Khichdi calories
A 200 ml katori of moong dal khichdi has about 240 calories, with a teaspoon of ghee in the pot. A whole plate is about 325. Ghee on top is the biggest variable: each teaspoon adds about 45, taking a katori to about 285. Thali or restaurant khichdi, with ghee poured over, runs about 285 to 325.
Khichdi is rice and moong dal cooked together until soft, with ginger, jeera and a little ghee. It's the comfort food of most Indian homes: Gujarati khichdi with kadhi, Bengali khichuri at pujas, and Tamil ven pongal with pepper and ghee are all versions of it.
Rice is about two thirds of khichdi's calories here. How much water it's cooked with changes what a katori holds, and the ghee on top is the other big variable.
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 khichdi?
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 katori (150 ml) about 131 g | 180 | 5 g | 32 g | 3 g |
| 1 katori (200 ml) about 175 g | 240 | 7 g | 42 g | 4 g |
| 1 katori (250 ml) about 219 g | 300 | 9 g | 53 g | 5 g |
| 1 plate (the whole recipe) about 239 g | 325 | 10 g | 57 g | 6 g |
| 200 ml katori, 1 tsp ghee on top about 175 g | 285 | 7 g | 42 g | 9 g |
| 200 ml katori with 100 g curd | 300 | 11 g | 47 g | 8 g |
| 100 g about 100 g | 135 | 4 g | 24 g | 2 g |
How does home khichdi compare with outside?
Khichdi in a Gujarati thali or a restaurant usually comes with ghee poured over the top, sometimes more than once.
No lab has measured restaurant khichdi, so the range below adds 1 to 2 teaspoons of ghee to a 200 ml katori.
| Version | Cals | Fat |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 240 | 4 g |
| Restaurant or thali | 285 to 325 | 9 to 14 g |
What changes the calories in khichdi?
- Ghee on top is the biggest variable. Each teaspoon adds about 45 calories.
- A soft, porridge-like khichdi with more water has fewer calories per katori; the pot's total stays the same.
- More dal and less rice changes the calories very little, since dal and rice are close per gram, but it adds protein.
- Vegetable khichdi with peas, carrot and potato adds a little. Kadhi on the side is counted separately: see kadhi.
How were these numbers worked out?
The khichdi is the plain khichdi in Basic Food Preparation (via the Indian Nutrient Databank): 60 g of parboiled rice and 20 g of moong dal cooked in 2 cups of water with ginger, jeera and 5 g of ghee, counted as eaten, at IFCT 2017 values. The databank adds all the water to the cooked weight, a very thin khichdi; this page instead uses the 67% water content of USDA's rice cooked with lentils, a soft khichdi with the water absorbed, about 239 g, so the pot is 135 calories per 100 g. A katori is measured at USDA's 207 g per cup for that dish, so a 200 ml katori is about 175 g and 240 calories. USDA's rice with lentils agrees within 10%; ICMR-NIN's cup of khichdi at 200 calories is 16% below, a wetter khichdi, so the page shows a range. The thali range adds 1 to 2 teaspoons of ghee poured over. Every dish on Slate is worked out the same way: how Slate counts calories.
| Ingredient | Raw | Values from |
|---|---|---|
| Rice, parboiled, milled | 60 g | IFCT 2017 A014 |
| Green gram dal (moong) | 20 g | IFCT 2017 B010 |
| Ginger, fresh | 5 g | IFCT 2017 G014 |
| Cumin seeds | 1 g | IFCT 2017 G025 |
| Ghee 1 teaspoon | 5 g | IFCT 2017 T013 |
| Water 2 cups | 480 g | no calories |
ICMR-NIN counts a cup of khichdi at 200 calories, a little under this page's 240. Khichdi ranges from fluffy to porridge-thin, so a 200 ml katori can be anywhere from about 200 to 240, and less again if it's very watery.
Sources
- ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. Rice parboiled (A014), green gram dal (B010), ginger, cumin, ghee; values read from github.com/nodef/ifct2017
- Vijayakumar et al., Indian Nutrient Databank (INDB), Current Developments in Nutrition, 2024. Basic Food Preparation recipe BFP144, plain khichdi
- ICMR-NIN, Dietary Guidelines for Indians: A Manual (2011). Annexure 8: khichdi 200 kcal per cup
- USDA FoodData Central, FNDDS Rice, white, with lentils, fat added (2709030). 150 kcal and 67.2% water per 100 g; 207 g per cup
- USDA FoodData Central, Yogurt, plain, whole milk (171284). Curd
Questions people ask
How many calories are in 1 katori of khichdi?
About 240 for a 200 ml katori of soft khichdi, and about 180 for a 150 ml one.
How many calories are in khichdi with ghee?
About 285 for a 200 ml katori with an extra teaspoon of ghee on top.
How much protein is in khichdi?
About 7 g in a 200 ml katori, and about 10 g in a plate of the whole recipe.
How many calories are in 100 g of khichdi?
About 135 for this soft khichdi.
Which has more calories, khichdi or rice?
Khichdi, per katori: about 240 against about 160 for a 200 ml katori of plain rice. Soft khichdi packs more into a katori than fluffy rice, and it has ghee.