Calories in Namkeen Dalia

The figure rests on a simple recipe: broken wheat roasted in oil, cooked with tomato and water, and served as a plate that holds 75 g of the dry grain, 25 g of tomato and 8.5 g of oil. Dalia swells a great deal as it cooks, so 75 g of dry grain makes a large, filling plate, a full meal and not a side dish. Many home servings are smaller than that. The ingredients are also plain: tomato and a little onion are the only vegetables, where a home dalia often carries peas, carrot and beans, which add bulk and fibre for little energy.

Carbohydrate supplies 65% of the energy, fat 24% and protein 11%. Almost all of the carbohydrate is the starch of the broken wheat, which is a whole grain and so arrives with 10 g of fibre per plate. The fat is the cooking oil, a moderate amount at 8.5 g. Sugar is negligible. This is the opposite profile to the sweet milk version of dalia: grain first, with no milk fat or ghee in it, and filling mainly because of its fibre and sheer volume.

A full plate is about 16% of a sedentary man's daily energy requirement and 21% of a woman's, which makes it a main meal. It is among the heaviest breakfasts in this set, 21st of 22 when ranked from the lightest, simply because the serving is large, and two plates would come to 692 kcal. It brings 10 g of fibre, more than most breakfasts manage, and 9.7 g of protein, which is fair but not high. A bowl of curd, a glass of chaas or some dal on the side improves the protein without adding much.

Portion is the caveat. The 346 kcal belongs to a plate cooked from 75 g of dry grain, and a katori served beside other dishes is a fraction of that. Broken wheat is wheat, so it contains gluten and is unsuitable for anyone with coeliac disease. It is a whole grain, yet still mostly starch, and people managing diabetes should take the amount from the plan their doctor or dietitian has given them.