I had actually never bought or tasted lotus root before. Though I have seen this vegetable in the frozen section of the Indian grocery store, I have never been bold enough to experiment something totally new. But thanks to blogging, I am now involved in cooking like never before and look at food in a completely different light.
I bought frozen lotus root over the weekend simply because it looked so pretty!
For those of you interested in knowing more about the nutritional value of lotus root, please see here.
After doing a little bit of research, I gathered that it was not the easiest of vegetables to cook with and I found the root to be almost tasteless by itself with no aroma.
This was the way I ended up preparing it.
Ingredients:
3 cups frozen lotus root
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 Tbsp ginger garlic paste
½ tsp red chilli powder
A pinch of turmeric powder
½ tsp coriander powder
2 tsp Punjabi garam masala
1 tsp cumin seeds
½ cup yogurt
1 Tbsp oil
Coriander leaves for garnishing
Salt to taste
Method:
Boil the lotus root cubes in water for about 15-20 minutes till tender. (This could take longer too as they don’t get cooked/soft that easily). Drain & set aside.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan. Add the cumin seeds followed by the ginger-garlic paste.
Add the onions & sauté till transparent. Add all the spices followed by the chopped tomatoes and cook.
Add the lotus root cubes & cook covered for about 5-7 minutes.
Stir in the yogurt & mix well and cook for a minute or so.
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
To conclude, the great thing about lotus root was its appearance & crunch. The dish turned out to be good with the lotus root retaining its crispy texture and taking on the flavors of anything added to it.
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