled (173757). 60.21% water, for the cooked weight
- USDA FoodData Central, Yogurt, plain, whole milk (171284). Curd
Questions people ask
How many calories are in 1 katori of chole?
About 265 in a 200 ml katori of home chole, and about 200 in a 150 ml one.
How many calories are in chole bhature?
A 200 ml katori of chole is about 265, and each home bhatura about 185. Two bhature and a katori of chole come to about 635, before onion and pickle: see chole bhature.
How much protein is in chole?
About 9 g in a 200 ml katori.
How many calories are in 100 g of chole?
About 130 for this home chole.
Which has more calories, chole or rajma?
Chole, per katori here: about 265 against about 210 for rajma. Kabuli chana has more fat than rajma, and this chole is thicker.