How Many Calories in Steamed Veg Momos?

We are often asked how many calories are in momos, so we sat down last week with an online nutritional counter and worked out the calories, fat, carbs and protein for Lobsang’s Cheese and Spinach Momos recipe.  

Momos are ready to Steam Chura Momos (Cheese and Spinach)
Momos are ready to Steam Chura Momos (Cheese and Spinach)

Serving size: One momo

  • Calories     35.2
  • Total Fat     .8 g
    • Saturated Fat     .5 g
    • Polyunsaturated Fat     0 g
    • Monounsaturated Fat   .2 g
  • Cholesterol   1.9 mg
  • Sodium    111.2. mg
  • Potassium    27.5 mg
  • Total Carbohydrate    5.2 g
    • Dietary Fiber    .4 g
    • Sugars     4.6 g
  • Protein  1.8 g

Serving size: 10 momos

  • Calories     352
  • Total Fat     8 g
    • Saturated Fat     5 g
    • Polyunsaturated Fat     0 g
    • Monounsaturated Fat   2 g
  • Cholesterol   19 mg
  • Sodium    1112 mg
  • Potassium    275 mg
  • Total Carbohydrate    52 g
    • Dietary Fiber    4 g
    • Sugars     46 g
  • Protein  18 g

The overall calorie count is not too bad  – 35 calories per momo – as long as you don’t go wild with your quantities, and if you don’t have any heavy side dishes in the meal. Usually we just have a salad or brussels sprouts with our momos. 

But the truth is that we regularly eat about 10 momos at a sitting. You get full quite a while before that, but there’re just so dang good that it’s hard to stop. Some people eat a lot more than that. It isn’t unheard of to eat 20 or more, and of course some perhaps more civilized or restrained people eat less 😉 But for us, a standard serving is about 10 momos.  

Also, you need to take into account any pickles or hot sauce (sepen) or soy sauce you eat with your momos, and this had some surprising and disturbing values. The carbs and fat are okay for the amount of dipping sauce you would have for a meal of momos, but we were shocked to see that the sodium count was sky high! There’s the same amount of sodium in just a bit of dipping sauce as for 10 momos! We may have to rethink the Patak’s and soy sauce, though we love them so much!! Or only eat the hot sauce we make ourselves, which will be MUCH lower in sodium.

Serving Size: 1 tablespoon each of Patak’s
Lime Pickle and Kikkoman’s Lite Soy Sauce

  • Calories    45
  • Total Fat     3 g
    • Saturated Fat     0 g
    • Polyunsaturated Fat     0 g
    • Monounsaturated Fat   0 g
  • Cholesterol   0 mg
  • Sodium    1135 mg
  • Potassium    0 mg
  • Total Carbohydrate    3 g
    • Dietary Fiber    1 g
    • Sugars     0 g
  • Protein  1 g

And if you’re interested in experiencing the real thing in Lhasa, you can learn how to travel to Tibet here.

Tibetan Home Cooking

Tibetan Home Cooking

Bring joy to the people you love by making your own delicious, authentic Tibetan meals

Updated on August 5, 2020. First published on November 15, 2013.

Your Tibet travel advisors, Lobsang and Yolanda

Most people who want to go to Tibet don't know how to get there or who to trust for help. We’re Lobsang Wangdu and Yolanda O’Bannon, and we help make Tibet travel more simple, safe and ethical so you can feel peace of mind about your trip. Learn more about us and YoWangdu here.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Shaneise says

    Based on your calculations, the momo’s seem perfectly healthy. not too bad at all. unless obviously you binge on like 20. apart from that they’re really not that bad!

  2. B. Hussain says

    Oh God! I can’t live without having momo and your calorie count is shuddering. I have a belly and I am running on treadmill to burn calories but never thought momo is bringing it back. What should I do now?

    • yowangdu says

      It’s terrible, isn’t it? If you stick with the steamed veggie momos and don’t eat too many and don’t put a lot of achar, you can still have the beloved momos! 🙂

  3. Concerned Cyclist says

    Might be a silly question, but is there any downside to eating momos every day? Or any health issues that could come out of it that I should be worried about?

    I personally do not have much knowledge about this but my significant others says that eating too many momos frequently can mess up my health. Is that true?

    Off late, I’ve been eating about 10, every evening after some exercise. I know, doesn’t help me 🙁 But man! Do I love getting myself some momos?

  4. Harriet Rowland says

    Just a thought, as people often visually get this the wrong way around; lite soy sauce has more sodium…or at least is saltier…than the dark soy sauces. I am not sure, but if you look on the bottles of dark soy next time you shop, you find it slightly less horrifying!! I love the Pataks hot lime too, but seetwr ones like Sharwoods mango or even Chinese sweet chilli sauce mY be a lower sodium alternative……I cannot guarantee this of course, but it just occurred to me….a sauce makeover!! Hat x

    • yowangdu says

      Thanks, Hat! The lite soy sauce we buy from Kikkoman is lower sodium than the normal one (40% so they say). Sounds like in general ones that are lighter in color are actually saltier. Is that what you mean? We were very sad to learn how much salt and calories the Patak’s had — yikes!!!!

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