Lotus seed paste is a sweet and smooth filling paste made from dried lotus seeds. It is usually served as fillings for mooncakes and steamed buns.

lotus seed paste for mooncakes

The lotus root plant

Lotus, a member of the Nelumbonaceae family, is a perennial aquatic plant that is native to Asia. The Louts plant is known for its beautiful flowers and large, round leaves that float on the surface of the water, and planted many for its root- lotus root. The lotus plant is also revered in many Asian cultures for its spiritual and symbolic significance.

What’s Lotus seed paste

Lotus seed paste is a sweet paste dessert filling made with lout reeds,  maltose, sugar, and a very small pinch of salt.

Lotus seeds are harvested from the lotus flower after the petals have fallen off and the seed pod has matured. The seeds are then dried and processed, and they can be eaten raw or cooked. Fresh lotus seeds are only available in the harvested season. In most cases, you can only find dried louts seed.

Benefits Facts of lotus seed

In traditional Chinese medicine, lotus seeds are believed to have a number of health benefits because of their “cool” attributes, including improving digestion, promoting relaxation, and enhancing the immune system.

lotus seed paste

How to use lotus seed paste in cooking

Lotus seed paste is a popular ingredient in many Chinese and East Asian desserts, especially during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Recently, my arm is facing big challenges as I made lots of fillings including red bean paste, mung bean paste, black sesame paste, and this lotus seed paste for the coming mid-autumn day (also known as Chinese Mooncake Day). There is lots of stir-frying work during the process. In most cases, we are making louts seed paste for mooncakes. Here are a few ways to use lotus seed paste

  1. Mooncakes: Lotus seed paste is the traditional filling for mooncakes, a pastry that is often eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Mooncakes are typically made with a sweet lotus seed paste filling that is encased in a thin pastry crust.
  2. Sweet buns: Lotus seed paste can be used as a filling for sweet buns, such as the popular Chinese snack, baozi. The paste can be steamed inside the bun or baked into the dough for a sweet and flavorful filling.
  3. Pastries: Lotus seed paste can be used as a filling for a variety of pastries, including turnovers, puff pastries, sweet rolls and even wife’s cake.
mooncakes three days after baking
Lotus seed paste mooncake

Ingredients

  • 200g dried lotus seeds (without skin)
  • water or as needed
  • 80g caster sugar
  • 90g vegetable oil
  • 2 tablespoons of maltose, can be replaced by sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

  1. Pre-soak the dried lotus seeds for 6-8 hours and remove the cores if there are any.
  2. Transfer the soaked lotus seeds to a stewing pot, add water to cover, and stew for around 1 hour until really soft. Or place in the high-pressure cooker and cook a rice procedure.lotus seed paste
  3. Transfer to a blender, and add around 1/3 cup of water if it is too dry. Blend until really smooth.
  4. Transfer the mixture to a non-stick pan; add vegetable oil in three batches. Each time after adding the oil, stir the paste until all oil is well absorbed.
  5. Stir in salt, sugar, and maltose. Continue stir until the water is almost evaporated and the mixture can form a sticky paste texture.
  6. Transfer out and cool down. If you plan to use it later, remember to cover with plastic wrapper to prevent drying out.

If you plan to use it for mooncakes, remember to fry the paste until very dry.  Following is my batch for the mooncakes of this year.

lotus seed paste

Lotus Seed Paste

Chinese style lotus seed paste for steamed buns or mooncakes
5 from 4 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: sauce
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: Lotus Seed, Paste
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Calories: 368kcal
Author: Elaine

Ingredients

  • 200 g dried lotus seeds ,without skin
  • water as needed
  • 80 g caster sugar
  • 90 g vegetable oil
  • 2 tablespoons of maltose
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

  • Pre-soak the dried lotus seeds for 6-8 hours and remove the cores if there is any.
  • Transfer the soaked lotus seeds to a stewing pot, add water to cover and stew for around 1 to 2 hours until soft. Or place in high pressure cooker and cook a rice procedure.
  • Transfer to blender and blend with 1/3 cup of water until really smooth. (Do not add too much water in this step, otherwise you will need quite long stir frying time in next step.)
  • Transfer the mixture to a non-sticky pan; add vegetable oil by three batches. Each time after adding the oil, stir the paste until all oil is well absorbed.
  • Stir in salt, sugar and maltose. Continue stir until the water is almost evaporated and the mixture can form a sticky paste texture.
  • Transfer out and cool down. If you plan to use it later, remember to cover with plastic wrapper to prevent drying out.

Video

Notes

Prepare time do not include the time for soaking the dried lotus seeds.

Nutrition

Serving: 100g | Calories: 368kcal | Carbohydrates: 45.2g | Protein: 6.7g | Fat: 18.9g | Saturated Fat: 3.7g | Sodium: 236mg | Fiber: 0.8g | Sugar: 16g | Calcium: 50mg | Iron: 1.6mg
lotus seed paste for Cantonese mooncake

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

14 Comments

  1. I think mooncakes look so pretty. I adore the different shapes and patterns. I do hope you’ll present the ones you’ll prepare.

    1. Thanks Susanne for turning back. I am extremely busy with the mooncakes for this year. After pushing my daughter to kindergarten, I finally get time to make a video for mooncakes and start this year’s mooncake journey. Poor busy mom!

    1. Hi Ta,
      Usually I use this for mooncakes or steamed buns. And I keep it in fridge for 1 week. You can freeze in small air-tighter bags if you made a large batch.

  2. Floral cakes by Jessica MV does bean paste work on cakes.
    1) mung bean paste- bows & macrames
    2)kidney bean paste- beads, sequins& embroidery
    flowers
    3)lotus seed paste- David Austin rose

    Do you have a recipe for it?

  3. 5 stars
    Once a year I buy a box of moon cake pastry from my Chinese market. The box contains two mung bean paste cakes, two lotus seed paste cakes, and red bean paste. Each has two yolks. The box says “Made in Hong Kong.” Everyone in the family love a slice of variety of flavors.

  4. Thank you for sharing! As my husband is pre diabetic, mooncakes are usually on the sweet side. Now I can follow your recipe and maybe use stevia instead of regular sugar. Will I still get the same results ?

  5. Hi Elaine,

    Your recipe looks wonderful! Do you know how much lotus paste this recipe makes? Just trying to figure out how much to make for my mooncakes! Thanks

    1. Sorry, Amanda. I failed to measure the paste so can’t provide the precise amount. But it should be around 400 grams.

  6. 5 stars
    Hi! Thanks for the recipe.
    I made the lotus paste, left it to cool without covering.
    The paste became not sticky and super dry. Would you please advise how to salvage it?