Lotus Seeds

If there’s one plant that symbolises South-East Asia, it is, of course, the lotus.

One of the miraculous things about the lotus is that almost every part of it is edible. The beautiful flowers can be eaten.

The leaves are most often used as natural, biodegradable food wrappers — but you can eat those too, as well as the stems (sometimes sold pickled in brine).

And that white, perforated rhizome — what we think of as “lotus root” — transforms into everything from salads to crisps to, yes, flour.

These green things, that you’ll see sold by the bundle in markets and on the street in pretty much any country where the lotus is grown for food? They’re lotus seed heads, packed with wonderful, fresh lotus seeds.

Lotus seed-heads don’t just look lovely, when tied into neat little bunches with ribbon, but are excellent fun to eat.

The seed-head has an almost rubbery texture to it, but the ripe lotus seeds will pop from their slot as if by magic when you squeeze them — you don’t need to rip the entire head apart (though that’s fun, too).

Peel away the bitter pith and what remains is a mild, white, slightly sweet seed with a taste between pine nuts and green almonds, packed with protein.

And if you’ve only ever come across the flavour of lotus seed as a bland paste filling a mooncake, trying the real thing is a must.

For cooking, you can buy dried lotus seeds and rehydrate them — if you’re eating them plain, you need the glorious, roadside, real deal.

Because, just as with oysters, pistachio nuts and sunflower seeds, when eating fresh lotus seeds the fiddly bit is all part of the fun.