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Calorie counting for vegetarians, including Jain food

For vegetarians, the useful numbers are usually protein and fat as much as calories: how much protein a katori of dal really gives, and how quickly paneer, ghee and fried snacks add up. Jain cooking changes the vegetables, but the oil and the dairy decide most of the calories.

Where the protein comes from

In a vegetarian Indian diet, protein comes mostly from dal, beans, paneer, curd, milk and besan. Cooked dal is mostly water, so a katori holds less than people expect:

  • A bowl of plain toor dal made from 30 g of dry dal has about 7 g of protein.
  • A 200 ml katori of rajma has about 8 g, and of chole about 9 g.
  • A home bowl of palak paneer with 40 g of paneer has about 12 g.
  • Two besan chillas have about 8 g.

Raw toor dal has 21.7 g of protein per 100 g and paneer 18.9 g, according to IFCT 2017, but you eat dal cooked and diluted and paneer in small cubes. Counting by what's in your katori is more useful than counting by the packet.

Where the calories come from

Vegetarian food isn't automatically light or heavy. The same few things make the difference in most meals:

  • Paneer is about 258 calories per 100 g. A restaurant serving often has two or three times the paneer of a home katori.
  • Each teaspoon of ghee or oil is about 40 to 45 calories, whether it's in the tadka, on the roti or in the kadhai.
  • Fried snacks add up quickly: a home samosa is about 165 calories and two medu vadas about 140.
  • So do sweets and sweet drinks: a home gulab jamun is about 155 calories and a glass of sweet lassi about 140.

Jain food

Jain cooking leaves out onion, garlic, potato and other root vegetables, and many Jain families don't eat after sunset. Taking out onion and garlic changes a dish's calories very little: 25 g of onion is about 12 calories. The oil, ghee, dairy and sugar decide the number, as they do in any vegetarian kitchen.

Where potato is replaced with raw banana or another vegetable, count that vegetable instead. Dal, kadhi, rotis, theplas and most sabzis can be counted the same way, by the katori and the roti.

How to count a vegetarian day

  1. Count dal by the dry dal when you cook it, or by the katori when you serve it, and keep to one katori size.
  2. Count paneer, curd and milk separately when you can. They carry most of the protein and much of the fat.
  3. Count ghee and oil you add at the table: a teaspoon on rice, dal or roti.
  4. Count fried snacks and sweets as their own lines, not as part of the meal.

Where Slate helps

In Slate you can tell it your diet: vegetarian, eggetarian, non-vegetarian, vegan or Jain, and the foods you avoid. That helps Slate read your lines the way you mean them. Every line shows protein, carbs and fat as well as calories, and you can set macro goals yourself; Slate never suggests one.

Write "1 katori rajma, 2 roti, dahi" and each part gets its own line and its own number, adjusted for your katori, roti and oil.

Questions people ask

How much protein is in a katori of dal?

A bowl of plain toor dal made from 30 g of dry dal has about 7 g of protein. A thick dal, rajma or chole has more per katori: about 8 g in a 200 ml katori of rajma.

Is Jain food lower in calories?

Not by itself. Leaving out onion and garlic removes very few calories. Oil, ghee, dairy and sugar decide most of the number, in Jain cooking as in any other.

How many calories are in 100 g of paneer?

About 258, with about 18.9 g of protein and 14.8 g of fat, according to IFCT 2017.

Can I track protein in Slate?

Yes. Every line shows protein, carbs and fat, and macro goals are free. Slate doesn't suggest what your goals should be.