Office Lunch Ideas India: 7 Light Tiffin Plates
An office lunch has two jobs: it has to travel, and it has to be something you will still want to eat at 1 pm. This guide gives seven light Indian vegetarian tiffin plates and, for each, the calories and protein worked out from the ICMR-NIN Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (IFCT 2017), so you can see where the numbers come from. "Healthy" here only means lighter and vegetable-rich: the page makes no claim about what any plate does for your health. For higher-protein plates, see our high-protein vegetarian lunch and dinner guide; if you order instead of packing, see our Swiggy and Zomato ordering guide.
The short answer
By our arithmetic from IFCT 2017, the seven plates below come to between about 230 and 350 kcal and between 9.5 g and 17.2 g of protein, before cooking oil, ghee and curd. Our reading: the roti, rice and dal are the same few ingredients in every plate, so the difference between a light tiffin and a heavy one is mostly the weight of flour or rice and what you cook it in, not which sabzi you pick.
Calories and protein per 100 g of the tiffin ingredients
Each row is one IFCT 2017 Table 1 row, per 100 g as listed in the book; energy in kJ is converted at 4.184 kJ per kcal. Everything is dry or raw (uncooked). The table is sorted by protein per 100 g.
| Food (IFCT 2017 row) | Protein per 100 g | Calories per 100 g |
|---|---|---|
| Green gram dal (moong dal), dry (B010) | 23.88 g | 326 kcal |
| Red gram dal (toor dal), dry (B021) | 21.70 g | 331 kcal |
| Paneer (L003) | 18.86 g | 305 kcal |
| Bengal gram, whole (kala chana), dry (B002) | 18.77 g | 287 kcal |
| Bajra (A003) | 10.96 g | 348 kcal |
| Wheat flour, atta (A019) | 10.57 g | 320 kcal |
| Jowar (A005) | 9.97 g | 334 kcal |
| Rice, raw, milled (A015) | 7.94 g | 356 kcal |
| Peas, fresh (matar) (D061) | 7.25 g | 81 kcal |
| Ragi (A010) | 7.16 g | 321 kcal |
| Cauliflower (phool gobhi), raw (D036) | 2.15 g | 23 kcal |
| Spinach (palak), raw (C033) | 2.14 g | 24 kcal |
| Ladies finger (bhindi), raw (D056) | 2.08 g | 27 kcal |
Seven light tiffin plates
Weights are ours, and each figure is the protein or calories per 100 g times the grams, divided by 100, added up across the ingredients. Protein is rounded to 0.1 g and calories to the nearest 10 kcal. Everything is dry or raw, before water, cooking oil, ghee, curd and salt.
| Plate | What is counted | Protein | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roti and ladies finger sabzi | 60 g atta (2 rotis) + 150 g ladies finger | 9.5 g | about 230 kcal |
| Dal palak with roti | 40 g dry toor dal + 100 g spinach + 60 g atta | 17.2 g | about 350 kcal |
| Cauliflower and peas sabzi with roti | 100 g cauliflower + 60 g fresh peas + 60 g atta | 12.8 g | about 260 kcal |
| Ragi roti with paneer bhurji | 60 g ragi flour + 50 g paneer | 13.7 g | about 350 kcal |
| Jowar roti with kala chana | 60 g jowar flour + 40 g dry kala chana | 13.5 g | about 320 kcal |
| Moong dal khichdi | 50 g dry moong dal + 50 g dry rice | 15.9 g | about 340 kcal |
| Peas pulao | 70 g dry rice + 80 g fresh peas | 11.4 g | about 310 kcal |
Swapping the flour in the roti
If you change the flour and keep the weight, the plate changes little. Per 60 g of flour (about two rotis; our weight), from the same IFCT 2017 rows:
| Flour (IFCT 2017 row) | Protein per 60 g | Calories per 60 g |
|---|---|---|
| Wheat flour (atta, A019) | 6.3 g | about 190 kcal |
| Jowar flour (A005) | 6.0 g | about 200 kcal |
| Bajra flour (A003) | 6.6 g | about 210 kcal |
| Ragi flour (A010) | 4.3 g | about 190 kcal |
Across these four flours, 60 g holds between 4.3 g and 6.6 g of protein and between about 190 and 210 kcal. Our reading: that is a small spread next to the weight of flour you use and the oil you cook with, so choose the flour you like.
Tiffin or delivery?
If packing is not possible, the same logic applies to orders: check the portion size and log the dish. Our Swiggy and Zomato ordering guide covers swaps and how to log a delivered meal. For the rest of the office day, see our desk job fitness guide, and for what to eat before 10 am, our high-protein vegetarian breakfast guide. For everyday roti, rice and dal calories on one page, see calories and macros of common Indian foods.
How to log a tiffin so the numbers hold
- Weigh the dry flour, dal or rice once. A katori of cooked dal is mostly water, so weights of the dry ingredients are easier to compare with IFCT than a cooked cup.
- Add what you cook with. Oil or ghee is not in the numbers above; a tablespoon logged honestly matters more than a perfect sabzi entry.
- Log the same plate the same way each time. A repeated tiffin needs the weighing only once.
Where NYUS fits (our app)
We make NYUS, so read this as ours. NYUS is an AI fitness and nutrition coach in early access on Android, with no ads and no data selling. It does not read what you pack: you log the meal yourself, by searching 8,900+ Indian and global foods or by barcode, and a weekly check-in adjusts your calories, macros and step goal once enough is logged. Barcode coverage of Indian packaged foods is not complete, so search by name when a scan finds nothing.
What this page leaves out
- A calorie or protein target: we have not looked up one for any person, so we give none.
- Cooked values, cooking oil, ghee, curd, salt and any food with no IFCT row (curd, cooked dishes, packaged foods).
- Food safety and how long a tiffin keeps: we did not read a source for it, so we say nothing.
- Anything about weight, health or performance: the page adds up food data and makes no claim about what a plate does to your body.
Log what you eat and see your day add up
NYUS is an AI diet and workout coach. You can log foods by search or barcode against 8,900+ foods with calories and macros, and a weekly check-in adjusts your calories, macros and step goal once enough is logged. It gives general information, not medical advice. No ads, no data sold.
Join the NYUS waitlistFrequently asked questions
How many calories are in a typical Indian vegetarian office tiffin?
There is no single typical tiffin, so we do not give one number. The seven plates in this guide, worked out from IFCT 2017 rows, range from about 230 kcal (roti and ladies finger sabzi) to about 350 kcal (dal palak with roti), before cooking oil, ghee, curd and water. The weights are ours.
Which tiffin plate here has the most protein?
By our arithmetic, dal palak with roti (40 g dry toor dal, 100 g spinach, 60 g atta) has the most at 17.2 g of protein, then moong dal khichdi (50 g dry moong dal and 50 g dry rice) at 15.9 g. The plate with the least is roti with ladies finger sabzi at 9.5 g. These are food-data sums, not a target for anyone.
Does a ragi, jowar or bajra roti have more protein than atta?
Per 60 g of flour, IFCT 2017 gives atta (A019) 6.3 g of protein, jowar (A005) 6.0 g, bajra (A003) 6.6 g and ragi (A010) 4.3 g, at about 190, 200, 210 and 190 kcal. The spread is under 2.5 g of protein per 60 g; the plate depends more on what you eat with the roti.
Do these numbers include cooking oil?
No. Each figure is the sum of dry or raw ingredients from IFCT 2017, so cooking oil, ghee, curd, salt, pickle and the water that dal and rice take up are not counted. Whatever you cook with adds to the calories, so add it yourself when you log the plate.
Can I log my tiffin in NYUS?
NYUS is our app. It does not read what you pack: you log the meal yourself, by searching 8,900+ Indian and global foods or by barcode. NYUS is in early access on Android: 30-day free trial, then plans from ₹499 for one month, paid once with no auto-renewal, no card needed to start.
Sources
- ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (IFCT 2017). Table 1, protein and energy per 100 g edible portion, read from the PDF on 25 Oct 2026: cereals A003, A005, A010, A015 (PDF page 41), A019 (page 42), pulses B002 and B010 (page 42), B021 (page 43), spinach C033 (page 45), cauliflower D036 (page 47), ladies finger D056 and fresh peas D061 (page 48), paneer L003 (page 57). Energy converted from kJ at 4.184 kJ per kcal.
- nyus.in, the NYUS landing page, read on 25 Oct 2026 for the app statements in the NYUS section and the CTA (early access on Android, 8,900+ foods, weekly check-in, no ads or data sold, 30-day free trial).
The plate weights, the sums, the rounding and every sentence starting "Our reading" are NYUS's own arithmetic or opinion, not from a study. Names in brackets (toor dal, moong dal, kala chana, bhindi, palak, matar) are our matching to the IFCT row names.