Calories in Keema Paratha

The recipe behind this number takes 80 g of atta, 100 g of keema, 25 g of onion and 2 tablespoons of oil and makes 3 parathas. One paratha therefore contains 27 g of flour and 33 g of minced meat. The source does not say which meat or how fatty the mince is. In size, this is a modest home paratha; the keema parathas served at restaurants and dhabas tend to be much larger, with more filling, more dough and a coat of butter or ghee, and should be expected to exceed 238 kcal by a wide margin.

More than half the energy, 53%, is fat. Carbohydrate supplies 31% and protein 16%. The fat comes from two places, the cooking oil and the mince, and the mince brings saturated fat with it. In return the paratha carries 9.4 g of protein, more than three times the 2.8 g in a plain paratha made from the same flour and oil. It is both the heaviest and the most protein-rich of the 15 breads compared here: more of a meal wrapped in dough than a bread to eat with something else.

One keema paratha is about 11% of a sedentary man's daily energy requirement and 14% of a woman's. Two reach 476 kcal with 18.8 g of protein, and three reach 714 kcal with 28.2 g. Since meat, fat and bread are already together, the sides can be light: sliced onion, cucumber, a squeeze of lemon, plain curd or mint raita. Adding a gravy dish or butter on top turns an already dense meal into a very large one. Its 3.4 g of fibre comes almost entirely from the atta, so a salad earns its place.

This paratha carries saturated fat and cholesterol from the mince, along with the salt in its seasoning, and a fattier mince or a restaurant portion raises all three. That is not a reason to avoid it, but it is a reason to count it as the main dish. Anyone who has been asked by a doctor or dietitian to limit saturated fat or salt, for cholesterol, blood pressure or a heart condition, should follow the advice they were given.