Homemade Lotus Seed Paste (白莲蓉馅)

Lotus seed paste (called lianrong ‘莲蓉) is a sweet filling usually found in traditional Chinese pastries such as sesame balls, steamed buns and mooncakes. A well-made lotus seed paste is sweet, smooth, a little sticky and has a slightly caramelized flavour with an underlying tone of nutty fragrance unique to lotus seeds. A bonus of this filling is it’s gluten-free.

With Mid-Autumn Festival (aka. mooncake season) just around the corner, I thought I would share my recipe with you. In keeping with tradition, many Chinese pastries and fillings, including lotus seed paste, are usually made with lard. While I love giving my taste buds a dose of nostalgia by following traditional recipes, I also love to put a healthier spin on my dishes and provide a vegan option for my green-eating friends. Here is my version of the lotus seed paste I use for my mooncakes.

What are lotus seeds?

Lotus seeds, which some people also call lotus nuts, are seeds from the lotus plant. The whole lotus plant is edible. Nutritionally, the lotus seeds are full of plant protein, vitamins and minerals. Traditionally this is used in Chinese medicine for its anti-inflammatory properties and antioxidants.

Commercial Lotus Paste VS Homemade

Ready-made lotus seed paste is available at most Chinese supermarkets or grocers. They are great for those who don’t have time to make the paste or need it urgently for their pastries. Lotus seeds, raw or dried, do not come cheap. The downside to commercially made lotus seed paste and commercial pastries with lotus seed filling, especially with mooncakes, is fillers such as potatoes and kidney beans are often used to keep production costs down. In the case of mooncakes, it will still cost you an arm and a leg for a box of lotus seed mooncakes (total daylight robbery, if you ask me).

Making lotus paste at home means you can control the purity of your filling, the texture, the amount of oil and the sweetness of the final product. This recipe uses only lotus seeds as its main ingredient with no fillers. I’ve also decreased the amount of oil and sugar to make it healthier while retaining a similar texture to traditional lotus seed fillings in mooncakes. Compared to commercially made lotus seed pastes, it will give less of a stick-to-your-teeth-mouth-and-back-of-your-throat feel and texture.

Choosing and Preparing Lotus Seeds

For lotus seed paste, dried lotus seeds are what I usually use. They are easy to find at your nearest Asian grocery/supermarket or your Chinese herbalist. Dried lotus seeds will usually come in one of three forms. Whole dried lotus, whole dried lotus with the centre germ (green sprout at the centre of the seed) removed or halved lotus seeds dried with no centre germ. The halved lotus seeds are preferable, but if they aren’t available, then whole dried lotus with the centre germ removed is the next preference. You can identify them by the little hole they punch through the lotus at the bottom of the seed.

The number one pain point when cooking with lotus seeds is the little green sprout -the germ- at the centre of the lotus seed. Take out and discard the germ when using lotus seeds because they have an unpleasant bitter taste, and one little sprout can ruin a whole batch of lotus seed paste. Hence, finding halved dried lotus seeds will save you lots of time and effort. Anything other than the halved seeds means you must split them yourself to double-check and remove the germ.

To prepare the lotus seeds for cooking, they must be well-rinsed under running water and soaked overnight in fresh cold/room-temperature water. The seeds take a long time to rehydrate and are impossible to work within their dried form. Once the seeds are soaked, you should be able to split the seeds in half from the top opening using your fingers and check if there is a germ inside. If there is, remove the whole germ, including the white root attached to the bottom of the seed. You can start cooking once all your lotus seeds are split, and all germs are removed.

Tips Before You Start

• Make sure to soak the lotus paste over night or for at least 8 hours or you will end up with overcooked and uncooked bits of lotus.
• Crack open to check and remove the green germ sprout even if you have purchased cored dried lotus
• Raw sugar in the recipe can be replaced with other sugars like white sugar or Chinese rock sugar. If using scented sugar, make sure the scent is not too strong that it overpowers the flavour of the lotus.
• Always watch the water level when shimmering the lotus seeds to avoid burning. Top up water if necessary.
• Always pass the lotus mixture after blending through a sieve to remove any large grains or lumps. It will give the paste a smoother texture.
• When cooking down the paste. I recommend for beginners using an electric stove top as it will help control the temperature better than a gas stove. Gas will cook things at a much faster rate which means the chances of burning your paste is higher.
• You can double or multiply the recipe but the more ingredients you have the harder the cooking will get as the paste will become heavier with less water. The below recipe is a good sized portion to cook in one go for beginner or people who are not great with arm days at gym.

Lotus Seed Paste (白莲蓉馅)

Make your own delicious and authentic lotus seed paste for Chinese pastries like mooncakes and buns at home. Bonus, this recipe is gluten-free and vegan friendly.

By: little.ms.lu

• 1 September 2022
• 5-8
• 12 hr 30 min
• Print this

Ingredients

• 150g dried lotus seeds
• 80g vegetable oil/non-scented oil
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 120g of raw sugar (separate into 100g and 20g)

Directions

Step 1

Rinse dried lotus seeds under running tap and soak in cold water overnight (or a minimum of 8 hours).

Step 2

Drain and split each lotus seed in half from the slightly pointed top opening with fingers, spoon or butter knife and remove the green/yellow centre germ.

Step 3

Place lotus seeds in a pot and add water until it covers all the lotus seeds. Bring to boil then turn heat to low and cook lotus seeds for about 45 minutes – 1 hour or until lotus seeds fall apart to a tender paste when lightly pressed with the back of a spoon. A good indication is when the water begins to looks milky, and the water volume is lower than when you started. Do not let the water dry out or you will burn the seeds. If needed, adds a little bit of hot water to prevent burning.

Step 4

Drain lotus seeds but keep 2 cups of the water. Be careful not to be burned by the steam and hot water. 

Step 5

Place lotus seeds in a blender with one cup of lotus seed water and blend into a smooth, velvety smoothy-like paste. If you are having problems blending until everything is fine, add the remaining cup of water on tablespoon at a time until it is smooth. Pause blender and scrape down the sides occasionally to make sure there are no large particles or clumpy bits. 

Step 6

Pass the blended paste through a sieve and into a non-stick pan. You may need a spoon or spatular to help move and pass the paste through.

Step 7

Cook paste over medium heat using a stirring motion. After a couple of stirs add in a third of the oil and keep stirring to evenly mix the paste and oil. You must be continually stirring to prevent any of the paste from sticking and burning. 

Step 8

Add the salt and sugar. If you prefer your lotus seed paste to be less sweet, only add the 100g bowl. Keep stirring and folding until the sugar has melted and the paste has thickened up. 

Step 9

Add another third of the oil and keep moving the paste in a stirring and folding motion. You should see the paste getting more and more dough-like as the liquids evaporate. Do not let crusts form in your pan or it will ruin the smooth texture of your lotus seed paste.

Step 10

When the oil in incorporated fulling into the paste, add the remaining oil and incorporate it into the paste by a folding motion. When the oil and paste have thoroughly combined, and the water inside has mostly evaporated

Step 11

the paste should move around as one full dough-like clump. This dough-like clump should be easy to move around the pan as one, and you should be able to see that the evaporating steam has almost stopped emitting from the paste. The ready lotus seed paste should be slightly soft but firm and hold its shape.

Step 12

Move the lotus seed paste into a sealable glass or ceramic container to cool and store in the fridge for late use. If stored correctly it can be stored for a week.