Tangy Lotus Root Salad

If you’re not familiar with it, lotus root has a crisp texture, almost reminiscent of celery but less fibrous. When picking a lotus root, try to to pick one where the ends are in tact, this helps retain moisture and also tends to be less muddy — but if you can’t find one like this, that’s ok! Heavier, denser lotus roots are also better because they have more water weight. My mom also likes to pick out smaller ones.

There’s endless possibilities for the types of lotus root salads you could make, you could make this spicy and follow the sauce for my sichuan-style smashed cucumbers, or even make a cold lotus root in chili oil dish.

I think Chinese celery would work beautifully here but haven’t seen them at the market.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium lotus root (~1 lb), peel the darker spots (you can peel the whole thing if you’d like), and thinly sliced
• 2 small carrots, peeled and sliced into bite sized pieces
• 1 celery rib, sliced on the diagonal

Dressing, mix together:

• 3 tbsp rice vinegar (more to taste)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt

To make:

• Optionally, place cut up carrots and celery in a salt water bath as you’re prepping the lotus root, this draws out the liquid from the carrots and celery and makes them punchier
• Blanch the lotus root by submerging into a pot of boiling water for a minute, then dunking it into an ice water bath until cooled
• Toss lotus root with sauce and let marinate for at least an hour. This is another one of those dishes that just gets better over time as the flavor develops and soaks into the lotus root. Give it a night or even a day or two if you can!