Calories in Baingan Bharta

The recipe behind the figure roasts 200 g of brinjal, mashes it and cooks it with 50 g of tomato and 50 g of onion in 1 tablespoon of oil, and counts the result as a single bowl. That is a large helping of bharta. In many homes the same quantity would be shared, so the katori that reaches the plate may hold a good deal less than this. The 212 kcal applies to this recipe at this serving size, not to a dhaba bharta swimming in oil or one enriched with peas or butter.

Roasting a brinjal over a flame adds no fat at all, and brinjal is one of the lightest vegetables in the kitchen. The energy arrives afterwards: fat supplies 64% of it, and that fat is the tablespoon of oil the onion, tomato and mashed brinjal are fried in. Carbohydrate supplies 28% and protein 9%. What the vegetables contribute most is fibre, 10.7 g in the bowl, which is among the highest figures in this group of sabzis and the reason bharta is filling for its calories.

One bowl of baingan bharta is about 10% of a sedentary man's daily energy requirement and 13% of a woman's. Two bowls come to 424 kcal and 29.2 g of fat, but also 9 g of protein. Baingan bharta is traditionally eaten with roti, bajra rotla or paratha; with plain roti and a dal it makes a meal with plenty of fibre. On its own it is short of protein at 4.5 g a bowl, so the dal or a bowl of curd matters.

The 10.7 g of fibre in a bowl of baingan bharta is a large amount for one dish, so those not used to it may prefer a smaller helping at first. Bharta is also salted to taste, and that comes on top of the pickle, papad or salted buttermilk in the same meal. Anyone asked to restrict salt for blood pressure or a kidney condition should season the bharta lightly and follow the limits given by their doctor or dietitian.