I was shocked when I saw lotus roots for sale in a normal English supermarket…hesitated for one minute and bought one. I hesitated because on one side I haven’t cook with it for ages!… but on the other side I used to love them so much when I was living in China.
My home town Suzhou (about 60 miles away from Shanghai) is famous for its water features, rivers and ponds all around the city as Chinese call it the ‘oriental Venice’. When I was little, every summer there were fields of fields of lotus blossoming in the ponds, like fairies floating on the water with koi swimming among the leafs …shame lots of the ponds are filled for buildings now!
You can always find lotus roots and seeds (sell as a whole like shower heads 
) in the local markets. It is very common just to east them raw as summer snacks. Fresh lotus roots taste a bit sweet, crunchy and juicy. Traditional Chinese medicine says it’s very good for calm your body down and help to clear the rubbish inside you. So Chinese have a long history to make them into various foods. How amazing they are available in high street supermarkets in the UK now, suppose the foodies here are combining more and more exotic ingredients in the cooking!
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Ingredients (serves 3-4):
Fresh lotus roots: 500g
Dried Goji berries: 10g
Honey: 1 tablespoon
Sugar: 20g
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1. When you buy a whole lotus root, it normally weights over 1kg with 3-4 big blocks. Remove the hard links between the blocks and choose the fat ones for salad as they are tender.
2. Peel the skin of the lotus roots by using a peeler.
3. Cut the roots into thin slices about 2-3mm each.
4. Stir in 1 tablespoon of honey and 20g of sugar, or just add the amount of sweetness you like. Not too sweet though, otherwise won’t be healthy!
5. Soak 10g of dried Goji berry with some hot/boiling water (shown as in Picture 5) for couple of minutes.
6. Pour the water with the Goji berries together into the lotus roots, mix well and preserve for at least 2 hours. Tastes even better if you leave them in fridge over night.
Goji berries are also very good for you, protecting the liver and eyes as traditional Chinese medicine book says!
