Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Chè Ba Màu
A layered sweet of red beans, mung beans, and green pandan jelly over ice with coconut cream, Vietnam's three-color dessert.
Vietnamese · medium · serves 4
prep 30 min · cook 45 min
~598 cal · 12g protein · 73g carbs · 31g fat · 9g fiber · 44g sugars · 27g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Chè ba màu, three-colour dessert, is one of the most cheerful of Vietnam's vast family of chè, the sweet soups and puddings eaten as snacks and desserts across the country. Served in a tall glass, it is as much a feast for the eyes as the palate.
Its three colours come in layers: red from sweet adzuki beans, yellow from mung bean paste, and green from jelly-like strands scented with pandan. Over the top go crushed ice and a generous pour of sweet, salty . Stirred together into a slushy, creamy tangle, it is the perfect refreshment in the tropical heat.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1/2 cup adzuki (red) beans
1/2 cup split mung beans
1 cup pandan jelly (agar with pandan)
1 1/2 cups
2 leaves pandan leaves (or pandan extract)
1 tbsp tapioca or corn starch
3/4 cup sugar
1 pinch salt
to serve crushed ice
Instructions
1
Cook the red beans until soft and sweeten with some of the sugar; do the same separately with the mung beans, then mash the mung to a paste.
2
Set the pandan jelly with agar and cut into strands.
3
Simmer the coconut cream with sugar, a pinch of salt and the pandan leaves, then stir in the starch slaked with a little water and let it infuse 10 minutes off the heat before cooling.
✎ Chef’s note
Salt the coconut cream lightly. That savoury note is what makes the sweetness sing rather than cloy. The spoon of starch gives it enough body to sit on top of the ice instead of vanishing straight through it, and pandan is worth hunting down: it is, as one Vietnamese cook puts it, the vanilla of Vietnam.
4
Layer red beans, mung paste, and pandan jelly in glasses, top with crushed ice and coconut cream, and stir to eat.
Vietnamese chè tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Ho Chi Minh City. The south grows differently and eats differently. Sugar goes into savoury dishes more freely than in the north, coconut milk turns up in braises, and herbs arrive as a whole plate for the eater to tear in. The French bread came in from the 1860s; the sandwich as it now exists was put together here in the 1950s.
🗺️
Vietnam. Vietnamese food is a study in balance and freshness, clean broths like pho, herb-piled rice-paper rolls, and the baguette-born banh mi. Fish sauce, lime, chili, and mountains of fresh herbs create a cuisine that feels both light and deeply savory, often eaten on low plastic stools.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Vietnam
Phở Gà (Hanoi Chicken Pho)A clear, star-anise-scented chicken broth over rice noodles, finished with herbs and lime at the table.
Bánh XèoSizzling turmeric-rice crepes stuffed with shrimp, pork, and sprouts, wrapped in lettuce and dunked in nuoc cham.
Bún Bò HuếThe imperial city’s fierce beef-and-lemongrass noodle soup, spiked with chili oil and shrimp paste, bolder than pho.
Browse all Vietnam recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Chè Ba Màu?
A layered sweet of red beans, mung beans, and green pandan jelly over ice with coconut cream, Vietnam's three-color dessert.
Where does Chè Ba Màu come from?
Chè Ba Màu is a Vietnamese dish from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Can Chè Ba Màu be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Chè Ba Màu recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Chè Ba Màu safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Chè Ba Màu take to make?
About 75 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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