Food trend: Indian chefs are now falling back on local wisdom, taking long journeys to look for wild ferns, nettles and berries

By Avantika Bhuyan

Purabi Shridhar has vivid memories of foraging for wild edibles during her childhood, spent amid lush fields and forests in Shillong. “There is one particular saag which grows only near little pockets of stagnant muddy water. I remember going along with some friends to help them gather it and getting a royal punishment at home for filthy, muddied clothes,” reminisces Shridhar, a Delhi-based writer.

Naren Thimmaiah, executive chef of the Gateway Hotel on Residency Road in Bengaluru, had similar childhood experiences of scouting for ferns which would grow seasonally by the streams and ponds of Kodagu. “My mother does a brilliant stir-fry of therme toppu, with onions, green chillies and mustard. There is another wild creeper called basale, a vine spinach of sorts, which is made into a curry with dal,” he says.


Lengmasel, a fragrant herb, which is excellent in stews.

Since time immemorial, wild edibles — ferns, nettles, berries, shoots, tubers and more — have played an important role in regional cuisines, especially in the tribal belts of India. An extensive study, Wild Edible Plants of India, published in the International Journal of Academic Research, estimates that about 800 species are consumed as wild edible plants, chiefly by the tribes, and play a vital role in food security. “The present-day wild edible plants are particularly useful during famine and similar scarcity situation,” it says.


Biddaru kaley, a bamboo shoot foraged from the forests of Karnataka, is on the menu of ITC Gardenia.

One of the main reasons that these ingredients form such an integral part of the local diet, especially in the hills, is that agriculture in these areas is difficult and the net sown area is less due to the topography and altitude. “To meet the requirement of food for subsistence, local communities through generations have identified a large number of wild edibles, which constitute a large portion of their food.

For them, foraging is a matter of subsistence and is essential to their way of life,” says Pooja Pangtey who, along with Teiskhem Lynrah, founded Meraki, a travelling popup kitchen in Mumbai, a year back to highlight the biodiversity of Indian hills, native ingredients and culinary traditions.


Hisalu berries.

Michelin Star Foraging

Internationally, the interest in foraging for wild ferns, nettles and berries is led by Noma’s Rene Redzepi. Chef Tejas Sovani, who helms Amaranta at the Oberoi, Gurgaon, recently completed a three-month course at Noma Denmark and recalls that foraging would start early in the morning with a list of ingredients to source for the menu.


Cheese and hemp seeds served in a hisalu broth at Masque in Mumbai

“Geared up in our jumpsuits and gumboots, we would be accompanied by a few chefs, who also had a degree in botany,” he says. “The team at Noma has been foraging for over a decade and therefore have in-depth knowledge of the region.


“Berries like hisalu and kafal grow wild in Uttarakhand villages, and there is only a 15-day window to pluck them. I have introduced them in the menu” Prateek Sadhu, chef, Masque.

Our discoveries included wild berries, exotic varietals of plums, wild mushrooms, garlic-flavoured chanterelles and nettles, which are grown in the wild.” This rise in curiosity and interest has led to some rather unusual methods of hunting down rare ferns, nettles and more. “In Europe, they use Alsatians and pigs to sniff out truffles,” says Michael Swamy, chef patron of Nueva, Delhi.


Lynrah, who cofounded Meraki, says greens such as brahmi, chameleon herb or fish mint and roselle are used in Meghalaya.

In India too, chefs and home cooks are now falling back on local wisdom, with long journeys undertaken to remote villages to sniff out these ingredients.

For instance, Swamy had one of his first experiences in foraging while cooking at Hideout in the interiors of Maharashtra one monsoon. “There was a kind of straw mushroom, which was very delicate and would sprout in the early hours of the day. The villagers would collect it and cook,” says Swamy. He will be incorporating wild edibles such as the fiddlehead fern from the lush hills of Kumaon in his next menu.


Chef Thomas Zacharias of Bombay Canteen.

It’s interesting to listen to observations and findings from these foraging quests. For instance, Chef Prateek Sadhu of the Masque restaurant in Mumbai just got back from Masi, a village in Uttarakhand, where he met farmer groups that are preserving old farming and foraging techniques. “Berries such as hisalu, kafal and kilmora grow wild there, and there is only a 15-day window to pluck them.

I have introduced them in the menu this week,” says Sadhu. For one such dish, he will roll up hemp seeds in cheese and serve it with a hisalu broth. “There is a slight crunch to it, just like raspberry. I am now waiting for the rains in Himachal where ferns will pop out after the first two showers.


Sevla, which is shaped like asparagus and available during monsoon.

In the past, I have pickled and turned them into a raviolo, which was served with a saffron sauce,” he says.

Realising the importance of highlighting these wild edibles, Sadhu has done away with regular menus. “There are no menus at the restaurant. Our focus is on foraging, so we have moulded a concept which allows us to showcase these,” he says. At Masque, all you need to do is proffer your preferences and allergies, and then let the team take over. At Amaranta too, Sovani and his team scour through small-town markets for key seasonal ingredients and regional recipes, which are then coupled with constant experimentation for the menu. Similarly, at the Karavalli restaurant at the Gateway Hotel, one can find the fern stir-fry as part of their cyclical menu, and also a banana flower thoran, which is traditionally made in Kerala households.


Fiddlehead fern with potato made by Saikia.

The ITC hotels have also been using foraged wild edibles for years now. At ITC Gardenia, executive chef Yogen Datta uses a bamboo shoot, biddaru kaley, foraged from the forests of Karnataka at the onset of monsoons.

A dish made with this is featured on the buffet at its Cubbon Pavilion restaurant and is best had with red rice. Similarly, Manisha Bhasin, senior executive chef, ITC Maurya, uses the flowers of the moringa or drumstick tree, in a stir-fry at the Pavilion buffet. Another such ingredient is the Agastya leaf or the tiger tongue, which is rich in dietary fibre, vitamin B and amino acids. These are used in the dough for Indian breads at Pavilion.


Chiu chi bhaji, a weed, on Bombay Canteen menu.

A key challenge is to get the supply chain in place to source these ingredients regularly and in sizeable quantities. Chef Thomas Zacharias of Bombay Canteen has been working relentlessly to get this in order. During his visits to the local markets in Mumbai, he came across the moras bhaji, a succulent that grows in the mangrove swamps around Vashi.

“This vendor would get it to the market only during the fasting season to replace the salt content in food. I was blown away by the taste,” says Zacharias, whose team found a person to forage these for the restaurant. Instead of cooking it, he made a moras bhaji salad, which he paired with his version of the Indori bhutte ka kees. “In monsoons, you also get the shevla, which is shaped like an asparagus and has the most beautiful colours. You get a tingling sensation when you bite into it.

It needs to be cooked with kakad, an amla-like fruit, for that sensation to go away,” he says. It’s all about knowing which wild edible grows in which season, and then finding out and convincing suppliers that you want more of it. “It takes time, but the idea is not to give up.”

Biodiversity on a Platter
These menus allow chefs to serve a slice of nostalgia on a platter, soaked in memories of running through forests and hills and picking up ferns and nettles on the way.

It’s also an opportunity to showcase the rich biodiversity. Sneha Saikia, who hosts pop-ups in Delhi around Assamese cuisine, did a recent event where every course was made using edible flowers, some wild and some cultivated. “Ferns and greens such as the mosundari saag grow in plenty in Assam. My mother plucks them and uses in curries. The five-leaf clover is used to flavour fish curries,” says Saikia.

“Papaya flowers are used by the Bodos to make their version of the khar (which is part of the traditional Assamese meal).”

There is a misconception that rice and non-vegetarian dishes are the staple in Meghalaya and the rest of the Northeast. However, they use a wide range of berries, mushrooms and other wild edibles, which are not found easily in the rest of the country and are mostly consumed raw, blanched or juiced.


Bhutte ka khees with moras bhaji.

“Mushrooms are handpicked by local gatherers in the summer and there are many varieties such as tit tung — small, dark brown, round mushrooms —which are dried and used in curries and stews,” says Lynrah of Meraki. According to her, a large number of wild greens such as brahmi, chameleon herb or fish mint, garlic chives, wild cilantro, tree tomato, crab apple, roselle and more are found in the state. Each has a health benefit attached to it.

At their recent feast, Alt Foods, Lynrah and Pangtey showcased a glimpse of these ingredients, foraging practices and bio-preservation methods used by the hill populace through a seven-course meal. Yet another region rich in wild greens, fruits and herbs is Uttarakhand. According to Pangtey, who grew up in Kumaon, 94 species of wild edible plants have been identified by the local communities of Kumaon and Garhwal hills.

“There is the bichoo ghaas, also called kandali, which is consumed in winters as a bhuji (sabzi) to keep the body warm. It is cooked with jakhiya,whole red chillies, onions and turmeric and served with a millet roti or rice and dal,” says Sunil Kumar, director (food and beverage), JW Marriott Mussoorie, who spent his childhood in Garhwal. Then there is the timru, which is used to season the fish. He also mentions local ferns like amelda, a tangy herb used to make chutney.

Both Kumar and Pangtey mention local edible ferns called lingura and kothiyur which are used extensively. “Fronds of lingura and tender leaves of kothiyur are used in salads, stir-fried, blanched, boiled and prepared as saag,” says Pangtey. Fresh fronds are believed to be very high in antioxidants, vitamin A and carotenes.

The Challenges
One of the biggest obstacles that chefs face while researching and documenting these ingredients is that most of these are known only in the local language. “I am writing a book on the influence that every occupant of Goa — from the original tribes and the Mauryan empire to the Saraswats, Bijapuri rulers and the Portuguese — has had on the food habits and am facing a big challenge,” says food writer Odette Mascarenhas. During thunderous rainy days, she looks for weeds and greens in Goa. “Weeds like ahlu, also known as terro, grow in abundance by the roadside.

These are made as bhaji in Christian homes. In Hindu homes, they add a bit of corn to it. There is taikilo, which also grows in the wild and is used as a digestive to cleanse the system. Monsoons also see piduki, with slightly reddish leaves. You need to be experienced to pick these,” says Mascarenhas, who says that bhajis are made for medicinal purposes rather than for taste.

Also, some critics argue that these ingredients, which are sourced from locations that don’t have train or air connectivity, don’t travel well. But enthusiasts like Pangtey feel this is where age-old preservation techniques come into play. “We get a local variety of spinach called pahadi palak. Every winter, my mother sundries these.

Once preserved, it’s easy to bring them back — just douse them in hot water and cook them with fresh, seasonally available greens to prepare dishes like kaapa and kafuli. I am also using modern methods such as freezing to ensure that the ingredients retain their texture and water content,” she says.

*Avantika Bhuyan is a Delhi-based writer