Here are four full days — breakfast to dinner — that each cost under ₹100 and hit 65-70g of protein. April 2026 Bengaluru kirana prices throughout, pulled from the protein-per-rupee pillar. The frame is different from cheap high-protein Indian meals, which prices each meal on its own — this one prices a whole day at once. For students, hostelers, and early-career adults, ₹100 is the ceiling for everything they eat in twenty-four hours.
Each day is anchored by a different pulse: sattu, soy, rajma, horse gram. All four land at 65-71g of protein and between ₹76 and ₹95 once vegetables, oil, and masala are counted.
The four days at a glance
| Day | Anchor | Breakfast | Lunch | Snack | Dinner | Protein | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Sattu | Sattu drink + besan chilla + curd (19g) | Chana dal + rice + paneer sabzi (22g) | Roasted chana + sattu drink (11.5g) | Moong dal + 2 rotis + sabzi (19g) | 71.5g | ₹90.60 |
| B | Soy chunks | Besan chilla + curd (12.5g) | Soy chunk pulao + curd (21.4g) | Sattu drink + peanut chaat (12.5g) | Moong dal + 2 rotis + sabzi (19g) | 65.4g | ₹76.25 |
| C | Rajma | Sattu drink + 2 idlis + sambar (15.9g) | Rajma + rice + curd (17.9g) | Roasted chana + curd bowl (9.5g) | Masoor dal + 2 rotis + paneer sabzi (26.5g) | 69.8g | ₹94.20 |
| D | Horse gram | Moong dal chilla (2) + curd (15.5g) | Horse gram sabzi + rice + curd (17.4g) | Peanut chaat + sattu drink (12.5g) | Chana dal + 2 rotis + tofu bhurji (25g) | 70.4g | ₹86.70 |
Cost includes a daily ₹15-20 buffer for onion, tomato, ginger, green chilli, oil, and masala — stuff that doesn’t show up in any pulse-price table but can’t be left out of a real kitchen day. Protein values use IFCT 2017 codes B001 chana dal, B010 moong dal, B013 masoor, B012 horse gram, B020 rajma, L003 paneer, A019 atta, A014 parboiled rice. Soy chunks derive from B025 at ~52g/100g dry; sattu derives from B002 at ~21g/100g; tofu uses USDA FDC #172475; curd uses USDA FDC #171287.
Day-by-day notes
Day A — sattu-anchored. Loose kirana sattu at ₹200/kg is the cheapest protein boost in an Indian kitchen: 30g in water is 6.5g of protein for ₹6, riding breakfast and snack. Lunch does the heavy lifting — chana dal (40g dry = 8.6g) plus a 50g paneer sabzi (9.5g). Dinner stays boring on purpose. See the sattu explainer for the ~21g/100g derivation.
Day B — soy-anchored. Soy chunks at ₹250/kg deliver 13g of protein per 25g dry serving — ₹6.25 doing what would take ₹20 of paneer. The lunch pulao (25g soy + 50g rice + curd katori) hits 21g for under ₹20, leaving slack for a second besan chilla or bigger curd bowl. Cheapest day by ~₹14. See the soy chunks explainer.
Day C — rajma-anchored. Rajma at ₹180/kg is not the cheapest pulse — 40g runs ₹7.20 for 9.5g. What it buys is a rajma-chawal lunch nobody complains about. Breakfast is dal-heavy sambar (25g dry toor per two-person portion) with two idlis. Dinner runs masoor dal plus 50g paneer sabzi at 26.5g from one meal, which is why this day sits closest to the ceiling. More in rajma’s protein content.
Day D — horse-gram-anchored. Horse gram at ₹100/kg is among the cheapest pulses per gram of protein — 9g for ₹4 on a 40g dry portion — and among the most underused outside Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra. The catch is cooking time: overnight soak plus 40-60 minutes of pressure cooking. This is a weekend batch-cook, not a weeknight. Dinner brings tofu (50g bhurji = 8.5g for ₹17.50) into the rotation. Full writeup: horse gram protein benefits.
Lacto-ovo swaps (optional)
Two drop-in egg swaps for readers who eat them:
- Day A snack alt: one boiled egg replaces the roasted chana. 6.6g protein for ₹7, no cost change worth mentioning.
- Day D breakfast alt: one paratha plus one boiled egg plus a curd katori replaces the moong dal chilla. 16.1g protein for ₹16.30, same ballpark cost, lower morning effort.
No day is built around eggs. Neither swap moves a day into egg-hero territory, and all four primary days work without touching the egg rack.
The week’s shopping list
For a four-day run through A → B → C → D, the single kirana trip looks like this.
| Item | Qty | Approx ₹ |
|---|---|---|
| Chana dal | 200g | ₹18 |
| Moong dal | 150g | ₹21 |
| Masoor dal | 60g | ₹8 |
| Rajma | 80g | ₹14 |
| Horse gram | 80g | ₹8 |
| Toor dal | 50g | ₹8 |
| Urad dal | 30g | ₹5 |
| Soy chunks | 50g | ₹13 |
| Sattu (loose) | 180g | ₹36 |
| Paneer (day-of) | 100g | ₹40 |
| Tofu (day-of) | 50g | ₹18 |
| Curd | 600g | ₹42 |
| Besan | 80g | ₹6 |
| Roasted chana | 75g | ₹9 |
| Peanuts | 75g | ₹11 |
| Atta (4 days) | 320g | ₹14 |
| Rice (4 days) | 200g | ₹10 |
| Veg + oil + masala | 4-day block | ₹80 |
| 4-day total | ₹361 |
Per-day average lands at ₹90, matching the table math. Loose kirana sattu matters here — the packaged ₹400/kg version would push daily cost up by ~₹12, a real hit on a ₹100 ceiling. Paneer and tofu are bought day-of for the days that use them; the rest is a single weekly trip.
Where to cut another ₹20 a day
If ₹90 is still tight, three moves drop the ceiling to ₹65-70/day — each at a small protein cost.
- Drop the paneer on Days A and C. Saves ~₹17 when it applies; protein drops 5-6g. Those days land at ~66g and ~64g for under ₹75.
- Drop one curd katori per day. Saves ~₹10, costs 4.5g. Swap in a roasted chana handful (₹3, 5g protein) and the net is ₹7 cheaper for similar protein. Cleanest swap on the list.
- Skip the tofu on Day D. Saves ₹17.50, loses 8.5g. Add 30g more chana dal and another roti for ~5g back at ₹3. Net: ₹14 cheaper, 3g less protein.
Stacking two of these brings a ₹90 day down to ₹65 with protein around 60g — under the 70g target, but honest for the ceiling.
Where the ₹100 ceiling breaks
The plan assumes a home kitchen — stove, pressure cooker, loose kirana. Remove any of those and the arithmetic inverts.
A hostel mess or college canteen thali runs ₹50-70 and delivers 12-18g of protein on a generous day. Three canteen meals to hit 65g costs ₹150-210 and often still falls short because the pulse portion is thin. For a hosteler without cooking access, the real floor for 65g of protein is closer to ₹120-140, not ₹100. The convenience-options bridge covers the honest trade.
A shared hostel kitchen with a single induction plate and no pressure cooker is in-between. Horse gram and rajma are out; stick to split dals and soy chunks and the ₹100 ceiling still works, but Day C has to come out of the rotation.
I tested this on my own kirana for four days
I ran A → B → C → D on April 13-16, 2026. Single adult, ~70kg, mostly vegetarian, no egg inserts. Koramangala-adjacent Bengaluru kirana.
Four-day receipt total: ₹685. Amortising staples bought in weekly quantities (atta, rice, sattu, besan, roasted chana, peanuts), per-day effective cost landed at ~₹86, within ±₹7 of the table math. The one line I flagged: Day D horse gram needed a 40-minute pressure cook after the overnight soak. I tried it Tuesday evening and ended up eating bread and curd at 9pm because it wasn’t ready. Moved the horse gram to Sunday for the next run.
One thing the per-gram lens caught that I’d otherwise have missed: I bought packaged sattu (₹400/kg) on the first trip out of convenience. Switching to loose kirana sattu (₹200/kg) dropped daily sattu cost from ~₹24 to ~₹12. No taste difference I could detect. That ₹12 is 12% of the ceiling saved on one substitution.
Three failure modes
Treating the buffer line as optional. The ₹15-20/day for vegetables, oil, and masala is the single most commonly dropped line in any budget food plan. Drop it from the math and the day looks like ₹70; the real kitchen still spends ₹15 on onions and tomatoes. Leave the buffer in.
Dal-as-sauce portioning. A 30g dry dal cooked to a full katori delivers 7g of protein. The same 30g cooked watery and drizzled over rice delivers 3-4g. Full katori, not drizzle — the breakfast-meals pillar calls this out, and it breaks a ₹100 day faster than any other error.
Optimising the pulse instead of the portion. Swapping moong dal (₹0.59/g of protein) for chana dal (₹0.43/g) saves ₹1.20 on a 70g day. Cutting dal from a full katori to a half-katori quietly strips ~7g of protein. Portion size is the lever; pulse rotation is for palate fatigue. See the dal comparison if you want to tune it.
Final takeaway
A ₹100/day ceiling for 65-70g of protein works in an Indian home kitchen on three conditions: loose kirana staples, a pulse rotation rather than the same dal daily, and an honest accounting of the vegetable-and-oil buffer. Sattu on Day A, soy on Day B, rajma on Day C, horse gram on Day D — the rotation keeps the plate interesting and no single pulse eats the whole budget. The ceiling breaks when the kitchen goes away; hostels, canteens, and single-hob setups push the real floor to ₹120-140. For a student or early-career adult with a stove and a pressure cooker, the math works.
