Taste of Gundruk At My Home

Mom is preparing Gundruk now  and the taste of Gundruk made by Granny nobody can forget.She is  ninety in age and still prepares it  by drying sag at Dhakalthok and send to us on monthly basis if we need.She prepares with the help of my aunt who keep on working at our ancestral home and is very skilled to prepare Gundruk .Since childhood it has been prepared and the taste of this food is owesome.Gundruk is probably the most popular and loved food in Nepal. It is very authentic to Nepal and enjoyed by all ethnic communities in Nepal from terai, hills to mountains. It is  dried fermented leafy vegetables, made generally from mustard green leaves (rayo ko saag), radish leaves (mula ko saag), cauliflower leaves (cauli ko paat).  In Nepal, when we have excess these leafy vegetables before winter, we usually put them in clay pots for a week or more to ferment, and later sun-dried, which can be store for a year or more. The fermentation process helps in developing very peculiar smell and tangy flavor. This provides minerals and vitamins when we have less fresh vegetables during winter and dry season.

Ingredients

• Gundruk (2 fist full)
• 4 potatoes
• 2 tomatoes chopped
• 100 gm. of soybeans
• 5 cloves of fresh garlic
• 6 tablespoons of oil
• 2 teaspoons cumin powder
• 2 teaspoons coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• Salt to taste

Steps

• Peel potatoes and cut into 1 inch cubes.

• Heat 1 table spoon oil on a pan and fry the soybean.

• When it is soft take it out of the pan and keep it aside.
• Peel fresh garlic and use pestle and mortal to crush them. If you don’t have fresh garlic, use 1 tablespoon of garlic paste.

• In a pan, heat 1 table spoon of oil and fry the gundruk.

• It will take only a few seconds for it to be cooked. Take it out of pan and keep it aside.
• In a pot, heat remaining oil. Add dried chilli.

• Add crushed garlic and potatoes with turmeric powder and salt.

• Fry it for a while and then add chopped tomatoes, cumin, coriander and chili powder.

• Fry it for a while. If potatoes start sticking to the pot, add a small quantity of water and keep frying for 5 minutes.

• Now add 2 cups of water into the pot and cover it with the lid. Let it cook for 5 more minutes.

• Now add the fried soybeans and gundruk into the pot and mix it well.

• Remove the pot from the stove. Take some potatoes out of the pot and smash it and put it back into the pot. This will thicken the gravy.

• Server with rice. Yummy!