If you’re a Nepali, chance of you having heard about or even eaten a Gundruk at least once is 99% and if you’re not a Nepali, chance of you having to come up to deal with this tongue gibbering word “Gundruk” and having this food tasted is astronomically low. In fact, you already know how lucky you are if you’ve already tasted this tangy tasty food. Well coming to the purpose of a lazy ass like me getting to write a blog is obviously related to this food Gundruk as my Mom made it a few days back and I kind of felt like keeping accounts of how it’s done.
Our ancestors used to make these kind of foods as it could be stored for a very long period of time and would be of great help in times of famine and food scarcity. Lately, the prospect has changed completely and it’s more of a food for a taste rather than safety for famines. With the increasing Trend of Serving Orignal Nepali food in Fancy Hotels and Restaurants, Gundruk as a food has been on the stage of Revamping its glory along with commercial interest of people in it.
Currently, it sells at about Rs.1000 per kg while the unprocessed leaves used to make it sells for about 50 rs per kg. Since there’s not much of investment for preparation of this food and does not take much effort, it has quite a big margin in its big yet untapped market. So let’s take a look on what it takes to prepare this Typical Nepali food….
Before getting straight into the process, I would like to tell what actually a Gundruk is. I know that the people newly getting familiarized with the word will pronounce it as something like “Gun- Druk” but the correct way to pronounce Gundruk will be “Goon-Druk”. I hope it helped 
. Gundruk is considered as the National Food of Nepal along with Dhido ( will cover this someday once I start liking it ). Basically, It’s the fermented leaves which can be used as either pickle or as a curry soup along with other foods.
THE PROCESS:
It’s a very easy process when it comes to making Gundruk and anyone can make it in their own house without much of resources invested. Let’s divide the process with the points as below:
1) Collection of Leafy plants
Leaf Mustard, Mustard, Radish and even Cauliflower leaves can be used for making it. Personally, I would prefer the one made from Mustard leaves. Since we’re going to dry these leaves in next stage, It’s okay to use slightly dry leaves right from the begining as fresh ones cost more and are ultimately to be dried out.
2) Sorting and Cleaning process
It’s obvious that the food we’ll be eating should be clean. so, it should be washed properly. Also, the sorting is very essential where big nodes should be eliminated from the leaves and very thick steams should be divided into small ones such that it can easily be dried using the sun.
3) Spreading and Drying
All the leaves should be spread very evenly and left to be dried. It should be taken care for ample exposure of all the leaves to the sun.
4) Compaction:
After drying the leaves for a day, it’s very essential to compact the leaves as much as we can which is responsible for the unique taste. As seen in the picture, a simple bottle is enough to compact the leaves which is then added with some hot water with lid closed and exposed to direct sunlight for 3/4 days.
In Early days, a pit used to be constructed where all the leaves would be compacted and covered with banana leaves. It’s also recommended to leave the whole setup in extreme cold nights as its believed to make it tastier. These days, A bottle is easily available and preferred over digging the pit in the ground. To prevent water from evaporating and sticking in the walls of the bottle, it’s preferred to cover the whole setup with a layer of plastic right above the surface.
Also, too much of compaction should not be done as it ruins the structure of the leaves and very small powder is produced which is undesirable for both pickle and curry.
5) More Drying
After Drying the compacted leaves in the sun and in the cold nights for few days, all the constituents inside are carefully extracted and spread around again for the drying process. As it has already acquired its taste, its only the matter of time before it gets very dry and is used for cooking process.
And thus after much of dring-compcating-drying game the Gundruk is ready to be used for cooking. It can be stored for a long period of time and does not deteriorate in taste. It’s preferred with soya beans and tastes really good. Gundruk curry can be made like any other Soup with some added flour and some Gundruk with soya beans. Coming to Pickle, all we’ll be needing is some salt, onions, little bit of oil, soya beans and lemon juice and we’re all ready to get it served !
Now a days, such technology is adapted by Chinese and exporting to Nepal.
I don’t think they can do it as orignally as locals.