Jalebi calories
A 30 g jalebi has roughly 95 calories, 100 g about 320, and 250 g by weight about 805. This is an estimate: we found no lab analysis of jalebi. Syrup is the biggest unknown: a jalebi left to soak longer takes up more sugar. From a halwai, 2 jalebis run about 195 alone to 290 with rabri.
Jalebi is a fermented maida batter piped in spirals into hot ghee or oil, fried crisp, then dipped in warm sugar syrup with saffron and cardamom. It's eaten hot for breakfast with poha in Indore, with rabri in north India, and at every festival in between.
Two things decide its number: the oil the spirals take up in frying and the syrup they soak up afterwards. Both vary from one halwai to the next, so treat the figures here as a guide.
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 jalebi?
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 jalebi (about 30 g) about 30 g | 95 | 1 g | 15 g | 4 g |
| 2 jalebis about 60 g | 195 | 2 g | 30 g | 7 g |
| 100 g about 100 g | 320 | 3 g | 50 g | 12 g |
| 250 g (as sold by weight) about 250 g | 805 | 7 g | 126 g | 31 g |
How does home jalebi compare with outside?
From a halwai, jalebis are often eaten hot with rabri or with poha, and sold by weight, so a plate can be anywhere from two pieces to a quarter kilo.
The range below runs from two jalebis on their own to two with about 50 g of rabri.
| Version | Cals | Fat |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 195 | 7 g |
| Halwai, with rabri | 195 to 290 | 7 to 13 g |
What changes the calories in jalebi?
- Syrup is the biggest unknown. A jalebi that's left to soak longer takes up more sugar.
- Oil taken up in frying is the next. Thin, crisp spirals take up more for their size than thick ones.
- Rabri on top adds about 100 calories per 50 g; poha on the side is counted separately.
- Imarti, made from urad dal batter, is similar per gram.
How were these numbers worked out?
No standard textbook in the Indian Nutrient Databank has jalebi, and no lab analysis of it was found, so Slate's jalebi is an estimate built in two stated steps from a batter of 100 g of maida with 25 g of curd and water, at IFCT 2017 values with curd and sugar from USDA. First, the fried spirals are taken to have the composition of USDA's analysed puri, 24.9% fat and 28% water. Second, they are taken to soak up their own weight of syrup made as in The Art & Science of Cooking's gulab jamun, about 61.5% sugar, so the batch is about 383 g and 320 calories per 100 g. A 30 g piece, a typical size, is 95 calories. With no analysed value in IFCT 2017, NIN or USDA FNDDS, there is no cross-check. The halwai range adds 50 g of rabri, modelled as 25 g of khoa and 5 g of sugar, to 2 jalebis. Every dish on Slate is worked out the same way: how Slate counts calories.
| Ingredient | Raw | Values from |
|---|---|---|
| Wheat flour, refined (maida) | 100 g | IFCT 2017 A018 |
| Curd (dahi), whole milk to ferment the batter | 25 g | USDA FDC 171284 |
| Water for the batter: an assumption | 60 g | no calories |
| Groundnut oil Taken up in frying: assumed at USDA's puri composition, 24.9% fat | 46.2 g | IFCT 2017 T005 |
| Sugar, white From syrup equal to the fried weight, at the textbook syrup's 61.5% sugar: an assumption | 117.8 g | USDA FDC 169655 |
| Water The syrup's water | 73.7 g | no calories |
Sources
- ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. Maida (A018), khoa (L004), oil; values read from github.com/nodef/ifct2017
- USDA FoodData Central, FNDDS Bread, puri (2707714). 24.9 g fat and 28 g water per 100 g, used for the fried spirals
- Vijayakumar et al., Indian Nutrient Databank (INDB), Current Developments in Nutrition, 2024. The Art & Science of Cooking recipe ASC348 (syrup: 200 g sugar in 125 ml water)
- USDA FoodData Central, Yogurt, plain, whole milk (171284). Curd
- USDA FoodData Central, Sugars, granulated (169655). Sugar
Questions people ask
How many calories are in 1 jalebi?
Roughly 95 for a 30 g jalebi, an estimate. Thin, small jalebis have less; thick, syrupy ones more.
How many calories are in 100 g of jalebi?
About 320, and about 805 for a quarter kilo.
How much sugar is in a jalebi?
About 9 g of added sugar in a 30 g jalebi by this estimate, a little over 2 teaspoons.
How many calories are in jalebi with rabri?
About 195 for 2 jalebis on their own, and up to about 290 with 50 g of rabri.