Dal calories: one katori, two katoris, and the protein per 100 g
Dal is the food people ask about in two directions at once — "how many calories" and "how much protein". Both answers depend on whether you mean the cooked katori or the dry dal in the packet, so this page gives you both from the same chart your ForgeFitWithSidd food log uses.
The short version: a katori of dal tadka is a light, useful part of a plate. The plate total is where the calories actually live.
The short answer
One katori of dal tadka (180 g) is about 180 calories, with 9 g protein, 22 g carbs and 5.9 g fat. Half a katori is 90, two katoris is 360.
Weighed out per 100 g, cooked dal is about 100 calories and 5 g of protein. The dry dal in your packet is a different thing entirely — 100 g of raw chana dal is 329 calories with 21.6 g protein — which is why logging dal by the katori and logging it by the packet give numbers that look impossible next to each other.
Calories per katori and per 100 g
Cooked lines come from the chart's dal tadka katori. Raw lines are the uncooked weight, the number that scales.
| Serving | How it was measured | kcal | P (g) | C (g) | F (g) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 katori dal tadka | 1 katori (180 g) | 180 | 9 | 22 | 5.9 |
| 1/2 katori dal | 90 g cooked | 90 | 4.5 | 11 | 3 |
| 2 katoris dal | 360 g cooked | 360 | 18 | 44 | 11.8 |
| 100 g cooked dal | the chart's katori weighed out | 100 | 5 | 12.2 | 3.3 |
| 100 g raw chana dal | uncooked weight | 329 | 21.6 | 46.7 | 5.3 |
| 50 g raw chana dal | one dry serving | 165 | 10.8 | 23.4 | 2.7 |
| 100 g raw rajma | uncooked weight | 298 | 19.5 | 48.8 | 1.7 |
| 1 katori dal + 1 tsp ghee | tadka finished with ghee | 225 | 9 | 22 | 10.9 |
What changes the number most
The dal is rarely the reason a bowl of dal is heavy.
- The tadka. Oil or ghee poured over at the end is the single biggest addition — a teaspoon of ghee is about 45 calories.
- Katori size. Household katoris range from 120 g to 250 g, so the same “one katori” can be a 120-calorie or a 250-calorie serving.
- Restaurant and cafe dal. Cream, butter and sugar all go into the pot; a restaurant katori can be double a home one.
- Which dal. Moong, masoor and chana cook to different weights; the chart lists chana dal and rajma dry, which is the honest starting point.
Weigh your own katori once, in grams. That one measurement removes most of the guesswork from every dal, sabzi and curd you log after it.
Dal with rice, roti or curd
The plate is the number that decides whether you are in a deficit.
| Serving | How it was measured | kcal | P (g) | C (g) | F (g) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 katori dal + 1 katori rice | dal with a bowl of cooked rice | 358 | 13 | 61.1 | 6.2 |
| 1 katori dal + 2 rotis | dal with two medium rotis | 372 | 15.4 | 60.6 | 6.7 |
| 1 katori dal + 100 g curd | dal with plain curd | 241 | 12.5 | 26.7 | 9.2 |
| 1 plate rajma chawal | 1 plate (400 g) | 520 | 18 | 88 | 10 |
How much protein dal really brings
Per 100 g, so dal is compared fairly rather than by how generous the serving looks.
| Serving | How it was measured | kcal | P (g) | C (g) | F (g) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 g cooked dal | the chart's katori weighed out | 100 | 5 | 12.2 | 3.3 |
| 100 g raw chana dal | 100 g | 329 | 21.6 | 46.7 | 5.3 |
| 100 g paneer | 100 g | 305 | 18.9 | 2.4 | 24.8 |
| 100 g curd | 100 g | 61 | 3.5 | 4.7 | 3.3 |
| 1 boiled egg | half of the chart's two-egg serving | 78 | 6.3 | 0.6 | 5.3 |
| 1 katori dal tadka | 1 katori (180 g) | 180 | 9 | 22 | 5.9 |
Read this as: dal counts towards protein, but a katori is not a protein target. Two katoris gets you about 18 g, and most people need several times that across a day — so dal works best as one of several sources, with curd, paneer or eggs doing the rest. If your bread is the other half of the plate, the roti and chapati calories page has those numbers.
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Tell us what you ate and we'll estimate the calories, protein, carbs and fat — using the same numbers as the charts on this site. No sign-up needed.
The two full charts
Staples, dals, dairy, cooked dishes and cooking fats are in the Indian food calories chart. Samosa, pakora, pani puri, vada pav, namkeen and mithai are in the separate Indian snacks calories chart.
Want these numbers turned into your plan?
A chart tells you what food contains. Coaching tells you how much of it you need — calorie and macro targets calculated from your own body and goal, built around Indian, Western, vegetarian, non-vegetarian or Jain eating.