You may have seen or heard of the lotus plant (nelumbo nucifera) before. Here a beautiful picture that we borrowed from wikipedia to show you.
This plant is an aquatic perennial. Under favorable circumstances its seeds may remain viable for many years, with the oldest recorded lotus germination being from that of seeds 1,300 years old recovered from a dry lakebed in northeastern China. Now that's impressive! The roots of lotus are planted in the soil of the pond or river bottom, while the leaves float on top of the water surface or are held well above it. The flowers are usually found on thick stems rising several centimeters above the leaves.
What you may not know is that many parts of this plant are eaten. The flowers, seeds, young leaves, and "roots" (rhizomes) are all edible. We want to show you the delicious root that is well known in Chinese cooking. It's quite crisp and if eaten in large chunks can even be a bit hairy (or stringy), so it's much better to cut it into thin slices. We've had it several times out at restaurants but wanted to take a stab at it in our own kitchen. We used half of it to make a cold vinegar salad after blanching it. Then we used the other half to stir fry. Both turned out great.
Here's some of our pictures of the root and cooking process.
