A nutrient value for 100 g of dry dal applies to that dry amount. A 100 g bowl of cooked dal also contains water and may include other ingredients. Use a cooked-food entry when it fits your recipe, or estimate each portion from the dry ingredients and the share of the pot you eat.
Follow one batch from pan to plate
Imagine you start with 120 g dry dal and the finished, well-mixed pot weighs 480 g. A 160 g bowl is one-third of the pot. For a rough ingredient-based estimate, it represents 40 g of the original dry dal. The same arithmetic can allocate oil or other ingredients across portions if they are evenly distributed. It cannot account for nutrients lost in discarded cooking liquid or other changes from cooking.
| Field | Worked example |
|---|---|
| Dry dal in the pot | 120 g |
| Finished weight | 480 g |
| Bowl weight | 160 g |
| Dry dal share in the bowl | Approximately 40 g |
Read the table headings
The Indian Food Composition Tables describe most foods on a raw basis and identify exceptions in the general information. Check the food name, preparation and edible portion before taking a number across. For a packaged ready-to-eat dal, read the panel on that pack, which describes that product on the stated basis.
The estimate is useful for describing meals consistently. If your clinician or dietitian has asked for a specific measuring method, use theirs. The vegetarian tiffin guide gives meal examples where the amount of dal or another accompaniment can vary from one lunch to the next.
See also Worried about nutrient gaps? Start with a food record, not a symptom list.