Vietnamese Cuisine - Food Colourings

Food Colourings

The colour of Vietnamese food comes from natural ingredients.

• Red: usually from beetroot or by frying annatto seed to make oil (dầu điều)
• Orange: for sticky rice, comes from Gac
• Yellow: from turmeric
• Green: from pandan leaf or katuk
• Purple: from magenta plant (lá cẩm)
• Black: of gai cake is from ramie leaf (lá gai)
• Dark brown: for stew dishes, using nước màu or nước hàng, which is made by heating sugar to the temperature above that of caramel (170 °C).

Colourings can be absorbed by mixing ground colourings or colouring liquid or wraping before boiling to get the extracts. When colouring dishes, the tastes and smells of colourings must also be considered.