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Counting calories in home-cooked food

In home-cooked Indian food, three things decide most of the number: the size of your katori, the size of your roti and how much oil your family uses. Measure each of them once and your daily counting gets much closer to what you actually eat.

Your katori

Katoris in Indian homes range from about 150 ml to 250 ml, and that alone changes a katori of dal or sabzi by two thirds. A 150 ml katori of rajma is about 160 calories and a 250 ml one about 265.

To measure yours, fill it with water to where you usually serve, and pour it into a measuring jug. Do it once for the katori you use most.

Your roti

A roti's calories follow its atta, whatever its size when rolled out. A phulka from about 24 g of atta is about 75 calories, a medium roti from 30 g about 95, and a large one from 40 g about 130.

If you want to know your own, weigh a dough ball once on a kitchen scale. Dough is atta plus water, so a 50 g ball is roughly 30 g of atta. A teaspoon of ghee on top adds about 45 calories, close to half a roti.

Your oil

Oil and ghee are where home kitchens differ most, and they're the hardest to see once a dish is cooked. Each teaspoon is about 40 to 45 calories. In a textbook plain paratha, the oil is close to half the calories; in bhindi sabzi, close to three quarters.

The easiest way to know your family's oil is the bottle. If a 1 litre bottle lasts about 30 days for 4 people, that's about 7.7 g of oil per person per day, or about 68 calories, spread across everything cooked at home.

Thick or thin, home or outside

Dal, sambar and kadhi change with how much water they're cooked in. A 200 ml katori of thin dal tadka is about 115 calories, and a thick dal can be close to twice that. When you can, count dal by the dry dal that went into the pot: ICMR-NIN's standard serving is 30 g of dry dal.

Food cooked outside usually has more oil and a bigger portion, so count it separately: see eating out.

Where Slate helps

Slate asks for these once, in Your kitchen: your katori (150, 200 or 250 ml), your roti (6, 8 or 10 inches), your oil as a sentence such as "A 1 litre bottle lasts us about 30 days, cooking for 4 people", and the sugar and milk in your chai and coffee. It turns the oil into oil per person per day and spreads it across home-cooked dishes.

You can also add a short note on how you cook, such as "We cook with less oil than most. I use a small katori." Slate turns it into small, capped adjustments. Your kitchen is free, and changing it later never rewrites past days.

Questions people ask

How do I count calories in home-cooked food?

Know your katori size, your roti size and roughly how much oil your family uses. Then count dishes by the katori and rotis by the piece, and add ghee or oil you put on at the table.

How many calories does a teaspoon of oil add?

About 40 calories for a teaspoon of oil (4.5 g) and about 45 for a teaspoon of ghee (5 g), from IFCT 2017.

How do I measure my katori?

Fill it with water to your usual serving level and pour it into a measuring jug. Most katoris are between 150 and 250 ml.

How much oil does my family use per person?

Divide the bottle by the days and the people. A 1 litre bottle lasting 30 days for 4 people is about 7.7 g, or 68 calories, per person per day.