Sambar rice (plate)

One serving of Sambar rice (plate) — 1.5 katori rice + 1 katori sambar — comes to 405 kcal, 11 g protein, 74.6 g carbs and 7 g fat. Scaled to 100 g it works out to 108 kcal and 2.9 g protein, which makes it not a meaningful protein source on its own for a restaurant plate item. That single serving is about 27% of a 1,500 kcal day and 20.3% 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 Sambar rice (plate) takes roughly 10,125 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 ₹90.9 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 common tiffin-box item.

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