Moong dal calories
A bowl of yellow moong dal (30 g dry dal) has about 105 calories with no tadka, or about 145 with the textbook teaspoon of oil. The tadka matters most: a teaspoon of oil adds about 40, a teaspoon of ghee about 45. Restaurant yellow dal, thicker, with ghee, runs about 145 to 260.
Dhuli moong dal is split, skinned green gram. It cooks quickly to a soft, light dal and is the one most homes make for children, for someone unwell, or with rice as khichdi. It's tempered simply with jeera and a teaspoon of oil or ghee.
The dal itself is close to toor dal in calories. The tadka is what changes the number from one home to the next.
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 moong dal?
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 bowl, no tadka (30 g dry dal) about 272 g | 105 | 7 g | 16 g | 1 g |
| 1 bowl, 1 tsp oil tadka (textbook) about 272 g | 145 | 7 g | 16 g | 5 g |
| 1 bowl, 1 tsp ghee tadka about 272 g | 150 | 7 g | 16 g | 6 g |
| 1 katori (150 ml), with tadka about 150 g | 80 | 4 g | 9 g | 3 g |
| 1 katori (200 ml), with tadka about 200 g | 105 | 5 g | 12 g | 4 g |
| 1 katori (250 ml), with tadka about 250 g | 130 | 7 g | 15 g | 5 g |
How does home moong dal compare with outside?
Restaurant yellow dal is often moong or a moong-toor mix, served thicker than home dal and finished with ghee or butter.
With no lab figure to go on, the range below assumes up to 1.5 times the dal per serving and up to one more teaspoon of ghee.
| Version | Cals | Fat |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 145 | 5 g |
| Restaurant yellow dal | 145 to 260 | 5 to 13 g |
What changes the calories in moong dal?
- The tadka is the main variable. A teaspoon of oil adds about 40 calories, and a teaspoon of ghee about 45.
- Whole green moong (sabut moong) has the skin and a little more fibre, and is within a few percent per gram.
- Palak or lauki added to moong dal adds very few calories and a lot of volume.
- Moong dal cooked with rice is khichdi: see khichdi.
How were these numbers worked out?
The recipe is the washed moong dal in The Art & Science of Cooking (via the Indian Nutrient Databank): 30 g of moong dal cooked in a cup of water with turmeric, chilli and jeera, tempered with a teaspoon of fat, at IFCT 2017 values with chilli powder from USDA. The fat is counted per portion: 105 calories for the plain bowl, 145 with the textbook's teaspoon of oil. The ingredients added together weigh about 272 g, so the pot is 40 calories per 100 g and the katoris, at 1 g per ml for a thin dal, carry their share of the tadka. ICMR-NIN's half cup of plain dal, 100 calories for the same 30 g of dal, agrees with the plain bowl within 3%. No restaurant moong dal has been analysed, so the range assumes up to 1.5 times the dal and up to an extra teaspoon of ghee. Every dish on Slate is worked out the same way: how Slate counts calories.
| Ingredient | Raw | Values from |
|---|---|---|
| Green gram dal (moong) Dry weight | 30 g | IFCT 2017 B010 |
| Water 1 cup | 240 g | no calories |
| Turmeric powder | 0.75 g | IFCT 2017 G033 |
| Red chilli powder | 0.7 g | USDA FDC 171319 |
| Cumin seeds | 0.5 g | IFCT 2017 G025 |
Sources
- ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. Green gram dal (B010), Bengal gram dal (B001), turmeric (G033), cumin (G025), oil, ghee; 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 ASC151, washed moong dal
- ICMR-NIN, Dietary Guidelines for Indians: A Manual (2011). Annexure 8: plain dal 100 kcal per half cup
- USDA FoodData Central, Spices, chili powder (171319). Red chilli powder
Questions people ask
How many calories are in 1 bowl of moong dal?
About 105 for a bowl made from 30 g of dry dal, or about 145 with a teaspoon of oil in the tadka.
How many calories are in 100 g of raw moong dal?
326 calories, with 23.9 g of protein, according to IFCT 2017.
How much protein is in a bowl of moong dal?
About 7 g in a bowl made from 30 g of dry dal.
Which has more calories, moong dal or chana dal?
Chana dal, a little, because it has more fat. Raw, IFCT 2017 puts chana dal at 329 and moong dal at 326 calories per 100 g. See chana dal.