Since I couldn’t get my hands on any lotus seeds, I was happy to find lotus roots instead. These were sold at the Asian market.
In Chinese medicine, lotus root is believed to improve appetite. Lotus roots is rich in iron, vitamins B and C.
I’ve always loved eating water lotus roots prepared as desserts. Usually mixed with black beans and coconut milk.
To prepare them all you have to do is wash it well. Scrape or peel off the skin. In this case, I just scraped it off with a knife. When sliced, the little air holes make for an interesting pattern. Reminds me of honeycomb cereal.
Once it’s sliced, you want to prevent them from turning brown. Just soak the slices in water with a bit of vinegar or lemon juice.
You can eat them raw as healthy snacks. The texture of lotus root reminds me of water chestnut. They are crunchy, but a bit bland. Tossing them into a salad would be a good idea.
I turned these sliced ones into lotus root chips. I don’t have a recipe, but it’s really easy to do.
Just mix some rice flour, water, sea salt, and black pepper together in a dish. Then dip the slices into the mixture. Toss a few into the frying pan. I like to fry with either rice bran oil or grape seed oil.
I guess you can say it’s like making tempera. They were truly the best tasting tempura I’ve ever had!
Next time around I will try making steam lotus root dessert.
Many parts of the plant is edible, including the leaves, stem, and seed pods. I am still waiting for the Asian market to start selling some fresh lotus seed pods soon.
8:54 pm on September 2nd, 2010
The lotus seed pods might be out of season by now, and I have never seen one at the Asian market either.
I remember eating the lotus roots when I was little, my mom used to make sour soup with chicken and we had to pick the lotus roots for her. It was a job since they are deep in the mud.
11:51 pm on September 7th, 2010
Sour soup with lotus root sounds good. I’ll have to try that someday. Your mom sounds like a great and resourceful cook. She can come up with all kinds of dish with almost anything! And your childhood is full of fun adventures.