• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Umami Days

Umami Days

Meaty with a dash of veggies

  • Course
    • One Bowl Meals
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch / Dinner
      • Appetizers
      • Salads
      • Soups
      • Main Courses
      • Side Dishes
      • Sweets
    • Snacks
    • Drinks
      • Summer drinks
      • Cold weather drinks
      • Cocktail hour
  • Ingredient
    • Chicken, duck & turkey
    • Meat
    • Seafood
    • Eggs
    • Mushrooms
    • Tofu
    • Vegetables
    • Rice & grains
    • Noodles
    • Bread
  • Kitchen
    • How-tos
    • Ingredients
    • Tools
  • Subscribe
  • Food Tales
    • Edible Garden
    • Dining
  • Subscribe
  • Recipe index
    • By Meal
      • One Bowl Meals
      • Breakfast
      • Lunch / Dinner
        • Appetizers
        • Salads
        • Soups
        • Main Courses
        • Side Dishes
        • Sweets
      • Snacks
      • Drinks
        • Summer drinks
        • Cold weather drinks
        • Cocktail hour
    • By Main Protein
      • Chicken, duck & turkey
      • Meat
      • Seafood
      • Eggs
      • Mushrooms
      • Tofu
      • Vegetables
    • By Carb
      • Rice & grains
      • Noodles
      • Bread
  • Kitchen
    • How-tos
    • Ingredients
    • Tools
  • Food Tales
    • Edible Garden
    • Dining
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact
Ingredients Kitchen

Lotus root buying and cooking guide

Published: 02.07.2021 » Last updated: 01.05.2023

Cooked as vegetable in China, Japan and India, lotus root is sold fresh, dried or canned. Mildly flavorerd and crunchy, it is added to soups and stir fries. It can also be thinly sliced, deep fried and enjoyed as a snack.

Peeled and sliced fresh lotus root

What is lotus root?

Lotus root is the rhizome of an aquatic plant often mistaken for water lily. The rhizomes grow in the water. Above the water surface, what are visible are the flowers and leaves.

Fresh lotus root

Ideally, fresh lotus root should be free from bruises. The flesh should be firm when you squeeze it lightly between your fingers.

If there are discolorations on the skin, press right there to see if the discoloration is only skin deep or if the flesh underneath that portion has turned soft. If the flesh feels as firm as the rest of the rhizome, it should be good.

Fresh lotus root has a short shelf life. It loses moisture fast so cook it within a day or two. Otherwise, wrap in layers of paper towel and keep in the vegetable drawer of your fridge where it should stay good for a few days longer.

Prepping lotus root for cooking

Lotus root has a thin skin which you can remove easily using a vegetable peeler. Once the skin has been peeled, cut the flesh into whatever shape you desire. Slicing thinly is the default.

Slices of fresh lotus root soaking in water

Once the flesh is exposed to air, oxidation follows and that leads to discoloration. If you want to preserve the dainty off-white color of the vegetable, soak the cut lotus root in water mixed with a teaspoon of vinegar. Drain once you’re ready to cook.

How is lotus root cooked?

As mentioned earlier, it can be added to soup and stir fries, or fried. It can also be used in stews. Note, however, that the longer the cooking time, the less crunchy the lotus root will be. Extended cooking also gives it a starchier texture.

Dried and canned lotus root

Dried lotus root is mainly sold pre-sliced. Once you open the package, transfer to a jar with a screw-type cap and store in a cool place away from the sun.

To use dried lotus, rehydrate in hot water to plump up then drain and use as you would fresh lotus slices.

Canned lotus root comes soaked in a briny solution. It doesn’t have the same flavor as fresh lotus but, naturally, the shelf life is longer and prep time is shorter.

Connie Veneracion

Lawyer by education. Journalist by accident. Writer by passion. Photographer by necessity. Good food, coffee and wine lover forever. Read more about me and Umami Days. Find me on Flipboard, Substack and Pinterest.

Recipes and stories in your inbox

  • #40 A toast to the awesomeness of Filipino adobo
    09.18.2023
    No, Filipino adobo is an not adaptation of Mexican adobo. I’ll explain why. Plus, there’s a recipe for a not-your-usual Filipino pork or chicken adobo.
More Ingredients, Kitchen
Scoring a fish by making diagonal slashes

How to score a whole fish

Ginger scallion mussel soup

Do mussels and clams need to be soaked before cooking?

wood ears / black fungus

How to prepare wood ears and black fungus

Scooping tomato core and seeds with teaspoon

Should tomato core and seeds be removed?

Chinese five-spice powder: Anise, Sichuan peppercorns, cloves, star anise and cinnamon bark

What is Chinese five-spice powder?

Jute leaves (saluyot)

Jute leaves (saluyot): Cleopatra’s anti-aging secret?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies Stacked on White Plate

How to slice brownies (and other cookie bars) neatly

Ripe avocado

Avocados: how to tell if they are ripe and how to hasten ripening

Fermented black beans (tausi)

Chinese fermented black beans (douchi)

Lemongrass

How to grow and propagate lemongrass, and how to use it for cooking

White, yellow and purple cauliflower

Cauliflower: kinds, colors and recipes

Calamansi (kalamansi) halves

Calamansi (kalamansi)

Sidebar

Green beans tempura
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact

No AI is used in the creation of Umami Days content · Copyright © 2023 Connie Veneracion · All Rights Reserved