Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Vegetables from Sikkim and the Darjeeling hills

Goyang

Leaves of the wild magane-saag (Cardamine macrophylla) are washed, cut, squeezed and pressed tight into a bamboo basket lined and covered with fig leaves. Left at room temperature for about a month, lactic bacteria turn them sour, and the wet leaves are cooked in soups.

Fully documentedVegetables25 days – 30 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedTraditional household ferment; nothing is added but the leaves, and no amounts are given.
Magane-saag leaves (Cardamine macrophylla)Gathered wild[swain2014]
Fig leavesTwo to three layers line the basket, and more cover the top[swain2014]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 25 days – 30 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: The wild leaves are washed and cut into pieces

Step 1 of 4
Wash and cut the leaves
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacillus plantarum
L. brevis
Lactococcus lactis
Enterococcus faecium
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Leaves of the wild magane-saag (Cardamine macrophylla) are washed, cut, squeezed and pressed tight into a bamboo basket lined and covered with fig leaves. Left at room temperature for about a month, lactic bacteria turn them sour, and the wet leaves are cooked in soups. Made in 4 steps over 25 days – 30 days. The longest step, ferment at room temperature, takes 25–30 days (Swain M.R. et al. 2014) and runs at 15–25 °C (Swain M.R. et al. 2014). Lactobacillus plantarum and L. brevis and Lactococcus lactis, Enterococcus faecium and Pediococcus pentosaceus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step25–30 daysReported[swain2014]Ferment at room temperature
Temperature15–25 °CReported[swain2014]Ferment at room temperature

What makes this one different

Goyang is eaten wet, where gundruk is a dry product, and it is made from the leaves of a wild Cardamine. The fig-leaf-lined bamboo basket is its fermenting vessel.

Related ferments

Safety

Wikipedia, summarising Tamang 2010, says fermented goyang is moved to airtight containers and stored for two or three months, and that pressing it into tight balls and drying them in the sun for several days may extend its shelf life.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Goyang is made at home in Sherpa households in the summer monsoon, when the wild leaves are plentiful, and is not reported sold in markets (Wikipedia).

  1. [swain2014] Swain M.R. et al. 2014, Fermented fruits and vegetables of Asia, a potential source of probiotics, Biotechnology Research International 2014:250424 (review citing Tamang and Tamang 2007)paper
  2. [tamang2016] Tamang J.P., Watanabe K. and Holzapfel W.H. 2016, Review, diversity of microorganisms in global fermented foods and beverages, Frontiers in Microbiology 7:377 (Table 3)paper
  3. [wp] Wikipedia, Goyang (fermented food), read 2026-10; it summarises Tamang 2010, Himalayan fermented foodswiki