Green Gram Calories & Nutrition Calculator

Dry whole mung beans contain 23.86g protein per 100g — placing them among the higher-protein legumes alongside chickpeas (20.5g), pigeon peas (21.7g), and kidney beans (24.0g). After cooking, the protein concentration drops to 7.02g per 100g due to water absorption, but a full cup of cooked mung beans (202g) still delivers 14.2g protein ^[1].

The amino acid profile of mung beans is similar to other legumes: relatively rich in lysine (which grains lack) but lower in methionine and cysteine (which grains provide). This complementary pattern is why rice and moong dal are traditionally served together — the combination provides a more complete amino acid profile than either food alone.

For protein tracking in your food journal, note that the cooked protein yield depends on water absorption. Mung beans absorb roughly 2.5x their dry weight in water, so 100g dry (23.9g protein) becomes about 250g cooked (17.5g protein total — some protein is lost to cooking water). Logging dry weight overestimates the protein actually consumed.

Mung bean sprouts contain only 31 calories per 100g — roughly 70% fewer than cooked whole beans (105 kcal) and 91% fewer than the dry form (347 kcal). This dramatic drop occurs because sprouts are approximately 90% water, with the germination process converting much of the stored starch into the growing seedling ^[2].

The trade-off is clear: sprouts have far less protein (3.04g vs. 7.02g per 100g) and fiber (1.8g vs. 7.6g per 100g) compared to cooked whole beans. However, sprouts gain one notable advantage — vitamin C content jumps from 1.0mg to 13.2mg per 100g during germination, as the seed synthesizes ascorbic acid for growth ^[1].

From a nutrition logging perspective, mung bean sprouts and cooked mung beans are nutritionally different foods despite coming from the same seed. A cup of sprouts (104g, ~32 kcal) has one-seventh the calories of a cup of cooked beans (202g, 212 kcal). Choose the correct variant when logging to avoid a 6–7x calorie error.

Dry mung beans contain 625mcg folate per 100g — exceeding the Daily Value of 400mcg in a single 100g (dry) serving. Even after cooking, the folate remains substantial at 159mcg per 100g cooked — a single cup (202g) delivers 321mcg, which is 80% of the Daily Value ^[1].

This puts mung beans among the richest plant-based folate sources, comparable to black-eyed peas (633mcg/100g dry) and lentils (479mcg/100g dry). The folate is naturally occurring as food folate (as opposed to synthetic folic acid found in fortified foods).

For nutrition journaling, tracking folate from mung beans is straightforward: one cup of cooked moong dal or whole green gram provides roughly 300–320mcg folate. Two servings per day would meet the full Daily Value from this single food source. The folate content is one of the strongest distinguishing features of green gram compared to grains and vegetables.

Split moong dal (yellow moong) is produced by removing the green outer hull and splitting the bean. This processing step reduces the fiber content from 7.6g to approximately 4.1g per 100g cooked — a 46% drop — because the fiber-rich hull is discarded. The calorie and protein values remain nearly identical (106 vs. 105 kcal, 7.12 vs. 7.02g protein per 100g cooked).

The split form cooks significantly faster (15–20 minutes vs. 30–40 minutes for whole) and produces a smoother, porridge-like consistency ideal for dal preparations. Without the hull, the texture is softer and the cooking consistency is more uniform. The mineral content is slightly lower in the split form because some minerals are concentrated in the seed coat.

For tracking purposes, both forms are close enough in calories and protein that using either entry produces minimal error. The meaningful difference is in fiber — if fiber tracking matters to your goals, specify whether you're eating whole or split moong, as the fiber gap per serving (4.1g vs. 7.6g per 100g) is substantial.

Among common legumes, mung beans have one of the lowest fat contents at 1.15g per 100g dry — compared to chickpeas (6.0g), soybeans (19.9g), and peanuts (49.2g). Even after adjusting for cooking, the cooked fat content is only 0.38g per 100g, making mung beans one of the leanest protein sources available ^[1].

This low-fat profile means mung beans deliver their protein and carbohydrates with minimal fat contribution. A cup of cooked mung beans (202g) provides 14.2g protein and 38.7g carbohydrates with only 0.8g fat — a ratio that is difficult to match with other whole foods. For comparison, a cup of cooked lentils has similar protein (18g) but also only 0.8g fat.

The practical implication for nutrition journaling: when you add fat to mung bean dishes (ghee for tadka, oil for stir-frying), the added fat dominates the total fat count. A teaspoon of ghee (5g) adds 5.0g fat to a dish that originally contained only 0.4g from the beans themselves — a 13x increase from a single teaspoon of cooking fat.