Toor / arhar dal (tadka)

One serving of Toor / arhar dal (tadka) — 1 katori (30 g raw dal) — comes to 133 kcal, 6.5 g protein, 16.6 g carbs and 4.5 g fat. Scaled to 100 g it works out to 89 kcal and 4.3 g protein, which makes it not a meaningful protein source on its own for a dal & legume item. That single serving is about 8.9% of a 1,500 kcal day and 6.7% 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 Toor / arhar dal (tadka) takes roughly 3,325 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 ₹7 a serving it costs about ₹21.5 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 a daily staple in most Indian kitchens and 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 dal & legume category are Besan chilla, Chana sundal (South Indian chickpea stir-fry), Chole / chana masala, Chana dal — each keeps a similar role on the plate while shifting the exact protein-to-carb balance a little.