Calories in Sambar

The figure describes a full, meal-size bowl of thick sambar. The recipe makes 2 bowls from 50 g of raw toor dal, 30 g each of brinjal, drumstick, okra, tomato, onion and coconut, 20 g of tamarind and 2 teaspoons of oil, so each bowl holds 25 g of dal and 15 g of coconut. ICMR-NIN's Dietary Guidelines for Indians gives about 110 kcal for 1 cup of sambar. The gap follows from the serving and the recipe: a cup is not the same measure as this bowl, and a thinner sambar carries less dal, coconut and oil. Half of this bowl is about 124 kcal, close to the guideline figure.

Carbohydrate supplies 44% of the energy, fat 42% and protein 14%. The dal gives most of the protein and starch. The fat, 11.3 g, comes from the coconut and the oil together, and the coconut supplies most of the saturated fat. Tamarind and the vegetables add to the carbohydrate, including 8.5 g of sugars that are natural to them, and with the dal they bring 9.1 g of fibre. Sambar ranks 16 of the 20 dals and pulse curries here, heavier than a plain dal because it has coconut and tamarind where the others have only a tadka.

A full bowl of this sambar is about 12% of a sedentary man's daily energy requirement and 15% of a woman's. It carries 8.6 g of protein, so sambar contributes protein to an idli or rice meal but does not make it a high-protein one; two bowls give 17.2 g. The dal in sambar and the rice or idli beside it complement each other, which improves the protein of the meal as a whole. With 9.1 g of fibre and five vegetables in the pot, it also does the work of a sabzi. Count the idli, dosa, vada or rice separately, since none of them is inside this figure.

Sambar is salted in the pot, and a sambar meal often brings more salt through pickle, papad and chutney. Restaurant sambar can also be sweeter than a home one. Anyone told to limit salt for high blood pressure, or to manage carbohydrate for diabetes, should keep to the portions their doctor or dietitian has set and count the rice or idli along with the sambar.