Turnip Cake, Nut Free Dim Sum Recipe (2024)

Turnip Cake is a steamed rice cake made with Chinese turnips, and flavored with minced Chinese sausages and/or dried shrimp and then pan-fried until crispy before serving for dim sum. Even though the total recipe time is nearly 9 hours, it takes about 4 hours to make the turnip cake, cool to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight. Pan-frying takes about another 30 minutes.

Update: This post was updated on 11/5/2023.

Disclaimer: Please check that all ingredients are suitable for your allergies and be sure to ask your medical care team regarding any allergy related questions (I do not share medical advice). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Do you want to read or print the recipe? Click on the Jump to Recipe link below. I recommend that you read the rest of the post to learn all of my cooking tips and food allergy mom experiences.

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We Love Dim Sum

My sons, who speak very little Cantonese, can definitely speak “Dim Sum” and ask for their favorite dishes.It seems like a distant memory but there was a time when our family could go to any Chinese Dim Sum restaurant and order anything we liked to eat prior to our food allergy diagnosis.

We no longer can go to any dim sum restaurant nor order anything we like and our favorite dim sum restaurant closed a few years ago. We miss them so much because the owner understood our concerns as he has some food restrictions as well. The waitstaff take my boys’ food allergies seriously and practically dote on them with their kindness and concern.

My sons zero in on the servers who bring around trays of turnip cake, also known as daikon cake orlo bak goin Cantonese, and we often have to order two dishes as one is not enough. So what’s a food allergy mother to do? Learn how to make turnip cake in between visits to the dim sum restaurant and call making dim sum a hobby!

What is turnip cake?

Turnip Cake is a steamed rice cake with pieces of daikon in them, sometimes with Chinese sausages, dried shrimp, preserved turnips, cilantro, and/or green onions. Then the cake is sliced and pan-fried until the outside is crispy but the inside is soft and hot. We know to watch for the server carrying a tray of pan-fried morsels of dim sum will have little plates containing 3 pieces of turnip cake.

Chinese New Year Significance

It is also a special Chinese New Year dish because the Chinese word for turnip,菜頭 (Cài tóu) sounds like好彩頭 (Hǎo cǎitóu), which means good luck, and part of the Chinese culture is to eat things which sounds prosperous and lucky.

Here are some of my Chinese dishes that are prepared during the Lunar New Year, you may enjoy some of these recipes and bless your family:

• Chinese New Year Cake “Nian Gao” Recipe – a steamed glutinous rice cake dessert
• Rice Ovalettes with Pork and Vegetables Stir Fry Recipe (Chao Nian Gao) – a savory stir fry
• – fresh steamed whole fish
• Delicious Red Bean Black Glutinous Rice Soup Recipe – this dessert soup is considered lucky
• Pan-Fried Pork and Shrimp Dumplings (Potstickers) – great appetizer
• – use frozen potstickers to make soup
• Make Chicken Potstickers From Scratch Recipe – chicken potstickers
• – shrimp free potstickers
• Dim Sum: Turnip Cake – a savory steamed rice cake that is pan fried until crispy
• “Bok Cheet Gai” Slow Cooker Chinese White Cut Chicken – poach chicken in a slow cooker
• – shrimp is an auspicious ingredient
• Happiness is a Shrimp Stir Fry with Spring Vegetables Recipe – a shrimp stir-fry
• Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps are Easy to Make, Fun to Eat – lettuce represents abundance
• Stir Fried Iceberg Lettuce with Oyster Sauce – a simple stir-fry side dish
• Wagyu Sausage Lettuce Wrap – lettuce is symbolizes prosperity
• Make Beautiful Lettuce Cups for Lettuce Wraps
• Nut Free Chinese New Year Vegetable Stew “Jai” Recipe – a Cantonese vegetable stew with many auspicious ingredients

Preparation Tips

I don’t recall my mom ever making turnip cake so I looked up recipes in cookbooks and online to learn on my own. I like the clear instructions from Ellen Blonder’s Dim Sum: The Art of Chinese Tea Lunch but I discovered a few lo bak go making tips along the way which led to the recipe below.

• Select daikons about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. They are easier to grate and chop and have a milder flavor.The daikons should feel heavy for their size and feel firm.
• Grate and dice: Some recipes call for grated daikon which makes it easier to slice and handle the steamed turnip cake. Other recipes call for diced daikon which yields tasty morsels of turnip that fall out of a very soft rice cake. My happy medium is to dice half of the daikon and grate the other half as the texture and ease of handling is perfect.
• Use salt and chicken broth. My early tries at making lo bak go tasted strong and peppery, almost bitter. One of my mom’s friends, Auntie Bak Yu, suggested that I salt the prepped daikon and then squeeze out the liquid as the salt draws out some of the strong flavor. My mom suggested cooking in chicken broth rather than water.
• Add the rice batter when the daikon is hot.
  • I have discovered that adding rice flour to cooled daikon and broth results in layered daikon cake where the daikon is on top and the rice flour is on the bottom.
  • It is important to add the rice flour and water mixture to very hot daikon and broth mixture and stir until it looks like mashed potatoes.
  • I have also discovered that adding rice flour directly into the hot daikon and broth results in lumpy daikon cake, so blending the flour with water is important.

Planning, Recipe Variations, and Storing Leftovers

• Allow 1 day lead time. This dish is relatively simple and easy, but it is a labor of love that takes 1 day lead time to prepare. For that reason, I double the recipe as it is not too much more trouble to double the ingredients and besides pan frying time, it doesn’t take too much extra time. I pan fry all of it in 3 batches using a 14 inch frying pan or I use 2 frying pans at the same time to save time.
• Pan-fry in batches all on the same day if serving a large group. If you are making this for your family, pan-fry 1-2 pieces per person over 3-4 days. You could pan fry in advance but it won’t be as crispy.
• Vegan option:One can make the turnip cake completely vegan by using vegetable broth and leaving out the shrimp and sausages and sautee the mix-in ingredients in a tiny bit of olive oil and the carrots, green onions, and cilantro will provide some nice color and textures.

Allergy Aware Turnip Cake Ingredients:

Rice flour: I have had the best results from using Erawan brand rice flour (in a red bag, the logo is a three headed elephant), it is a well-known brand mentioned in gluten free cookbooks and inexpensive to purchase from Asian markets (less than $2). I have used it for years but haven’t been able to verify that it is nut-free. However, I have been able to confirm that the Flying Horse brand (also in a red bag) is nut free. Also Koda Farms makes rice flour in a rice only facility but you may need to order by mail. I have also used Arrowhead Mills Brown Rice Flour after discussing with them at length about their allergen policy. No matter what brand you buy, be sure to buy “rice flour” not glutinous rice flour (usually in a green bag), which is made from sweet rice and will yield a different texture.

Shrimp allergy: Most restaurant prepared turnip cakes will contain dried shrimp but the beauty of making it yourself, is that you can omit the shrimp and substitute diced carrots if you want.

Soy and/or gluten allergy: Chinese sausages are typically marinated with soy sauce, use bacon instead. Substitute the soy sauce with tamari sauce or a Soy-Free Soy Sauce Recipe, Top 9 Allergen Free.

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