Moong dal protein: what one katori gives you

Moong dal nutrition, per serving and per 100 g

Serving: 30 g raw dal, about one katori cooked, weighed raw as IFCT reports it. IFCT 2017 food code B010, "Green gram, dal (Vigna radiata)", the mean of 6 regions sampled. IFCT does not report glycaemic index, so this page prints none.

The verdict on moong dal

How moong dal fits a plan that loses fat and keeps muscle

IFCT 2017 lists split green gram dal at 23.9 g of protein per 100 g raw, 7.3 g of protein for every 100 kcal. That ratio is why dal sits at the centre of a vegetarian plan that keeps muscle: it brings protein without much fat, at 326 kcal per 100 g.

A single katori is 7.2 g of the roughly 58 g a day ICMR-NIN's RDA sets for a 70 kg adult, so the dal needs company: a second katori at dinner, curd, paneer, sprouts or eggs. Make the dal thick rather than watery. A thin dal is the same 30 g of moong spread across more water, and it fills the bowl without adding protein.

Moong dal in an Indian kitchen

Wash yellow moong dal until the water runs clear, then pressure-cook it with turmeric and salt; it is ready in two or three whistles and needs no soaking. Temper it at the end with a teaspoon of ghee or oil, jeera, garlic and hing, rather than a ladle of ghee. Whole green moong, soaked overnight and sprouted for a day, makes a crunchy salad with onion, tomato and lemon. Ground soaked moong becomes pesarattu or a moong chilla, a high-protein breakfast batter.

Pair it, or swap it

Moong dal with rice or roti in the ICMR-NIN 3:1 cereal-to-pulse ratio gives a more complete protein. Moong dal chilla is a high-protein breakfast that replaces a paratha one-for-one.

Worth knowing

The tadka is where dal gains calories: a tablespoon of ghee is about three teaspoons, about 44 kcal each. Keep the tadka to one teaspoon and let spices carry the flavour.

Moong dal against similar foods