Idli sambar plate (street/darshini)

One serving of Idli sambar plate (street/darshini) — 3 idli + sambar + chutney — comes to 372 kcal, 11.5 g protein, 51.8 g carbs and 13.2 g fat. Scaled to 100 g it works out to 116 kcal and 3.6 g protein, which makes it not a meaningful protein source on its own for a street food item. That single serving is about 24.8% of a 1,500 kcal day and 18.6% 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 Idli sambar plate (street/darshini) takes roughly 9,300 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 ₹50 a serving it costs about ₹87 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 breakfast and the evening snack slot. It's one of the cheaper ways to hit a protein target.

If you want variety without changing the macros much, the closest swaps in the street food category are Bread pakora (aloo), Chole bhature, Dabeli, Khasta kachori (dal) — each keeps a similar role on the plate while shifting the exact protein-to-carb balance a little.