2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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
6. 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.
