Vegetables & Sides

How Many Calories in Tuhau?

A pungent wild ginger sambal from Sabah, eaten raw with lime and chilli, pickled, or stir-fried, and one of the lowest-calorie condiments you will find on any Malaysian table.

35kcal / 1 condiment serving, raw sambal tuhau
Tuhau as a raw sambal condiment comes in at about 35 calories per 50g serving, which is basically nothing. The tuhau stems themselves (around 40g) account for 28 of those calories, with bird's eye chilli, lime juice, and a trace of salt or shrimp paste making up the rest. You are essentially getting a punchy, flavour-bomb condiment for free from a calorie standpoint.

Nutrition facts

Per 1 condiment serving, raw sambal tuhau (50g)AmountPer 100g
Calories35 kcal70 kcal
Protein1 g2 g
Carbs7 g14 g
Fat1 g2 g

Where the calories come from

Tuhau stems (finely sliced, ~40g)40g
28 kcal
Bird's eye chilli (~5g)5g
4 kcal
Lime juice (~5g)5g
2 kcal
Salt / shrimp paste trace1g
2 kcal

The real talk

Tuhau is one of those Sabah things that people from outside Borneo have genuinely never heard of, which is a shame because it deserves more attention. It comes from the stem of a wild ginger plant called Etlingera, sliced paper-thin and eaten raw as a sambal with lime, bird's eye chilli, and salt, or pickled (jeruk), or stir-fried. The flavour is aggressively pungent, sharper than regular ginger, a bit funky, and completely addictive once you get used to it. From a calorie standpoint it is basically a free food. Raw sambal tuhau sits at around 35 calories for a 50g condiment serving, with most of that coming from the stems themselves at 28 calories. Worth flagging that hard nutritional data on tuhau is basically nonexistent, so this is a ballpark estimate based on comparable wild ginger plants. The actual number could be slightly off, but we are clearly talking about something in the 30 to 40 calorie range regardless.

The only thing that meaningfully changes the maths with tuhau is cooking method. Raw or pickled, you are staying in the 30 to 35 calorie zone per serving. The moment you stir-fry it, even just one to two teaspoons of oil adds around 40 calories, pushing tuhau goreng up to roughly 75 calories per 60g serving. That is still low for a cooked veg dish, but it is more than double the raw version. The other variable to watch is portion creep. A proper condiment scoop is about 50g. If you are at a Sabah family makan and you start heaping it on like a side salad, the calories scale with you, lah. As a condiment eaten the normal way alongside rice and a main, tuhau is about as diet-friendly as it gets.

Tuhau variants, ranked by calories

VariantCaloriesNotes
Jeruk tuhau (pickled, with vinegar/salt)30 kcalSimilar to raw; minimal sugar usually added; ~50g serving
Raw sambal tuhau (lime, chilli, salt)35 kcalBase condiment, no added fat; ~50g serving
Tuhau goreng (stir-fried with oil and aromatics)75 kcal1-2 tsp oil adds ~40 kcal; ~60g serving with garlic, chilli

How to eat it lighter

Common questions

How many calories in Tuhau?
A standard 50g condiment serving of raw sambal tuhau is around 35 calories. Stir-fried tuhau goreng jumps to about 75 calories per 60g serving once you add oil, while pickled jeruk tuhau sits at roughly 30 calories for a similar portion.
What exactly is tuhau?
Tuhau is a wild ginger plant (Etlingera) native to Sabah and parts of Borneo. The stem is sliced very finely and eaten raw as a sambal with lime and chilli, pickled in vinegar and salt (jeruk), or stir-fried. It has a sharp, pungent aroma that is somewhere between ginger and galangal but with its own character. Think of it as Sabah's answer to a fiery herb condiment.
Is tuhau healthy?
For a condiment, yes, very much so. It is near-zero calorie, has no added fat in its raw form, and contains the same beneficial compounds found in ginger and galangal family plants. The main thing to watch is sodium if it is heavily salted or made with fermented shrimp paste, but you are typically eating such a small amount that it barely registers.

Related foods

See all Vegetables & Sides calories, ranked →

Calorie and macro figures are estimates for a typical hawker or kopitiam serving. Actual numbers vary by stall, recipe and portion size. Use them as a guide, not gospel.

New to all this? Read how I went from 128kg to 86kg without cutting rice →

Want to know how many calories you actually need?
Use The Calculator