Gundruk ko Jhol (Recipe) | How to cook gundruk ko jhol nepali style recipe

Gundruk Ko Jhol Recipe

Gundruk is authentic and most love food in Nepal.

Ingredients

1. Gundruk - 1 cup
2. Soybean seeds - 1/3 cup
3. Mustard Oil - 3 tbsp
4. Garlic - 3 (diced)
5. Fresh Chilly - 2
6. Tomatoes - 1 (diced)
7. Whole Wheat Flour (AATA) - 2 Tbsp
8. Turmeric Powder - 1/3
9. Salt - According To taste
10. Water - As needs (generally 2 cups)

Equipment

1. cauldron/Pan (Karai ) - deep to cook soup
2. Stir Spoon (Dadu) - to fry and stir hot soup
3. small bowl (Kachaura) - to keep fried soyabean
4. Pan Cover
5. Stove

Preparation

1. Turn on the stove and heat up a pan. 
2. Add Mustard Oil on the hot pan and let it hot
3. When the oil is hot enough add soybeans and fry it for couple minutes.
4. When soybeans are done take out and keep aside in a small bowl.
5. Add chopped garlic in the remaining oil
6. When garlic turns red add gundruk. Before adding gundruk make sure to squeeze gundruk and make it dry.
7. Stir gundruk and fry it for 3 minutes, when gundruk is aromatic add turmeric and stir it again
8. (Optional)After stirring for a while add (AATA) whole wheat flour and stir it again for about 3 minutes till color changed
9. Add chopped tomatoes.
10. Add 2 fresh chilies. It is better to chop it vertically.
11. Add salt according to your taste
12. Now mix it well and cover the pan with cover and let tomato cook in low flame.
13. After a couple of minutes open the cover and see if the tomato is cooked/soft, mash the tomato roughly
14. when it is done, add 1 medium bowl of water and stir it
15. Cover the pan again and let it boiled in medium heat for 2 minutes.
16. Open the cover and see how it looks. If needed add water according to your choice and let it be cooked for a minutes
17. At the end add the fried soybeans and stir it 
18. Gundruk ko jhol is ready to be served

Tips

1. Gundruk ko jhol taste better when it is hot. 
2. Lots of people prefer to drink hot gundruk ko jhol after/during the meal, so make it enough
3. Soak Gundruk for about 30 minutes before cooking
4. Gundruk is sour in taste and helps food to digest fast. So it is always better to take a little more rice than usual
5. AATA (Step 8) is used to make soup (jhol) thick. If you add (AATA) whole wheat flour make sure to cook it properly till color is changed.
6. It is a good idea to heat pan first because mustard oil has low boiling temperature and it smokes out at low temperatures.

Facts/Science behind Food:

What is gundruk?

Gundruk is dried fermented leafy vegetables. It looks dark brown or black in color. It is  generally prepared from mustard green leaves, radish leaves, cauliflower leaves (cauli ko paat). 

Other Facts about gundruk: 

• Gundruk is prepared to store excess leafy vegetables before winter, so people could eat hot soup in winter.
• Gundruk is popular as Nepali National Food.
• Gundruk is known as Himalayan Soup.
• It has a strong and fermented smell.

At the End:

Gundruk ko jhol is one of the easy recipe and is fast to cook. We hope you love our recipe for cooking gundruk ko jhol in authentic Nepali style. We will be bringing other way to cook gundruk ko jhol. Please give us your feedback and share the recipe with friends and family.