vegetable curry: do these calories make sense?

yirara

I can't quite figure it out. Today at lunch there was an dry Indian potato and green bean curry at the canteen. The kitchen manager said they use olive oil instead of ghee, not that it makes a lot of difference... It was about 47% potatoes, 47% green beans, 6% chili, herbs, spices and oil (you could take a serving from the top without oil on the spoon).

Anyway, the posted calories per 100 grams were:
Energy: 35 Kcal
total protein: 3 g
total fat: 0.5 g
total carbs: 5 g
fibre: 1 g

Does that make sense? I mean, if I calculate protein, fat and carbs together if fits, but I'm more interested in the total calories of the dish. Can you make a curry with so little calories?

neanderthin

Well, my curry blends are a combo of different spices, generally, so yeah, the actual curry component is pretty much negligible as far as calories are concerned.

The total calories for 100g could be right if you got more peppers than potato in that 100g, but that can't happen consistently based on percentages. Basically it's a low kcal count with oil a big confounder and most people wouldn't know what 100g's on a plate looks like, it isn't much.

yirara

Well, I have a good idea on how much I take as I *cough* bring a food scale with me every now and then. 100g is indeed not much, but it's so spicy that you don't want a huge portion even if you're used to very spicy food

100g green beans: 31
100g potatoes: 163
both uncooked

Thus 100 grams of curry would be about: 91 plus herbs and spices, plus oil. I guess the oil is the big unknown here. And there should not be too much difference between cooked and uncooked. Maybe they forgot a 1 and it should be 135kcal/100g?

neanderthin

Don't know where you get your data but a russet potato for example is about 80 cals for 100g's

yirara

Thanks for pointing that out! Something went wrong there. I just did a quick-check on google and didn't notice it didn't give me 100 grams but a medium sized potato. So got to correct my guess-entry now

Schtroumpfkin

I think you're right and that the calorie count is way too low. I'd be surprised if the oil content alone was less than 35kcal (and I don't think it matters if you don't see oil on the spoon - the potato would have soaked up a load of that yummy fat during cooking).

yirara

I think you're right and that the calorie count is way too low. I'd be surprised if the oil content alone was less than 35kcal (and I don't think it matters if you don't see oil on the spoon - the potato would have soaked up a load of that yummy fat during cooking).

Yes, I calculated quite a bit more than 35kcal for oil alone now, based on recipes I found online and based on their usual calorie signs which make a lot more sense.

Well, as the canteen food is the big uncertainly for me, and as I'm losing weight on average as expected I guess it's kind of correct.