Super crunchy hot and sour lotus root salad.  Lotus root “莲藕” is a very popular ingredient in Chinese cuisine, all cross the country. It is the rhizome of the lotus plant, a magic vegetable with beautiful appearances.  The lotus plant is grown in mud but it gives use very treasure lotus root, lotus seeds and beautiful lotus flower.  Lotus root has win the popular as a vegetable on the table. Louts seeds, wither eat freshly or dried to make dried louts seeds, which can be further used to make lotus root paste. It may have several small tubes adjacent to each other.  For the convenience of transportation, the small tubes are broken to form two or three tubes together.

They are two different varieties, one is with 7 holes  (7孔莲藕) on the cross section and the other one has 9 holes. 7 hole lotus root is best for soups or lotus root powder because it is softer. 9 lotus root (9孔莲藕) is best for stir-fries, and salad because it is much crunchier. But the two types can be interchangeable for common home cooking.

I am watching my weight recently because I get too much yummy dishes in the testing and daily life. I love all kinds of spicy cold dishes.  Lotus root is one of the moderate calories root vegetable with rice vitamins and minerals. In addition, it is an excellent source of dietary fiber. I get lots of lotus root recipes on the blog from soup to stir frying.

The most important part of Chinese hot cold dish is the red oil. You can follow this instruction from pepper or this one for a shortcut version.

Instructions

Peel the skin of lotus root and then cut into thin slices. Soak in clean water for couple of minutes to remove the extra starch and keep the potatoes crunchy after cooked.

Bring a pot of water to a boiling and add a small pinch of salt. Cook lotus root slices for 2 minutes. Transfer out and drain.

Prepare another small pan, add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and fry garlic, red pepper circles, green pepper circles and scallions until aromatic. Place light soy sauce, cumin powder, chili oil, salt, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil and sesame seeds in. Mix well. This sauce is adopted from the potato salad I made around one year ago. It got lots of positive feedbacks.

Add lotus root slices in. If you love coriander, mix some coriander too.