Chole chawal (plate)

One serving of Chole chawal (plate) — 1 katori chole + 1.5 katori rice — comes to 442 kcal, 14.1 g protein, 78.9 g carbs and 7.8 g fat. Scaled to 100 g it works out to 116 kcal and 3.7 g protein, which makes it not a meaningful protein source on its own for a restaurant plate item. That single serving is about 29.5% of a 1,500 kcal day and 22.1% of a 2,000 kcal day, so it's more of a filler than a target-hitter on protein without much extra planning.

Walking off Chole chawal (plate) takes roughly 11,050 steps, using the rough approximation of 0.04 kcal burned per step (a population-average estimate for a moderate walking pace, not a personalised number). At ₹70 a serving it costs about ₹99.3 for every 20 g of protein it delivers, which is a mid-to-high price for protein compared with dal, eggs or soya chunks. It fits nearly every Indian diet type, including vegetarian, vegan, eggetarian. It works at lunch and dinner. It's one of the cheaper ways to hit a protein target and a common tiffin-box item.

If you want variety without changing the macros much, the closest swaps in the restaurant plate category are Office tiffin: 3 roti + dal + sabzi, Rajma chawal (plate), Sambar rice (plate), Sprouts upma bowl — each keeps a similar role on the plate while shifting the exact protein-to-carb balance a little.