Calories in Tamarind Rice

The recipe is a plain puliyodarai: 80 g of raw rice, 20 g of tamarind, 1 teaspoon of oil and 1 teaspoon of ghee, counted as one plate. It has no peanuts and very little fat, which makes it leaner than the tamarind rice most people know from temples, travel tiffins and festival cooking, where the rice is coated in sesame oil and studded with peanuts and dal. The quantity is a full plate of rice, a meal on its own. For the smaller helping that comes as one of several rice courses, half a plate at 238 kcal is the nearer figure.

This is a carbohydrate plate: 71% of the energy, against 21% from fat and 8% from protein. Rice is the main source, and the tamarind adds to it: tamarind pulp is sour to taste but rich in natural sugar, which is why the plate shows 14.9 g of sugars even though the recipe lists no sugar or jaggery. The fat is the teaspoon of oil and the teaspoon of ghee and little else. Compare lemon rice in the same set, made with peanuts and a tablespoon of oil, at 563 kcal: the two dishes are cousins, and what separates them is almost entirely fat.

For a sedentary adult, a plate of tamarind rice is about 23% of a man's daily energy requirement and 29% of a woman's. It is nearly all rice: 9.5 g of protein and 6.5 g of fibre are not much for a meal of this size. Curd is the traditional partner and a good one, since it adds protein and tempers the sourness; a vegetable side or a few roasted peanuts also helps. As travel food it keeps well, which is why it is packed so often, but two plates come to 954 kcal and 166.4 g of carbohydrate.

This plate is carbohydrate-dense, with 83.2 g of carbohydrate, of which 14.9 g is sugars, mostly from the tamarind, and little protein or fat to slow it down. People managing diabetes should not assume it is a light option because it is low in oil; their doctor or dietitian is the right guide on rice portions. The figure also belongs to an unusually lean recipe, so a richer home or temple version should be assumed to be higher.