A great vegan choice of the famous Kung Pao Chicken–great flavor Kung pao lotus roots. Have you ever tried lotus root? Louts root is a crunchy vegetable that is so incredibly delicious. Previously I have tried to match kung pao sauce with cauliflower, and king oyster mushrooms. For me, the vegan kung pao dishes are even better than the worldwide popular kung pao chicken.
What’s Lotus root ?
Lotus root “莲藕” is a very popular ingredient in China, all across the country. It is the rhizome of the lotus plant, a magic vegetable with beautiful appearances. The lotus plant is grown in mud but it gives us a very treasure lotus root, lotus seeds, and beautiful lotus flower. Lotus root has won the popular as a vegetable on the table. Lotus seeds, whether eaten fresh or dried to make dried lotus seeds, can be further used to make lotus root paste. It may have several small tubes adjacent to each other. For the convenience of transportation, the small tubes are broken to form two or three tubes together.
Kung Pao Sauce
Kung pao sauce, famous because of the universal chicken dish–kung pao chicken is a well-balanced spicy taste used in Sichuan cuisine. Besides kung pao chicken, we widely use it in our daily cooking with several other chicken substitutes (mushrooms, potatoes, tofu, and lotus root used in this recipe).
Ingredients
Lotus root – peeled and cut into small diced. Before the stir-frying, we need to blanch the lotus root in boiling water for 1 minute.
Toasted crispy peanuts – you can skip this or use a store-bought shortcut version.
Aromatics – garlic, ginger, and scallion. The three help to enhance the flavor of the dish.
Dried chili pepper – the red color and spicy taste of dried chili pepper are essential elements of kung pao dishes
Sichuan peppercorn -this is the special ingredient in kung pao dishes, which yields both numbing sensation and spicy flavors to kung pao chicken
Kung Pao Sauce – kung pao sauce provides the basic flavor of this dish.
Instructions
Peel and cut lotus root into small dice around 2-3 cm in diameter. Bring a large pot of water, add a small pinch of salt, and blanch the lotus root for 1 minute. Transfer out and drain.
Prepare the kung pao sauce.
Heat oil in a wok and fry garlic, ginger, dried pepper, Sichuan peppercorn, and scallion sections over slow fire until aroma.
Place cooked lotus root pieces in, fry for another minute.
Pour in kung pao sauce, add peanuts, Garnish chopped scallion white, and serve with steamed rice.
Kung Pao Lotus Root
Ingredients
- 400 g Lotus root , peeled and cut into 1 cm thick pieces
- 2 garlic cloves , sliced
- 1 small thumb ginger , sliced
- 1/2 cup of toasted or fried skinless peanuts
- 4 scallions , white part and green part separated
- 6-10 dried chili peppers , change the amount according how hot you wish it to be
- 2 tbsp. cooking oil
- 15-20 whole Sichuan peppercorns
Kung Pao Sauce
- 1/2 tbsp. dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. vinegar
- 1/2 tsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- 1 tbsp. cornstarch
- 2 tbsp. water
Instructions
- Peel and cut lotus root into small dice around 2-3 cm in diameter. Bring a large pot of water, add a small pinch of salt, and blanch the lotus root for 1 minute. Transfer out and drain.
- Prepare the kung pao sauce and all the other side ingredients.
- Heat oil in a wok and fry garlic, ginger, dried pepper, Sichuan peppercorn, and scallion sections over slow fire until aroma.
- Place cooked lotus root pieces in, fry for another minute.
- Pour in kung pao sauce, add peanuts. Continue frying to make sure the sauce is well coated on each of the cubes. Garnish chopped scallion sections. Mix well. Serve hot.
Nutrition
This was amazing !!! We didn’t have many lotus root so we added a package of mung bean sprouts to fill in. Absolutely delicious. We typically don’t eat meat so to have a Sichuan dish that vegetarian is even better!! I’ll use this sauce /technique again for stir frying veggies when I want to make them spicy and delicious.
I agree that vegetarian and vegetable Sichuan dishes are even bette than meat, though less famous. Those dishes appear on our daily table frequently.
I tried frying up the lotus pods in a similar recipe just to see if they were edible. My Lotus flowers are huge! The Lotus root is quite large. While the flavor was good the texture was very fibrous and inedible. Is it because my Lotus pods are simply so large? I have a very large pond with huge flowers.
Do I need to harvest the current flowers to find the more tender pods?
There are some smaller flowers (not many) that I could focus on.
What do you recommend with the little knowledge of my situation. I would love to share my Lotus with many locals. Maybe my weather is the problem. I live in Bakersfield, CA where hot summers prevail.
I appreciate any advice
Thank you for the opportunity.
Don,
I am quite sorry that I cannot help with this problem. I asked lots of people around me but they failed to figure this out in details. I have less knowledge about the growing and harvest of lotus plants.
this is lotus root. Not the pods or any part of flowers.
Lotus roots are starchy.
So. I have a “weird” question.
Can lotus root be steamed and therefore made mushy-like?
-I love mashed cauliflower (I steam it until slightly mushy) and I’m curious how mashed lotus root would be!-
I have tried to smash lotus root, but it sounds possible as long as the lotus root is cooked very soft.
What is the unit for the lotus root? 400 grams?
Yes.
Absolutely love the recipe. Made it and added sliced chicken breast and rice wine. Amazing! 😉
Thanks Amarie! Happy cooking!
This was excellent! I had to cook my lotus a little longer than stated to get it to soften and brown. I had to cook it in two batches with more than 2 tbsp of oil. It was a lot of cornstarch for the small amount of liquid. Gave kind of a « breaded » texture to the finished dish. I wasn’t sure if that was intended, or if next time I should add more liquid to the sauce, I’ll have to play around with it. The flavor was amazing! I may tweak a couple of things next time (more Sichuan peppercorns!) but the technique is perfect and preparing this dish made my family very happy.
Thanks C.J. for such a lovely comment. If you feel cornstarch is too much, slightly add more water to adjust the thickness. Happy cooking!
I can’t wait to try this. My husband is allergic to peanuts so I will have to pass on that ingredient. Is there a replacement for the peppercorns?
No. Unfortunately, Sichuan peppercorn is the best part and essential ingredient for Kung pao flavors.
Sometimes if I’m feeling very lazy, I use prickly ash oil instead of whole Sichuan peppercorns. It doesn’t taste quite the same, the tingling Ma flavor is sharper, but it gets the job done.
I’m very happy I tried this recipe. It’s so delicious and easy that we eat it several times a month now. Sometimes if we’re feeling sassy, we put lap cheong sausage in this dish, too.
I have never cooked lotus root, but I’ve always wanted to. Not sure if you read these, but when you said the ingredients called for 400 lotus root. Does that mean I will need 400 slices of lotus root? And if so, what is your advice on getting that many? Sorry to bother you; I’d really love to make this recipe b/c it looks a.
*Because it looks amazing.
It is 400g lotus root. Not 400 slices. My fault.
Can I skip the cornstarch?
It helps to thickened the sauce. If you really don’t want it, you can skip or use other starch as a substitute.