Calories in Moong Dal Halwa

The recipe starts with 40 g of moong, soaked, ground and roasted in 2 tablespoons of ghee with 10 g of suji, then finished with 30 g of khoya and 40 g of sugar. It makes 2 bowls. Each bowl therefore has 20 g of dal and a tablespoon of ghee, which is restrained for this dish: the halwa served at weddings is cooked with enough ghee to pool at the edges. A bowl here is a small katori of dense halwa, the kind eaten in a few spoonfuls. It ranks 17th of the 20 sweets from lightest to heaviest, between shrikhand at 327 kcal and phirni at 337 kcal.

Fat and carbohydrate supply 45% of the energy each, and protein 9%. The fat is ghee with some help from the khoya; the carbohydrate is sugar first and dal second. The dal and khoya together give the bowl 8 g of protein, more than suji halwa or gajar ka halwa in this set, and 2.5 g of fibre. That makes it a slightly more rounded sweet than a cereal halwa, though not a way to eat dal: the 20 g of moong sits in an equal weight of sugar and a tablespoon of ghee.

This is a winter and wedding sweet, usually eaten after a large meal. One bowl is about 16% of a sedentary man's daily energy requirement and 20% of a woman's; two bowls come to 668 kcal and three to 1002 kcal. The 8 g of protein is welcome but does not change what the dish is. Half a bowl, about 167 kcal, is a reasonable portion at a function where other sweets are also on offer. At home, serving it on a day when the main meal is plain dal, sabzi and roti keeps the total in hand.

The dal in the name can make this halwa sound like a protein dish. It is a ghee-and-sugar sweet with some dal in it: one bowl has 16.9 g of fat, most of it ghee, and 24.4 g of sugars against 8 g of protein. Those following medical advice on saturated fat or sugar, for a heart condition or diabetes for example, should check portions with their doctor or dietitian before making it a regular winter habit.