Uttapam calories
One onion tomato uttapam (about 40 g of rice and urad dal, 1½ teaspoons of oil) has about 215 calories. With a teaspoon of ghee on top it's about 260, and with sambar about 415. Thickness and size matter most: a thick uttapam holds twice the batter of a dosa. Udupi restaurant uttapams run about 215 to 360.
Uttapam is made from the same kind of rice and urad dal batter as dosa, but it's poured thick, topped with onion, tomato, chilli and coriander, and cooked slowly on both sides with oil. It's a breakfast and tiffin dish across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and a standard on Udupi restaurant menus.
Because it's thick, one uttapam holds more batter than a home dosa. The toppings add little; the batter and the oil on the tawa make up most of the number.
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 uttapam?
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 mini uttapam (a quarter of one) | 55 | 1 g | 8 g | 2 g |
| 1 uttapam | 215 | 5 g | 32 g | 7 g |
| 1 uttapam with 1 tsp ghee on top | 260 | 5 g | 32 g | 12 g |
| 2 uttapams | 430 | 11 g | 63 g | 14 g |
How does home uttapam compare with outside?
Restaurant uttapams are often thicker and wider than home ones, and some places finish them with butter or serve a ghee version. The toppings are similar.
We found no lab measurement of restaurant uttapam, so the range below assumes one up to 1.5 times this size, with up to a teaspoon of butter.
| Version | Cals | Fat |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 215 | 7 g |
| Udupi restaurant | 215 to 360 | 7 to 15 g |
Calories in uttapam as a meal
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| An uttapam with sambar | 415 | 12 g | 53 g | 16 g |
What changes the calories in uttapam?
- Thickness and size matter most. A thick uttapam can hold twice the batter of a home dosa.
- Each teaspoon of oil on the tawa adds about 40 calories. Uttapam is cooked on both sides, so it usually takes more oil than a dosa.
- The onion and tomato topping adds under 20 calories an uttapam.
- Cheese or paneer uttapam adds more: a 20 g grating of cheese is about 60 calories.
- Rava uttapam uses semolina and curd instead of rice and dal, and has its own values.
How were these numbers worked out?
The uttapam is the onion tomato uttapam in The Art & Science of Cooking (via the Indian Nutrient Databank): 60 g of parboiled rice, 20 g of urad dal, 50 g each of onion and tomato and a green chilli, cooked with 3 teaspoons of oil, making 2, at IFCT 2017 values. The databank also lists a cup of oil for frying, which would put each uttapam over 600 calories; uttapam is cooked on a tawa, so only the 3 teaspoons are counted, all as eaten. No cooked weight is used: one uttapam is half the recipe, 215 calories, and a mini uttapam a quarter. The one comparable figure, the databank's value for Basic Food Preparation's smaller mixed-vegetable uttapam, is 19% below, so the page shows a range. No restaurant uttapam has been analysed, so the Udupi range assumes up to 1.5 times the size and up to a teaspoon of butter. 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 |
| Black gram dal (urad) | 20 g | IFCT 2017 B003 |
| Onion, big | 50 g | IFCT 2017 G017 |
| Tomato, ripe, hybrid | 50 g | IFCT 2017 D075 |
| Chillies, green | 3.3 g | IFCT 2017 G008 |
| Fenugreek seeds (methi dana) | 1 g | IFCT 2017 G026 |
| Groundnut oil 3 teaspoons, for the tawa | 13.5 g | IFCT 2017 T005 |
| Water for the batter | 120 g | no calories |
Basic Food Preparation, another standard manual, makes a smaller mixed-vegetable uttapam at about 175 calories. Uttapams vary in size and oil, so most come to between about 175 and 215.
Sources
- ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. Rice parboiled (A014), black gram dal (B003), onion (G017), tomato (D075), green chilli (G008), fenugreek seeds (G026), 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 ASC148, onion tomato uttapam; Basic Food Preparation recipe BFP152, uttapam
- USDA FoodData Central, Butter, without salt (173430). Butter on restaurant uttapam
- USDA FoodData Central, Cheese, mozzarella, whole milk (170845). Cheese uttapam, 299 kcal per 100 g
Questions people ask
How many calories are in 1 uttapam?
About 215 for an onion tomato uttapam made at home with 1½ teaspoons of oil. A mini uttapam is about 55.
Which has more calories, uttapam or dosa?
Usually the uttapam, because it's thicker and holds more batter and oil. A home plain dosa is about 145 calories against about 215 for an uttapam.
How much protein is in an uttapam?
About 5 g, from the rice and urad dal.
Is uttapam batter the same as dosa batter?
Very close. Many homes use leftover dosa batter for uttapam, often after it's turned a little sour. The calories per gram of batter are about the same.
How many calories are in uttapam with sambar?
About 415 calories for one uttapam and a 200 ml katori of sambar.