Serve your dal, curry or sabzi as usual, stir one heaped tablespoon of Heldi Khana into your bowl, and keep the jar on the table for next time. One serving is 12g, about one heaped tablespoon. The recommended daily intake is 12g to 48g, which is 1 to 4 servings; do not exceed it. Cooking for everyone? Take the pot off the heat and let it cool a little, add one spoonful for each person eating it, then mix the pot thoroughly so the powder is shared across those portions. In something smooth, like a big pot of dal or a bowl of dahi, the powder can clump, so a whisk does a better job than a spoon. In a dish with pieces in it, like a sabzi or chana masala, the pieces break the clumps up as you stir, and a spoon is all you need. Heldi Chai is different: its serving is 8g, about one level tablespoon, stirred into a hot drink once it is cool enough to drink, and its recommended daily intake is 8g to 32g.
FAQ
Questions, answered plainly.
We have gathered the questions people ask us most. If yours is not here, email info@heldi.co.uk and a human will answer. At the moment, that is usually the founder.
Using Heldi
No, not in the dishes it was made for. The spices are ones your masala dabba already holds (cumin, coriander, garam masala, Kashmiri chilli and turmeric), so in a dal, curry or raita they taste as if they were there all along. No chalky film, and none of that protein-shake aftertaste. The result will still depend on the dish and how much you add.
Yes. Heldi Khana is made for dishes with a gravy, dal or yoghurt base, including sambar, kadhi, korma, bhindi in gravy and chaat with dahi. It can also be stirred into chicken curry, keema or egg bhurji. Let the food cool a little first, then mix the spoonful through evenly. Found a dish it works brilliantly in? Email info@heldi.co.uk and we will pass it on to everyone else.
Khana is the savoury blend, made with warm spices for dal, curry, sabzi and raita, so it is not intended for chai. Heldi Chai is the blend for hot drinks: whey protein and milk protein concentrate with ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper and clove, stirred in once the cup is cool enough to drink. Contains milk.
You can, if you like them. Most of our parents don't. Heldi puts the protein into the meals you were going to eat anyway: same dal, same raita, ten more grams in each bowl. Nothing new to swallow, nothing to give up.
No. Heat changes a protein's shape, a process called denaturing, and digestion changes it too. The amino acids remain. Stir Heldi Khana into your own bowl once the food is served, or into the pot once it is off the heat and has cooled a little, because a rolling boil can make milk protein clump. Heldi Chai waits longer: its milk protein clumps into little white specks well before the boil, so it goes in once the cup is cool enough to drink.
Start with the food already on the table. Use dahi and paneer more often, and make dal thicker rather than soupy so each bowl contains more dal. Eggs and chicken add protein in non-vegetarian homes. If there is still a gap, a 12g serving of Heldi Khana, about one heaped tablespoon, adds 10.1g of protein to a gravy, dal or yoghurt dish.
There is no single required time. A practical approach is to spread protein across meals, with roughly 20 to 30g at a time, rather than leaving most of it for dinner. The daily total matters more than an exact post-workout window. In many desi households, breakfast and lunch are the two meals worth checking first.
The protein numbers
For Heldi Khana, a 12g serving, about one heaped tablespoon, provides 10.1g of protein with all nine essential amino acids. A bowl of dal has around 6g on its own, so the same bowl contains about 16g after Khana is added. Heldi Chai is different: an 8g serving, about one level tablespoon, provides 5.1g of protein, marketed as 5g per mug.
You may not. Protein contributes to the maintenance of muscle mass. Muscle mass tends to decline gradually from your 30s onwards. A typical home-cooked vegetarian day delivers 35 to 45g, while the target used here for an active adult is 75g or more. These are broad examples. Your own intake and needs depend on what you eat, your body size and your level of activity.
A standard 80g cooked serving contains about 5 to 7g of protein. Bigger bowls can reach 9 or 10g. Roughly 75g of dry lentils can provide around 18g, but that dry amount cooks into substantially more than one standard bowl.
The range used here for active adults and adults over 50 is roughly 1.2 to 1.6g per kilo of body weight per day. For a 65kg person, that is 78 to 104g. Many home-cooked vegetarian days sit well below that range. Individual needs vary, so ask a GP or dietitian if you need a personal target.
For everyday portions, 100g of paneer provides around 18g of protein and 100g of dahi provides 3 to 4g. A standard bowl of cooked dal has 5 to 7g, with chana and rajma in a similar range, while two rotis have about 6g. Eggs and chicken add more on non-vegetarian days. The useful step is to add up the portions you actually eat rather than compare dry ingredients. Read the full honest truth.
No. The body digests and absorbs nearly all the protein in a meal, although a larger meal takes longer to digest. The 30g idea comes from research on the response to roughly 20 to 40g of protein at a meal, not from a hard limit on absorption. Spreading protein through the day is a practical way to cover several meals.
Dietary questions
Yes. Whey is the pale liquid separated from milk during cheese or paneer making. The whey used in Heldi is made without animal rennet, then filtered to concentrate the protein and dried into a fine powder. It is suitable for lacto-vegetarians, but it is not vegan.
No. Both Heldi Khana and Heldi Chai contain milk, so they are suitable for lacto-vegetarians but are not vegan. Khana contains whey; Chai contains whey and milk protein concentrate.
Heldi contains no meat, alcohol or animal rennet. Its whey is a dairy ingredient, in the same family as milk and paneer. Heldi does not yet hold formal halal certification. If certification matters to you, email info@heldi.co.uk and we will give you the current position plainly.
Lactose intolerance varies from person to person. Heldi Khana uses whey protein isolate that is 98% lactose-free. A spoonful contains roughly 0.3g of lactose, far less than traditional whey concentrate and a fraction of the amount in a glass of milk. That figure cannot predict how an individual will respond, so ask your GP or dietitian if you are unsure. Heldi Chai also contains milk protein concentrate, which carries a little more lactose than whey isolate, but its smaller serving comes to about 0.2g a mug, calculated from its ingredients and still far less than a traditional whey concentrate shake. A confirmed milk allergy is different: both products contain milk and are not suitable for someone with that allergy.
Heldi Khana is whey, a protein from milk, the same milk their dahi and paneer come from, with kitchen spices and no sweeteners or caffeine. Most children already get the protein they need from ordinary family meals, so Heldi is not something they have to have. If you would like to add it to a child's bowl, ask a GP or dietitian who knows them first. If Heldi is going into the family pot, everyone at the table gets some, so dish up the children's portions first if you would rather they did not. Heldi Chai contains coconut sugar, and the Chai blend itself is caffeine free, but tea and coffee usually are not, so the drink it goes into is the thing to check. Both blends contain milk.
Heldi is made for grown-ups of every age. The one rule: if they have a medical condition or a prescribed diet, show their GP or dietitian the label first. Heldi Khana is whey and the spices they have cooked with all their lives: cumin, coriander, garam masala, Kashmiri chilli and turmeric. It also has a pinch of fine sea salt, 0.14g of salt a spoonful in all, and sunflower lecithin. It contains milk, and it has no added sugar, though it contains naturally occurring sugars. Heldi Chai is its own recipe and contains coconut sugar.
Ask your GP or dietitian first, and take the label with you. What we can tell you is that Heldi Khana has no added sugar and under 1g of carbohydrate per spoonful, though it contains naturally occurring sugars. Heldi Chai contains coconut sugar, and its label shows how much.
Protein needs rise during pregnancy and breastfeeding, but a food supplement is not automatically suitable for every person. Speak to your GP or midwife before adding Heldi to your meals. They can assess the label alongside your individual needs.
Protein intake alone does not determine visible muscle size. Across whey protein trials in women, the average lean mass gain was 0.37kg, less than 1% of total lean mass. Larger visible changes also depend on sustained, deliberate training over time. Read the full piece on the bulky myth.
Reviews of controlled trials comparing higher-protein with lower-protein diets in adults with healthy kidney function have not found impaired kidney function over the periods studied. Those trials do not establish a universally safe amount or lifetime safety. They also do not apply to someone who already has kidney disease, where a doctor sets the protein target. Speak to your GP or renal dietitian before changing your intake.
The answer depends on which definition of ultra-processed food is being used. The process itself is straightforward: milk protein is filtered from liquid whey and dried. Heldi Khana then adds sunflower lecithin, sea salt and five familiar spices. It contains no sweeteners, separate flavourings or thickeners. The full ingredients list is published so you can judge the product by what is actually in it.
Heldi and GLP-1 medicines
Heldi Khana and Heldi Chai are food supplements, not medicines, and both contain milk. Khana has no sweeteners; Chai contains coconut sugar. Those facts do not establish whether either product is suitable alongside a prescription medicine. Ask your prescriber, GP or dietitian first, and show them the specific ingredients list and nutrition table.
GLP-1 medicines can reduce appetite and the amount of food a person eats. Clinical guidance therefore considers dietary protein and resistance training where lean mass is a concern. Protein contributes to the maintenance of muscle mass. This applies as part of a varied and balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle.
Half a bowl of dal contains about 3g of protein. One spoonful of Heldi Khana adds 10g, taking that portion to about 13g without requiring a full second portion or a separate drink. Heldi Chai is a hot-drink blend with a separate 8g serving, about one level tablespoon, and a 5g-per-mug marketing figure, so this bowl calculation does not apply to it. Whether either product is appropriate for you is a question for the clinician supporting your GLP-1 treatment.
A typical home-cooked vegetarian day delivers 35 to 45g of protein at full appetite. If every portion becomes smaller, that total can fall to 20g or less. Guidance often uses 1.2 to 1.6g per kilo of body weight, but a GP or dietitian should set a personal target for someone taking a prescription medicine. If they advise prioritising protein, familiar options include eating the highest-protein part of the meal first or stirring Heldi Khana into dal, kadhi or raita.
Inside the pouch
Heldi Khana has eight ingredients, listed from most to least: whey protein isolate (MILK) (94%), cumin, sunflower lecithin, coriander, fine sea salt, garam masala, Kashmiri chilli and turmeric. Six are familiar kitchen spices. The order and the whey percentage are published as required; the exact spice proportions are the recipe. No added sugar, sweeteners, preservatives or fillers. Contains naturally occurring sugars. Contains milk (whey). See the full breakdown.
The whey protein isolate comes from Arla, the farmer-owned dairy cooperative, and every incoming batch has a supplier certificate of analysis. That certificate covers the whey ingredient; it is not finished-product analysis or product certification. The single spices come from the British spice house Spice Entice. The garam masala comes from Buy Whole Foods Online because it is a blend, and the sunflower lecithin comes from the UK supplier Special Ingredients. Heldi Khana is blended and packed in the UK. Read where it all comes from.
Orders and delivery
We pack each order and send it by Royal Mail Tracked 48. Delivery usually takes 2 to 3 working days after dispatch, and we send a tracking link.
Yes. You have 14 days after delivery to change your mind, provided the pouch is unopened. Email info@heldi.co.uk to start the return. We issue the refund within 14 days of receiving it. If an item arrives faulty or damaged, we replace it or refund it in full and cover the postage. Read the returns policy.
Not yet. Heldi currently ships only within the UK, by Royal Mail. If you would like it sent elsewhere, email info@heldi.co.uk and tell us the country. We use those requests when deciding where to ship next.
This answer is for Heldi Khana. Each pouch has an 18-month best-before date printed on the base. After opening, keep it in the table jar or reseal the pouch after each use, store it somewhere cool and dry, and use it within 3 months for the best taste and texture. Keep wet spoons out of the pouch. A 300g pouch provides about 25 meals, so many kitchens will finish it within that period. Heldi Chai has a different pouch and no published shelf-life figure yet.
Heldi launches in winter 2026. The shop is available to browse now, and checkout switches on at launch. We send one email on the day the shop opens, so the waitlist is first to know. The first 100 people on the list get a free sample pair, one Khana sachet and one Chai sachet, and we pay the postage. Everyone on the list gets 15% off their first order.
Email info@heldi.co.uk and the founder answers, within two working days. It really is that small an operation right now, which is also why replies come with opinions about dal.
Heldi is a food supplement. One serving is 12g, about one heaped tablespoon. Recommended daily intake: 12g to 48g (1 to 4 servings), providing 10.1g to 40.4g of protein. Do not exceed the recommended daily intake. Food supplements are not a substitute for a varied and balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. Keep out of reach of children. Contains milk (whey).