Herbal and Wellness
Gotu Kola Powder (Centella Asiatica)
The kenda leaf, dried and milled: bright, grassy and faintly bitter.
- The leaf behind gotu kola kenda and mallum
- Shade-dried and milled fine
- Grassy and gently bitter, close to the fresh leaf
- Keeps for months where a fresh bunch keeps for days
- Single ingredient, no blending
Available to pre-orderSKU: CC-GOT-PWD
Size: 100g
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Description
Gotu kola dried into a fine green powder. This is the leaf behind gotu kola kenda and gotu kola mallum, a small fan-shaped leaf that grows low and wet along paddy bunds and stream edges. The powder gives you the same grassy, faintly bitter green when the fresh bunch is nowhere to be found.
In Sri Lanka gotu kola is a breakfast, not a supplement. The leaves are washed, shredded very fine with a heavy knife, and either cooked into a thin green porridge with red rice and coconut milk, or tossed raw with coconut, lime and chilli as a mallum.
Outside the island, the fresh bunch is the hard part. It wilts within a day or two of picking and almost never travels. Drying is the honest workaround: less bright than fresh, but the same leaf, and it keeps for months in a cupboard.
One thing worth knowing, because it catches people out: gotu kola and kola kenda are not the same thing. Kola kenda is the porridge, and it can be made with any number of greens. Gotu kola is one specific leaf, and it is the one most Sri Lankans mean when they say kenda.
How to Use
- Whisk into a warm kenda porridge with coconut milk
- Stir through rice at the table for a green mallum note
- Add to a lime and coconut water drink
- Mix into a herb omelette or a green pancake batter
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Frequently Asked
No, though the names get swapped constantly. Gotu kola is Centella asiatica, the fan-shaped leaf used in Sri Lankan kenda and mallum. Brahmi is Bacopa monnieri, a different plant with small fleshy leaves. Some regions call both brahmi, which is where the confusion starts.
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