We made this flavorful lotus root recipe at one of our With Love & Masalas book events this summer. And while it’s a lesser-known dish in the US, it was such a hit that guests asked for the recipe!
Lotus root is the edible stem of the beautiful lotus flower plant! In dishes, you’d recognize it by the unique, lace-like patterns that appear when it’s sliced horizontally, making it as attractive a dish to look at as it can be to eat!
Raw lotus root is starchy and crunchy, and doesn’t have much flavor, like a white potato or water chestnut. But because it’s porous, it’s a wonderful ingredient for absorbing flavors and transforming into variously crispy or meaty textures.
That’s why my Sindhi community loves eating lotus root in so many different ways: as a raw vegetable with a flavorful sauce, thinly sliced and fried into chips, stewed and stuffed into pakoras, or cooked down into meat or vegetable curries.
In this dish, we slightly fry sliced lotus root that has been boiled just until al dente. Then, we smother it in a thick, flavorful, yogurt-based sauce. Because the lotus root takes on a somewhat meaty texture in this preparation, the recipe can stand alone as a vegetarian main, served with rice, roti, or another kind of bread. But it also pairs wonderfully with dal or as a side dish for meat or vegetable curries.
This dish works best served immediately: if you need to reheat it before serving, add a bit of water to thin the sauce, as it will have thickened once cool.
How do you buy lotus root? Lotus root is available fresh or frozen (in slices) at Indian stores. I personally buy it at Asian markets, as they often have thicker stems that have been cleaned really well. You can tell a stem is fresh if the outside is hard—if you can look through the holes in the stem, make sure they aren’t filled with dirt or aren’t rotting inside.