Gajar halwa calories
A bowl of home gajar halwa, from 100 g of carrots with khoa, sugar and ghee, has about 285 calories. A small katori, a quarter of it, is about 145. Ghee is a big part: each tablespoon across the pot adds about 113 calories. Wedding or sweet-shop halwa, richer, runs about 285 to 395 a bowl.
Gajar halwa is grated red winter carrots cooked slowly in milk until it's absorbed, then with ghee, sugar and khoa, finished with cardamom and nuts. It's the north Indian winter sweet, made at home when Delhi carrots are in season and served warm at weddings.
Carrots themselves are light. The ghee, sugar and khoa make up about four fifths of a bowl's calories.
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 gajar halwa?
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 small katori (a quarter of the recipe) | 145 | 3 g | 15 g | 8 g |
| 1 bowl (half the recipe, 100 g carrots) | 285 | 5 g | 30 g | 16 g |
How does home gajar halwa compare with outside?
Wedding and sweet-shop gajar halwa is usually richer, with more ghee and khoa, and sometimes condensed milk.
No lab has measured it, so the range below allows up to 1.5 times the ghee and up to 20 g more khoa per bowl.
| Version | Cals | Fat |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 285 | 16 g |
| Wedding or sweet shop | 285 to 395 | 16 to 26 g |
What changes the calories in gajar halwa?
- Ghee is a big part: each tablespoon across the pot adds about 113 calories.
- Khoa adds about 125 calories per 40 g; halwa made with only milk, cooked down, has less fat.
- Sugar adds about 16 calories a teaspoon. Gajar halwa needs less than you'd think, since carrots are sweet.
- Nuts on top add about 60 calories per 10 g.
- A katori of kheer is lighter, about 225 for 200 ml, because it is mostly milk.
How were these numbers worked out?
The recipe is the carrot halwa in The Art & Science of Cooking (via the Indian Nutrient Databank): 200 g of carrots cooked with 30 ml of milk, 40 g of khoa, 40 g of sugar and 20 g of ghee, finished with almonds, cashews and cardamom, for 2 bowls, all the ghee counted, at IFCT 2017 values with sugar from USDA. Carrots lose much of their water as they cook and no measured cooked weight exists, so the halwa is counted by its share of the recipe rather than by weight: a bowl is half, 100 g of carrots and 285 calories, and a small katori a quarter. No analysed gajar halwa exists in IFCT 2017, NIN or USDA FNDDS, so there is no cross-check. The sweet-shop range adds up to 1.5 times the ghee and up to 20 g more khoa per bowl. Every dish on Slate is worked out the same way: how Slate counts calories.
| Ingredient | Raw | Values from |
|---|---|---|
| Carrot, orange | 200 g | IFCT 2017 F002 |
| Milk, whole, cow | 30 g | IFCT 2017 L002 |
| Khoa (mawa) | 40 g | IFCT 2017 L004 |
| Sugar, white | 40 g | USDA FDC 169655 |
| Ghee | 20 g | IFCT 2017 T013 |
| Almond | 2.2 g | IFCT 2017 H001 |
| Cashew nut | 2.5 g | IFCT 2017 H005 |
Sources
- ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. Carrot (F002), cow milk (L002), khoa (L004), ghee (T013), almond (H001), cashew (H005); values read from github.com/nodef/ifct2017
- Vijayakumar et al., Indian Nutrient Databank (INDB), Current Developments in Nutrition, 2024. The Art & Science of Cooking recipe ASC295, carrot halwa
- USDA FoodData Central, Sugars, granulated (169655). Sugar
- ICMR-NIN, Dietary Guidelines for Indians: A Manual (2011). Annexure 8: ice cream 200 kcal per half cup
Questions people ask
How many calories are in 1 bowl of gajar halwa?
About 285 for a bowl made from 100 g of carrots, and about 145 for a small katori.
How many calories are in gajar halwa with ice cream?
Add about 100 to 140 calories for a scoop of vanilla ice cream to the bowl's 285.
How much sugar is in gajar halwa?
About 20 g of added sugar in a bowl, 5 teaspoons, plus the natural sugar in the carrots and khoa.
How much protein is in gajar halwa?
About 5 g in a bowl, mostly from the khoa.