The benefits of lotus root
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What lotus root does
What this vegetable does
Said to improve the circulation of blood and settle excess heat in the body. Also held to help you rebuild your strength and to encourage digestion.
How to eat it
Cooking softens its cooling nature, so eating it warm in a simmered dish or a soup is what to aim for.
A yakuzen note
What lotus root does changes with how you cook it, so use it to suit how you feel and the season.
Raw lotus root is cool in nature, held to settle excess heat and disperse stalled blood; cooked, that cooling quality softens and it becomes an ingredient that replenishes the Spleen and Stomach. It suits times when heat builds up in the body, or when you want to settle the gut, and is easy to bring into dishes that help digestion. In winter in particular, warm simmered dishes and soups that settle the body from within are the favoured use.
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When lotus root is in season, the kinds, and how to choose
If you want to bring in what lotus root does, deliciously, knowing the season, the kinds and how to choose makes it easier to use. From crisp to chewy, the texture changes with how you cut it and which part you use: an auspicious ingredient that brings colour to winter.
In season from autumn into winter, the auspicious lotus root
Lotus root is the swollen underground stem of the lotus. New lotus root, in the shops from summer into early autumn, is juicy and good, but the true season, when the sweetness comes, is autumn into winter, and most of all at the end of the year when New Year demand rises. Its holes suggest seeing through to the future, which makes it an auspicious food that osechi and celebrations cannot do without. The main producing areas are Ibaraki Prefecture, around Lake Kasumigaura, which grows more than anywhere in the country, along with Tokushima, Saga and Aichi. There are varieties carefully grown in their regions too, such as the Kaga lotus root among the Kaga vegetables of Kanazawa.
The tip, the middle and the base differ in texture
Even within one segment, lotus root differs in texture by part, and each suits different dishes.
| Part | What marks it out, and the dishes it suits |
|---|---|
| Tip | Tender and crisp. For salads and vinegared dishes |
| Middle | A balanced texture. For kinpira and stir-fries |
| Base | Strongly sticky and sweet. For grating, simmering, and lotus root mochi |
Slice the tip thin for a crisp texture, grate the base for a chewy one: using each part for what it does best brings out what it has. Cut thin and cooked briefly it is crisp; cut thick and cooked slowly it is floury. How you cut it changes the texture too.
How to choose it, and dealing with harshness and discolouring
When choosing good lotus root, these points make it easier to tell.
- Thick and straight, plump and rounded, with a good weight
- Pale brown, glossy skin, with few marks or discolouring
- A juicy cut surface, with no darkening inside the holes
Left cut, lotus root darkens easily at the cut surface through its harshness. When you want a white result, peel it, cut it and put it straight into water with vinegar to hold the colour. In dishes where whiteness counts, such as kinpira and vinegared dishes, that small step tells. In simmered dishes where colour does not matter, you can skip it.
How to eat lotus root
Lotus root sits well in Japanese, Western and Chinese cooking alike, drawing on its two textures, crisp and chewy. Here are the standard ways.
In kinpira, simmered dishes and hasami-age
Kinpira, sliced or cut into chunks and fried sweet and salty, is the standard where the crisp texture is the pleasure. Added to a simmered dish such as chikuzenni, it turns floury and takes up the liquid for a dish that tastes of winter. Hasami-age, with a meat filling packed into the holes and fried, and tempura in batter, come out crisp outside and chewy inside. Cut thick and cooked, you get the floury texture in full.
In salads, su-basu and grated
Sliced thin, blanched briefly and dressed with mayonnaise or a vinaigrette, it makes a salad where the crispness stands out. Su-basu, steeped in sweet vinegar, makes a colourful palate-cleanser or an osechi dish. The grated base works in lotus root mochi, shaped into balls and grilled or steamed, and to thicken a soup. Raw grated lotus root added to a soup gives it a light, gentle feel in the mouth.
How to keep lotus root
Lotus root with the soil on keeps relatively well; wrap it in newspaper and keep it somewhere cool and dark or in the vegetable drawer of the fridge. Cut pieces dry and discolour at the cut surface, so wrap them tightly in cling film, put them in a plastic bag and use them soon from the fridge. If you cannot use it up, slice it thin, blanch it briefly in water with vinegar, drain it and freeze it, ready for stir-fries and simmered dishes. Dried products are handy too, and keeping dried Kaga lotus root, which you rehydrate, in the cupboard helps when you want one more dish.
Alongside this, what comes from the same lotus, The benefits of lotus seed and one likewise auspicious in osechi, The benefits of arrowhead as a guide when building a winter table.
Lotus root, in season from autumn into winter, is an auspicious ingredient where the differences in texture are the pleasure, in kinpira, simmered dishes, hasami-age, salads and su-basu. The crisp tip, the balanced middle, the chewy base: using each part and each cut for what it does best brings out what it has. As the auspicious food that lets you see the future, bring lotus root in season to your winter table and your celebrations.
