Want to eat glutinous rice balls during the Lantern Festival but afraid of getting fat? Add tofu to the ingredients and the calories will be halved immediately!

The annual Lantern Festival is coming soon. Are you worried that the Yuanxiao and Glutinous Rice Balls sold in the market are too high in calories and will you gain weight easily after eating them? Nutritionists share the recipe of "Macaron Yuanxiao". When making Yuanxiao and glutinous rice balls, just replace half of the glutinous rice flour with soft tofu. Not only will the calories be immediately halved, but it will also avoid the shortcoming of traditional glutinous rice balls that are difficult to digest, allowing the elderly and children to eat them with peace of mind.

Dr. Chen Huanwen reminds the elderly, children, diabetics and people with digestive tract diseases to be careful when eating Yuanxiao and Tangyuan during the Lantern Festival. (Photo provided by Luodong Boai Hospital)

Yuanxiao dumplings are high in calories and difficult to digest. Four groups should be careful

Chen Huanwen, director of the Department of Metabolism at Luodong Bo'ai Hospital, said that generally speaking, there are four types of people who should pay special attention during the Lantern Festival: the elderly, young children, and people with chronic digestive diseases or diabetes. Because the outer skin of Yuanxiao (glutinous rice balls) is generally made of glutinous rice flour and water, it is sticky and difficult to digest, so you have to eat it slowly and carefully; as for the filling, you have to pay attention to the high calories of fat for fresh meat glutinous rice balls, and be careful to control the sugar content for peanut and sesame glutinous rice balls.

During the Lantern Festival, everyone eats Yuanxiao and glutinous rice balls to suit the occasion, but the glutinous rice balls and Yuanxiao sold commercially are high in calories. Just two sesame glutinous rice balls have 140 calories, which is equivalent to half a bowl of rice; even the unfilled red and white small glutinous rice balls have 101.8 calories at 14.5 pieces. Many people love glutinous rice balls but are afraid of them getting hurt.

The macaron Yuanxiao specially made by nutritionist Wu Yizhen of Luodong Boai Hospital uses tofu as the skin, which greatly reduces the calories and improves the nutritional value. (Photo provided by Luodong Boai Hospital)

Eat tofu dumplings ~ reduce calories by half and delay aging

Will eating glutinous rice balls make you fat? Maybe changing the way you make glutinous rice balls can make you feel more at ease! Wu Yizhen, a nutritionist at the Department of Nutrition at Luodong Bo'ai Hospital, has developed a "macaron yuanxiao" that uses matcha powder and red yeast rice powder to add dreamy macaron-like colors to the glutinous rice balls. She also creatively adds the flavor of "tofu" to greatly reduce the calories. On average, 20 grams of glutinous rice balls have only 40 calories, which is nearly half the calories of commercially available glutinous rice balls made entirely from glutinous rice flour, which has 70 calories.

Macaron Yuanxiao stomach crown PK picture. (Photo provided by Luodong Boai Hospital)

Nutritionist Wu Yizhen said that macaron Yuanxiao is different from the previous Yuanxiao (tangyuan) in that the glutinous rice flour in the ingredients is halved and "tender tofu" which is easy to buy is added, which directly reduces the calories and stickiness, and also increases nutrients such as calcium, protein, vitamin E, lecithin, etc., which not only helps prevent cardiovascular diseases, but also slows down the aging process. What’s more special is that tofu dumplings are very easy to digest and are very suitable for the elderly and children.

【Macaron Tofu Glutinous Rice Balls】

Yuanxiao ingredients: 300 grams of glutinous rice flour, a box of soft tofu (300 grams), 0.5 teaspoon of matcha powder, and 0.5 teaspoon of red yeast rice powder.

Sweet soup ingredients: 25 grams of white fungus (soak in cold water for 1 hour and set aside), 40 grams of wolfberry, 150 grams of red dates (soak in cold water for 1 hour and set aside), 100 grams of dried longan, 2400cc of water.

practice:

1. Knead glutinous rice flour and soft tofu into a dough in a 1:1 ratio.

2. Divide the dough into 3 equal parts and add matcha powder and red yeast rice powder into 2 of the dough respectively.

3. Knead the three equal portions of dough from step 2 until the dough is formed and has an even color.

4. Divide the dough into 10-yuan coin-sized pieces and roll them into balls for later use.

5. Boil the Yuanxiao in boiling water until 80% cooked.

6. Cook the soup until fragrant, add the glutinous rice balls from step 5, continue cooking until the glutinous rice balls are fully cooked, and add the wolfberries last.

【Health Tips】:

Have fun eating glutinous rice dumplings on the Lantern Festival, but please be reminded that if you have diabetes or metabolic syndrome, it is recommended that you replace the soup with natural sugars from the ingredients, or discuss with a nutritionist to adjust the amount of food you eat that day to avoid excessive calories that will burden your body.