Ingredients
Greens
- 3 kgleafy greens — mustard greens, radish leaves or cauliflower leaves
Equipment
- a clean glass jar or an earthenware pot
- a weight
- warm water, if needed
- trays for drying
Directions
- Wilt the greens in the sun for a day, spread out on a cloth, until they have lost their stiffness and gone limp. Fresh crisp greens will not pack down and leave air pockets that spoil.
- Shred them coarsely and crush them hard with your hands for several minutes until they bruise and release their juice. This bruising is what starts the ferment — gundruk uses no salt at all, so the plant’s own juice and its resident bacteria have to do everything.
- Pack the crushed greens into a jar as tightly as you possibly can, driving out every air pocket. Press down with a fist or a pestle as you fill it.
- The greens should be submerged in their own juice. If they are not after an hour, add a little warm water — but only just enough to cover, since extra water dilutes what little acidity there is.
- Seal the jar, or cover it and weight it down, and keep it somewhere warm for one to two weeks.
- Because there is no salt, air exclusion is doing the entire job. This is the one preserve here where a slack pack is genuinely dangerous rather than merely disappointing, so pack it hard and keep it sealed.
- It is ready when it smells strongly sour. Lift it out, squeeze out the liquid, and spread it on trays to dry in the sun for two to three days until completely brittle.
- Store the dried gundruk in a sealed jar. It keeps a year. Soak before use, then cook into gundruk ko jhol or fry as a pickle.
Technique
- No salt means air exclusion is the only protection. Pack it hard, keep it sealed and submerged.
- Crush the greens properly. Unbruised leaves do not release enough juice to cover themselves.
- Dry it until brittle. Anything still leathery will mould in the jar.
Substitutions
- Radish leaves, which are traditional and often the whole point — the roots go to sinki and the leaves to gundruk.
- Cabbage or kale, both of which work.
- A dehydrator at 50°C (122°F) where the sun will not oblige.
Variations
- Sinki is the same idea using radish taproots buried in a pit.
- Gundruk ko achar fries the soaked greens with tomato, chilli and mustard oil as a pickle.
History
Fermented and dried leafy greens, most often mustard, radish or cauliflower leaf, that are wilted, pounded and packed tightly to ferment for several days before being sun-dried for long-term storage, developed in Nepal’s hill and mountain regions as a way to preserve seasonal green vegetables through winter months when fresh greens were scarce or unavailable at higher elevations. The fermentation process, similar in underlying principle to other lacto-fermented vegetable preservation techniques found worldwide, gives gundruk its distinctive sour flavour, and the dried product can be stored for months, rehydrated as needed for soup or as a side dish. It remains particularly significant in Nepal’s hill communities specifically, where reliable fresh vegetable access historically varied much more by season than in lower-elevation regions.
Frequently asked questions
What is Gundruk?
Gundruk is a fermented & pickled from Nepal: fermented dried leafy greens, served as tangy pickle or soup. Fermented and dried leafy greens, most often mustard, radish or cauliflower leaf, that are wilted, pounded and packed tightly to ferment for several days before being sun-dried for long-term storage, developed in Nepal’s hill and mountain regions as a way to preserve seasonal green vegetables through winter months when fresh greens were scarce or unavailable at higher elevations. The fermentation process, similar in underlying principle to other lacto-fermented vegetable preservation techniques found worldwide, gives gundruk its distinctive sour flavour, and the dried product can be stored for months, rehydrated as needed for soup or as a side dish. It remains particularly significant in Nepal’s hill communities specifically, where reliable fresh vegetable access historically varied much more by season than in lower-elevation regions.
How long does Gundruk take to make?
Gundruk takes 1 hour plus 1 to 2 weeks fermenting and 3 days drying of preparation and no cooking at all. The recipe makes makes about 300 g dried. It is rated medium to make.
What can I substitute in Gundruk?
Yes, within limits. Radish leaves, which are traditional and often the whole point — the roots go to sinki and the leaves to gundruk. Cabbage or kale, both of which work. A dehydrator at 50°C (122°F) where the sun will not oblige.
What is the most important thing to get right in Gundruk?
Because there is no salt, air exclusion is doing the entire job. This is the one preserve here where a slack pack is genuinely dangerous rather than merely disappointing, so pack it hard and keep it sealed.
