Veg pulao calories
A 200 ml katori of veg pulao has about 150 calories, and a 250 ml katori about 190. A plate from 80 g of raw rice with peas, carrot and beans is about 490. Oil or ghee matters most, about 40 to 45 calories a teaspoon. Restaurant pulao, cooked in ghee with cashews, runs about 535 to 640.
Veg pulao is rice cooked in one pot with whole spices, onion and vegetables such as peas, carrot and beans, in oil or ghee, with the water taken up as it cooks. Matar pulao, Kashmiri pulao with dry fruit and tawa pulao are all close relatives, and it's a regular in tiffins and at weddings.
Rice is a little over half of a plate's calories here and the oil about a quarter. The vegetables add volume and a small share.
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 veg pulao?
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 katori (150 ml) about 101 g | 115 | 3 g | 18 g | 3 g |
| 1 katori (200 ml) about 134 g | 150 | 4 g | 24 g | 5 g |
| 1 katori (250 ml) about 168 g | 190 | 5 g | 29 g | 6 g |
| 1 plate (80 g raw rice) about 434 g | 490 | 12 g | 76 g | 15 g |
| 100 g about 100 g | 115 | 3 g | 18 g | 3 g |
| 250 g about 250 g | 285 | 7 g | 44 g | 8 g |
How does home veg pulao compare with outside?
Restaurant and wedding pulao is usually cooked in ghee, often with more of it, and topped with fried cashews or raisins.
No lab has measured it, so the range below adds 1 to 2 teaspoons of ghee and up to 10 g of cashews to this plate.
| Version | Cals | Fat |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 490 | 15 g |
| Restaurant or caterer | 535 to 640 | 20 to 29 g |
What changes the calories in veg pulao?
- Oil or ghee is the main variable. Each teaspoon adds about 40 to 45 calories to the pot.
- Cashews and raisins add up quickly: 10 g of cashews is about 60 calories, and 10 g of raisins about 30.
- More vegetables and less rice lowers the number per katori. Paneer or soya chunks raise it.
- Plain pulao with only onion and spices is close to jeera rice.
How were these numbers worked out?
The recipe is the mixed vegetable pulao in The Art & Science of Cooking (via the Indian Nutrient Databank): 80 g of rice with 50 g each of peas, carrot and onion, 30 g of beans and whole spices, cooked in a tablespoon of oil with twice the rice's volume of water, the oil counted as eaten, at IFCT 2017 values with the rice as parboiled. The ingredients added together weigh about 434 g for the plate, so the plate is 490 calories and the pot 115 per 100 g; a katori uses the plain rice page's 0.67 g per ml, so a 200 ml katori is 150. The nearest check, the databank's figure for the same textbook's plain pulao without vegetables, is 12% below this plate, within the 15% that would require a range. No restaurant pulao has been analysed; the range adds 1 to 2 teaspoons of ghee and up to 10 g of fried cashews per plate. Every dish on Slate is worked out the same way: how Slate counts calories.
| Ingredient | Raw | Values from |
|---|---|---|
| Rice, parboiled, milled | 80 g | IFCT 2017 A014 |
| Water Twice the rice by volume | 160 g | no calories |
| Peas, fresh | 50 g | IFCT 2017 D061 |
| Carrot, orange | 50 g | IFCT 2017 F002 |
| French beans | 30 g | IFCT 2017 D049 |
| Onion, big | 50 g | IFCT 2017 G017 |
| Cumin seeds | 0.5 g | IFCT 2017 G025 |
| Groundnut oil 1 tablespoon | 13.6 g | IFCT 2017 T005 |
Sources
- ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. Rice parboiled (A014), peas, carrot, French beans, onion, cumin, oil, ghee, cashew (H005), raisins (E057); values read from github.com/nodef/ifct2017
- Vijayakumar et al., Indian Nutrient Databank (INDB), Current Developments in Nutrition, 2024. The Art & Science of Cooking recipes ASC115, mixed vegetable pulao, and ASC114, plain pulao
- USDA FoodData Central, Rice, white, long-grain, regular, enriched, cooked (168878). 158 g per cup, for katori volumes
Questions people ask
How many calories are in 1 katori of veg pulao?
About 150 in a 200 ml katori and about 115 in a 150 ml one.
How many calories are in 100 g of veg pulao?
About 115, and about 285 for 250 g.
How much protein is in veg pulao?
About 12 g in a plate, from the rice and peas.
Which has more calories, veg pulao or veg biryani?
Biryani, usually, because it's layered with more oil or ghee. A plate of home veg biryani here is about 520, against about 490 for a plate of pulao.