Gundruk(pickled leafy vegetable)

Buid, Karen H.

Coloquio, Aurea france camille S.

History

• Gundruk is fermented green vegetables like mustard, turnip, radish, cauliflower leaves or any green leaves like spinach (Saag). It is one of the famous foods in Nepal. It can be made as a curry or as achar. It has a characteristic sour taste and gives an acidic and cured smell. It is Brownish Black in colour. Gundruk is one of the most popular vegetarian dishes in Nepal. In Nepal you can buy it or you can make your own.

History

• It is served as a side dish but it can be made into an appetizer as a soup. Gundruk is an important source of minerals particularly during the off-season and green vegetables are not  available in rural areas when the diet consists of mostly starchy tubers and maize which tend to be low in minerals.

Preparation of raw materials

• In the months of October and November, during the harvest of the first broad mustard, radish and cauliflower leaves, large quantities of leaves accumulate - much more than can be consumed fresh (Aidoo, 1986). These leaves are allowed to wilt for one or two days and then shredded with a knife or sickle.

Processing• Shredded leaves are tightly packed

in an earthenware pot and warm water (at about 30oC) is added to cover all the leaves

• The pot is then kept in a warm place.

• After five to seven days, a mild acidic taste indicates the end of fermentation and the gundruk is removed and sun-dried.

• The ambient temperature at the time of fermentation is about 18oC

Processing• Pediococcus and Lactobacillus species are the

predominant micro-organisms during gundruk fermentation

• The fermentation is initiated by L. cellobiosus and L. plantarum, and other homolactics make a vigorous growth from the third day onwards.

• Pediococcus pentosaceus increases in number on the fifth day and thereafter declines (Karki et al,1983).

• During fermentation, the pH drops slowly to a final value of 4.0 and the amount of acid (as lactic) increases to about 1% on the sixth day.

Flow diagram

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