Calories in Makhana Kheer

The reference recipe roasts 5 g of makhana in half a teaspoon of ghee and simmers it in 250 ml of milk with 1.5 tablespoons of sugar, and the whole pot is one bowl. Five grams of makhana is a small handful of puffed seeds, light enough that it barely registers in the total. A home cook who likes the kheer crowded with makhana, or who crushes extra into the milk to thicken it, will have a different bowl. Among the 20 sweets compared here it sits 14th from the lightest, with rice kheer right beside it at 301 kcal.

Carbohydrate supplies 47% of the energy, fat 41% and protein 12%. The fat is milk fat plus the ghee used for roasting; the carbohydrate is chiefly sugar; the protein, 9.2 g, is the milk's. Makhana contributes crunch and very little else at this quantity, which is why the bowl has only 0.3 g of fibre. Anyone choosing this kheer because makhana sounds light should know that the numbers are those of sweetened milk.

On a fasting day this kheer is often one of the few substantial things eaten, and in that role its 9.2 g of protein is useful. One bowl is about 14% of a sedentary man's daily energy requirement and 18% of a woman's; two bowls reach 600 kcal. It has almost no fibre, so fruit or a handful of plain roasted makhana alongside makes the meal more filling than a second bowl does. After a normal dinner, half a bowl at about 150 kcal is a fair dessert.

Makhana has a reputation as a light food, but in this kheer it is 5 g in a bowl that carries 32.1 g of sugars and 13.9 g of fat. The sugars figure includes what milk contains naturally along with the 1.5 tablespoons added, and the fat is milk fat with a little ghee. During a fast, people with diabetes or anyone on medicines timed around meals should ask their doctor or dietitian how a sweet like this fits, since fasting changes the usual pattern of eating.