Calories in Sookhe Aloo

Sookhe aloo is the dry potato sabzi of tiffin boxes and train journeys, and the recipe behind this figure is about as plain as it gets: 100 g of potato and 1 teaspoon of oil, with spices, made into a single bowl. That is a modest serving and a very modest amount of oil. A katori at home may hold less potato or more, and a jeera aloo fried until the edges crisp will have taken up noticeably more oil. So 109 kcal is the figure for a lean version, and it should be read that way.

This is the only potato sabzi in the comparison in which carbohydrate supplies more than half the energy: 57% comes from carbohydrate, 37% from fat and 6% from protein. With only a teaspoon of oil in the pan there is not much else it could come from. It is also why sookhe aloo is the lightest of the seven potato dishes, well below aloo ki sabzi at 181 kcal and aloo matar at 280 kcal. What the bowl lacks is nearly everything except starch: it has 1.7 g of protein and 2 g of fibre.

One bowl is only about 5% of a sedentary man's daily energy requirement and 7% of a woman's, so sookhe aloo is rarely what makes a meal heavy. The puri or paratha beside it usually is. Two bowls give 218 kcal but only 3.4 g of protein, so the dish cannot carry a meal by itself: it is starch with a little fat. Dal, curd, sprouts or an egg should supply the protein, and a salad or a green sabzi the fibre.

The low figure depends on the recipe's single teaspoon of oil, and portion creep with potato is easy because the dish is soft, salty and quick to eat. Sookhe aloo is also almost pure starch, with 15.2 g of carbohydrate and little protein or fibre to slow it down. People keeping an eye on blood sugar should count it with the roti or rice in the meal and follow the portions set by their doctor or dietitian.