Translations:Vietnamese cuisine/54/en

Food colourings

Xôi ngũ sắc (five colours sticky rice) is coloured with plant-based ingredients.

Traditionally, the colouring of Vietnamese food comes from natural ingredients; however, today there is an increase in the use of artificial food dye agents for food colouring, in Vietnam.

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