Rajma calories
A 200 ml katori of home rajma has about 210 calories and 8 g of protein. Rajma chawal, with a katori of plain rice, comes to about 370. The masala's oil is the main variable: each extra teaspoon adds about 40 to 45 calories. Dhaba rajma, with a second ghee tadka or cream, runs about 255 to 285.
Rajma is red kidney beans, soaked overnight, pressure-cooked and simmered in an onion and tomato masala. It's the everyday Punjabi and Jammu dish behind rajma chawal, and Jammu's Bhaderwah rajma has its own GI tag.
The beans carry the protein and most of the calories. The rest comes from oil in the masala, and from cream or a ghee tadka in dhaba versions.
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 rajma?
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 katori (150 ml) about 150 g | 160 | 6 g | 17 g | 7 g |
| 1 katori (200 ml) about 200 g | 210 | 8 g | 23 g | 9 g |
| 1 katori (250 ml) about 250 g | 265 | 10 g | 29 g | 11 g |
| 1 textbook bowl (30 g dry rajma) about 165 g | 175 | 7 g | 19 g | 8 g |
How does home rajma compare with outside?
Dhaba rajma often gets a second tadka of ghee, and restaurant rajma is sometimes finished with cream or malai, so the difference is the extra fat.
The range below adds about a teaspoon of ghee and up to a tablespoon of cream to a 200 ml katori, in line with published recipe proportions.
| Version | Cals | Fat |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 210 | 9 g |
| Dhaba or restaurant | 255 to 285 | 14 to 17 g |
Calories in rajma as a meal
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rajma with rice (a katori of each) | 370 | 12 g | 58 g | 9 g |
| Rajma with 2 rotis | 405 | 15 g | 62 g | 10 g |
What changes the calories in rajma?
- The masala here takes about a teaspoon and a half of oil per serving. Each extra teaspoon of oil or ghee adds about 40 to 45 calories.
- A tablespoon of cream or malai adds about 30 calories.
- A thick, reduced rajma holds more beans in each katori than a thinner one with more gravy.
- Rajma chawal is two dishes, so count the rice separately: a 200 ml katori of plain rice is about 160 calories. The whole plate, by size and with ghee, is on the rajma chawal page.
How were these numbers worked out?
The rajma is the kidney bean curry in The Art & Science of Cooking (via the Indian Nutrient Databank): 30 g of dry rajma, 50 g of tomato, 25 g of onion, ginger, garlic and 1.5 teaspoons of oil for one bowl, the oil counted as eaten, with IFCT 2017 values throughout. The cooked beans are taken at 2.62 times their dry weight, the ratio between USDA's raw and boiled kidney beans, giving a bowl of about 165 g and 105 calories per 100 g; a katori is measured at 1 g per ml, so a 200 ml katori is 210 calories. The databank's figure for the same recipe, 172 calories a bowl, agrees within 2%, which confirms the arithmetic rather than the recipe. The dhaba range adds a 5 g ghee tadka and up to 15 g of cream per katori, from published recipe proportions rather than a measurement. Every dish on Slate is worked out the same way: how Slate counts calories.
| Ingredient | Raw | Values from |
|---|---|---|
| Rajmah, red (dry) Dry weight, before soaking | 30 g | IFCT 2017 B020 |
| Water Taken up by the beans in soaking and cooking | 48.6 g | no calories |
| Tomato, ripe, hybrid | 50 g | IFCT 2017 D075 |
| Onion, big | 25 g | IFCT 2017 G017 |
| Groundnut oil 1.5 tsp | 6.8 g | IFCT 2017 T005 |
| Ginger, fresh | 3.2 g | IFCT 2017 G014 |
| Garlic | 1.3 g | IFCT 2017 G011 |
Sources
- ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. Rajmah, red (B020), tomato, onion, oil; 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 ASC165
- USDA FoodData Central 175194, kidney beans, red, boiled. Cooked bean yield
- Swasthi, Rajma masala (Swasthi's Recipes). Dhaba and creamy variants (proportions only)
- All India Radio, Bhaderwah rajma GI tag, 2023
Questions people ask
How many calories are in 1 katori of rajma?
A 200 ml katori of home rajma curry has about 210 calories, and a 150 ml katori about 160.
How much protein is in rajma?
A 200 ml katori has about 8 g of protein. Most of it comes from the beans.
Why is rajma soaked overnight?
Soaking softens the beans so they cook evenly. The beans take up water, which has no calories, so the total doesn't change.
How many calories are in rajma chawal?
About 370 calories for a 200 ml katori of rajma with a 200 ml katori of rice. The rajma chawal page has bigger plates and the version with ghee. With 2 medium rotis instead, about 405, with about 15 g of protein.