Namak para calories
Ten home namak para, about 50 g, have about 260 calories; one 5 g diamond about 25, and 100 g about 520. The ghee in the dough and the oil taken up in frying are together about half the number. Packed namak para, by its labels, runs about 230 to 305 for 50 g.
Namak para is maida kneaded with ghee, ajwain and salt, rolled out, cut into diamonds and deep-fried until crisp and pale gold. It is the savoury half of a Diwali plate, next to shakarpara, and the same dough makes mathri when it is pressed into discs.
A single piece is a mouthful. Ten of them, a small bowl, are what people eat with chai, and that is the portion this page leads with.
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 namak para?
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 piece (about 5 g) about 5 g | 25 | 0 g | 3 g | 1 g |
| 10 pieces (about 50 g) about 50 g | 260 | 4 g | 28 g | 15 g |
| 100 g about 100 g | 520 | 8 g | 56 g | 29 g |
How does home namak para compare with outside?
Packed namak para labels run from 459 to 607 calories per 100 g, around this page's 520. The spread is oil: the oiliest label lists 43 g of fat per 100 g against 29 g here. Pieces in a packet are often smaller than a home diamond, so count by weight.
The range below applies those labels to 50 g.
| Version | Cals | Fat |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 260 | 15 g |
| Packed | 230 to 305 | 13 to 17 g |
What changes the calories in namak para?
- Oil taken up in frying is about a quarter of the number. Thin, well-drained pieces take up less; re-used oil and thicker pieces more.
- The ghee moyan in the dough is another fifth. Recipes run from 1 to 4 tablespoons per 2 cups of maida, about 25 calories a piece either way.
- Baked namak para skips the frying oil, about 6 calories less a piece from this recipe.
- Atta in place of maida adds fibre and changes the calories very little.
- Mathri is the same dough with more fat in it, about 115 a piece; shakarpara is the sweet version, about 300 for 10.
How were these numbers worked out?
The Indian Nutrient Databank's standard textbooks have a mathri and two fortified namak paras but no plain one, so Slate uses Hebbar's Kitchen's namak pare: 2 cups of maida with 3 tablespoons of ghee, ajwain, kalonji and salt, kneaded stiff, cut into diamonds and deep-fried, with cups and tablespoons at USDA's weights, the dough ghee counted in full, at IFCT 2017 values. The oil taken up is set at about 14% of the raw weight, the uptake worked out for the samosa on this site, and the finished pieces at 4% moisture as a crisp snack, both assumptions, so the batch is about 316 g, 520 calories per 100 g and 29% fat. A 5 g piece is 25 calories and 10 pieces 260. Two labels check it within 15%: Daadis at 535 calories per 100 g is 3% above and Riya's at 459 is 12% below; with Deep's oilier label they set the packed range. Every dish on Slate is worked out the same way: how Slate counts calories.
| Ingredient | Raw | Values from |
|---|---|---|
| Wheat flour, refined (maida) 2 cups | 240 g | IFCT 2017 A018 |
| Ghee 3 tablespoons, in the dough | 38.4 g | IFCT 2017 T013 |
| Water to knead a stiff dough: an assumption, cooked off in frying | 85 g | no calories |
| Groundnut oil Taken up in frying: about 14% of the raw weight, as worked out for the samosa on this site (an assumption) | 52 g | IFCT 2017 T005 |
Sources
- ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. Maida (A018), ghee (T013); values read from github.com/nodef/ifct2017
- Vijayakumar et al., Indian Nutrient Databank (INDB), Current Developments in Nutrition, 2024. Checked for a plain namak para: none; ASC364 mathri, ASC458 and ASC460 namak paras noted
- Indian Nutrient Databank, recipes.xlsx, recipes_servingsize.xlsx and INDB.xlsx (GitHub). Units file: flour per cup, ghee per tablespoon
- Hebbar's Kitchen, Namak pare recipe (spicy diamond cuts). 2 cups maida, 3 tbsp ghee, ½ tsp ajwain, 2 tsp kalonji, 1 tsp salt, water, oil for frying
- Sakhale et al., oil uptake of lab-fried samosas (as used on the samosa page), and USDA FNDDS samosa. Frying oil taken up: about 14% of the raw weight, worked out on the samosa page from a fresh-oil lab study (18.3% fat) and USDA FNDDS (17.5 g fat per 100 g)
- Daadis namak para label (Open Food Facts, 8906000921968). 535 kcal, 30.6 g fat, 56 g carbohydrate, 7.9 g protein per 100 g; 25 g portion
- Riya's namak para label (Open Food Facts, 0604052782756). 459 kcal, 24.7 g fat, 52.9 g carbohydrate, 7.1 g protein per 100 g
- Deep namak para label (Open Food Facts, 0011433134880). 10 pieces = 28 g; 607 kcal, 42.9 g fat per 100 g; ingredients wheat flour, water, semolina, oil, salt, baking powder, ajwain
Questions people ask
How many calories are in namak para?
About 25 for one 5 g piece, 260 for 10 pieces (50 g) and 520 per 100 g, for home namak para fried in oil.
How many calories are in 100 g of namak para?
About 520 for this recipe. Packed labels list 459 to 607 per 100 g, depending on the oil.
Is namak para the same as mathri?
The same dough, cut differently. Mathri's textbook recipe carries more fat in the dough, so it is a little richer per gram: about 545 per 100 g against 520 here.
How much fat is in namak para?
About 29 g per 100 g, half from the ghee in the dough and half from the frying oil. That is about 15 g in 10 pieces.
How many calories are in a bowl of namak para?
About 260 for a small bowl of 10 pieces, 50 g. A full katori heaped with namak para is more like 80 g, about 400.