Short answer: one average bowl of aloo gosht, about 250 grams of salan, lands around 350-500 calories. Per 100 grams the range sits near 130-180, and eating that bowl with two rotis pushes the meal to 525-640. The number swings most on two things: which meat went in the pot, and how much oil the cook used.
Aloo gosht is potatoes (aloo) simmered with meat (gosht) in a thin shorba gravy. It is weeknight food across Pakistan, the pot that ends up on the stove when dinner was never planned and the fridge holds a kilo of meat and a few potatoes. The meat is usually goat, what Pakistanis call mutton, or beef, and the potatoes go in halfway through cooking. They soak up the gravy as they soften, which makes them the heaviest part of the bowl after the meat itself.
Three things decide where your bowl lands. First, the oil. A home cook might use a few tablespoons for the whole pot, while a dhaba cook frying the masala in a visible pool of it adds far more. Every extra tablespoon carries about 120 calories, and since nobody measures it, restaurant bowls run oily almost by default. Second, the meat. Goat is one of the leanest red meats around: USDA data puts cooked goat at roughly 143 calories and 27 grams of protein per 100 grams (source). Beef chuck, braised with its fat on, lands near 275 calories per 100 grams with about 18 grams of fat (source). A beef bowl is noticeably heavier than a goat one at the same portion. Third, the meat to potato ratio. Boiled potatoes sit near 87 calories per 100 grams (source), so a bowl heavy on potatoes lands lighter per 100 grams than one packed with meat.
Aloo gosht calories and macros
| Portion | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 g salan | 130-180 | 10-14 g | 8-12 g | 7-11 g |
| 1 bowl, about 250 g, goat (home) | 325-400 | 25-33 g | 20-28 g | 16-24 g |
| 1 bowl, about 250 g, beef (oily) | 400-500 | 24-32 g | 20-28 g | 22-32 g |
| 1 bowl with 2 rotis | 525-640 | 31-41 g | 60-76 g | 18-28 g |
| 1 bowl, about 250 g, chicken | 275-375 | 22-30 g | 20-28 g | 12-20 g |
Chicken sometimes replaces red meat in this curry, and those bowls run lighter, closer to 275-375 for the same size. The roti numbers come from the roti breakdown: two medium rotis add roughly 200-240 calories and most of the extra carbs.
Aloo gosht is quietly a high protein dish. One bowl delivers 25-33 grams of protein, almost entirely from the meat, which puts it in the same league as a plate of chicken karahi. The potatoes handle the carb side. If the bowl came with a generous pour of oil, most of that fat sits in the gravy, not on the meat or the potatoes.
Logging a bowl without weighing it
This is a dish where the honest estimate beats the precise one. Type "1 bowl aloo gosht, home" into CalsFlow and it lays out its assumptions: about 250 grams of salan, goat meat, a moderate hand on oil, in the 325-400 range. Change one detail, "beef, restaurant," and the revised number moves to 400-500, because the app knows the meat and the oil changed, not the bowl. Add the rotis as their own line instead of guessing a combined total. The guide to counting calories in desi food walks through this kind of estimating in more detail.
The point worth internalizing: by the time aloo gosht reaches the table, almost all of its calories are already decided. Skipping the roti or leaving the potatoes does little. The cook's oil hand and the cut of meat did the work.
Where it sits in the home curry lineup
Compared with other Pakistani home curries, aloo gosht sits in the middle. Qeema runs similar per 100 grams, daal comes in clearly lighter, and a dry karahi or bhuna gosht without the potato weight lands heavier per 100 grams but lighter per bowl. The Pakistani food calorie chart puts these side by side if you are comparing.
FAQs
How many calories are in 1 bowl of aloo gosht? About 350-500 for a 250-gram bowl of salan. A home bowl with goat meat and restrained oil sits near 325-400; an oily beef bowl from outside runs 400-500.
Is aloo gosht good for weight loss? It can fit, but the portions and the oil need watching. One bowl gives you 25-33 grams of protein, which helps, but it is a calorie-dense curry, not a light one. In a deficit, the lighter moves are a smaller bowl, leaner meat, and less oil in the pot, rather than dropping it from the menu entirely. The daily target calculator (how many calories should I eat per day) sets the frame.
Does aloo gosht have good protein? Yes. One bowl delivers roughly 25-33 grams, and goat meat is a particularly strong protein source per calorie. Those numbers slot directly into daily targets in the protein guide.
Making aloo gosht tonight? Type the bowl into CalsFlow, mark the meat and the oil honestly, and you will get the range, not one suspiciously exact number.
Cover photo: Miansari66 via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).
CalsFlow provides nutrition estimates, not medical advice.