Calories in Paneer Tikka

The serving here is a whole plate, not a piece. The recipe threads 100 g of paneer with 100 g of onion, 100 g of tomato and 50 g of capsicum, brushes them with 1 teaspoon of oil, and serves the skewers with 30 g of lemon and 2 tablespoons of mint chutney made with curd. All of that is one plate. At a restaurant such a plate is normally shared as a starter, so one person's share may be half of it or less. The 412 kcal applies to the full plate of this recipe.

Paneer tikka is the heaviest of the 22 dishes compared, and oil is not the reason: the recipe uses a single teaspoon. The energy comes from the paneer. Fat supplies 44% of it, most of that from the paneer itself, which is why a good part of the 19.7 g is saturated. Carbohydrate supplies 34%, with the onion, tomato, capsicum and chutney all adding to it, and protein 22%, the highest share in the comparison. The 100 g of paneer brings the plate to 22.4 g of protein, and a good deal of calcium with it.

A full plate is about 20% of a sedentary man's daily energy requirement and 25% of a woman's, which is a meal's worth, not a starter's. With 22.4 g of protein it can be the main protein of a vegetarian meal: a plate with a roti or a salad needs no dal or second paneer dish. Ordered as a starter before a curry, naan and rice, it is extra. Two plates come to 824 kcal and 44.8 g of protein.

With 100 g of paneer on the plate, much of the 19.7 g of fat is saturated, and the marinade and the chaat masala sprinkled on top both bring salt. Paneer tikka has the reputation of being the light option on a menu; per plate it is the heaviest dish in this comparison, simply because of how much paneer it holds. Anyone on a diet prescribed for a heart condition or raised cholesterol should follow their doctor or dietitian's portions.