I've never eaten lotus seeds prior to this year, not in its seed form anyway. I've eaten tons of Chinese pastries containing lotus paste (Moon Cakes being my favorite) which is ground up lotus seeds.
One of hubby's colleagues, R.C., introduced us to the lotus "nuts" this fall. RC, who is an adventurous foodie in addition to being smart, beautiful, was also the one who gave us our first taste of serviceberries. Yum!
RC, being organized as usual, took this photo of her Martha Stewart-like set-up for getting the edible part out of the lotus:
Me, I used old packing paper for a work surface...not as aesthetic, but good enough for a photo of the lotus pods close up.
Hubby cooked the seeds in a pork stir-fry, and as RC had told us, the seeds tasted much like water chestnuts (which, son1 informs me, is really a tuber, not a true chestnut).
You can also use the the dried seeds ground up as flour or a paste. The dried pods are brown and brittle:
And the seeds are as well. Compare them to the green seeds photo above:
For more info on how to use lotus, check out
Nature's Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants, an excellent book.
Have you tried lotus before in any form?
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