Hasune-mochi (Steamed Lotus Root Stuffed with Rice)
Quick answer
- Total time
- At least 10 hr 30 min
- Level
- Hard
- Servings
- 4 servings
- Ingredients
- 6
About this dish
Sliced, each round shows white and pale pink glutinous rice packed into the channels of the lotus root, a red-and-white pattern meant for celebrations in Kadoma, Osaka.
Read more
Lotus root counts as auspicious because its open holes suggest a clear view of the future, and the clay soil of Kawachi and Kadoma has grown it since the Edo period. After about 2 hours of steaming, the root turns sweet with a light crispness while the rice becomes chewy. Served in 8mm slices with kinako and sweet azuki paste, it eats like a dessert.
Ingredients
Instructions
- 1
Rinse 1 cup glutinous rice twice using part of the 2000ml water and collect the first cloudy rinse in a large container.
Add fresh water to make enough rice-washing liquid to cover 600g lotus root, and soak the rice separately. Refrigerate both at 4°C or below for 8 to 12 hours.
- 2
Prepare two lotus-root sections of similar size, about 300g each, leaving one node closed and cutting only the opposite end straight. Peel, submerge completely in the rice-washing liquid overnight, then rinse once and dry the inside and outside.
- 3
Drain the soaked glutinous rice in a sieve for 20 minutes and divide it exactly in half.
Leave one half white. Dissolve 1 pinch red food coloring in a few drops of water and mix it into the other half for a very pale pink color.
- 4
Fill every channel of one lotus-root section with white rice and the other with pink rice.
Stand the roots upright, tap them gently on the work surface, and guide rice with a chopstick, filling only about 85 percent of each channel so the grains can expand.
- 5
Cover each open cut end with two layers of aluminum foil and tie firmly with cotton kitchen twine.
Line a fully steaming basket with a damp cloth, place the roots side by side, and cover them with another damp cloth.
- 6
Cover and steam over high heat for about 2 hours.
Replenish the steamer with boiling water before it runs dry. From 110 minutes, check that a bamboo skewer enters the thickest lotus root without resistance and no raw rice grains remain at the center.
- 7
Cool the roots for 20 minutes, remove foil and twine, and slice crosswise 8mm thick.
Alternate white and pink rounds on a platter and serve with 40g kinako and 200g sweet azuki paste for dipping. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.
References checked
These references were consulted when this page was prepared or corrected. A source check does not mean the recipe was independently kitchen-tested.
- 일본 농림수산성 うちの郷土料理
『おおさかの郷土料理集～行事食と食文化の伝承』（公益財団法人大阪府学校給食会） · Checked: 2026-08-11
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