Boiled lotus stem
Wash the lotus stem gently. Now cut them into desired length, may be cubes or chopped. Boil minimum water in a dekchi. Add the cut beans to the boiling water and lid the dekchi to avoid nutrient loss. Once the stem start turning lighter in color and can be smashed easily on pressing, they can be considered boiled and cooked. Alternatively you can pressure cook them till 1 whistle to boil them. Boiled lotus stem is used in preparing a curry.
Sliced lotus stem
Wash the lotus stem gently. Remove the two extremes. With a knife, slice the stem from top to bottom in the vertical direction. If the recipe calls for the ingredients to be "thickly sliced," make the pieces slightly larger. Similarly if you want "thinly sliced "lotus stem, cut it into still smaller size.