Xôi Xéo

Name: Xôi Xéo
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Vietnam
Ingredients: 2 cups (400 g) Thai glutinous sticky rice, soaked 4 hours (or overnight); 1 tsp ground turmeric; 1 tsp fine sea salt; 1 cup (200 g) split hulled mung beans, soaked 2 hours; 2 tbsp neutral oil (for the mash); 1 tsp fine sea salt (for the mash); 6 shallots, thinly sliced (about 1 cup); ½ cup (120 ml) neutral oil (for frying shallots); 3 tbsp neutral oil (for scallion oil); 4 scallions, thinly sliced (for scallion oil); 1 tsp granulated sugar (for the finish); Pinch of fine sea salt (for the finish)

Vietnamese · Medium · Serves 4

Xôi xéo — Hanoi's breakfast sticky rice — is a cheerful yellow tower: turmeric-dyed glutinous rice, a shard of mung bean "custard," fried shallots, and a drizzle of oil, sold wrapped in banana leaf on the way to work. It is a dish about three textures — chewy, creamy, crisp — engineered from three cheap things, and it is the best argument on this site for keeping mung beans in the pantry.

Quantities live in the recipe card.

The rice

The mung bean layer

mashed and pressed into a flat cake, then cut in shards

The finish

- **Soak the rice and beans; steam, never boil.** The rice soaks overnight and the beans 3 hours; both cook by steam in separate layers. If you own a bamboo steamer or metal steamer basket, that is the tool; a colander over a pot with a lid works identically. - **The bridge:** glutinous rice (sold as "sweet rice" or "glutinous rice") has no substitute — jasmine will not stick into the chewy mass. Mung beans are in every Asian grocery and cook faster than you think; the fried shallot step can use store-bought at a small loss of the shallot oil drizzle.

Step 1. **Steam the rice (25 minutes).** Line the steamer with a cloth, spread the drained rice loosely, poke a few holes with a chopstick for steam, and steam over boiling water 25 minutes. At the 15-minute mark, sprinkle the turmeric water and salt over the rice and toss gently with the cloth's corners; continue steaming. Checkpoint — fully steamed glutinous rice is translucent and chewy-tender, the grains distinct but clinging; a grain pressed between fingers squashes flat. Under-steamed rice is opaque and hard at the center — keep going, checking every 5 minutes. The turmeric should color it a soft even yellow.

Step 2. **Steam the beans (20 minutes, run alongside).** Steam the soaked beans until dry and tender (a grain crushes to powder between fingers), then mash with salt and oil while hot, press into a flat cake in a small dish, and cool. Checkpoint — the cooled bean cake should slice into shards, not crumble — that is why it is pressed while hot and cut cold. This "custard" layer is the dish's creamy heart; the texture target is like a firm, smooth hummus, firmed up.

Step 3. **Build each portion in layers, warm.** Press a bowl of the hot yellow rice, upturn onto the serving, lay a shard or two of the mung bean cake on top, scatter fried shallots generously, drizzle the shallot oil over, and salt barely. Checkpoint — eating test: every bite should have all three — the chew of the rice, the cream of the beans, the crackle of the shallots — with the oil making it luxurious. In Hanoi this is a one-handed breakfast; at home it is brunch that costs almost nothing. Add sausage or egg and it is a meal. Chef’s Note — the mung bean layer is the technique worth learning: steamed, mashed, and pressed, it becomes a clean-protein "custard" that slices — an authentic layer of richness without dairy or meat. Vietnamese cooking uses this same bean layer in xôi mặn (savory sticky rice) of every kind, and it is one of the great under-used vegetarian tools in any pantry.

Xôi Xéo

Prep: 10 minutes, plus 6 hours soaking · Cook: 30 minutes · Total: About 40 minutes (plus overnight soaking) · Serves 4

Ingredients

The rice

300 g glutinous rice, soaked 6 hours or overnight, drained
1 tsp turmeric (about 3 g), mixed with 2 tbsp water
½ tsp salt

The mung bean layer

150 g split yellow mung beans, soaked 3 hours, steamed 20 minutes until dry-tender
½ tsp salt; 2 tbsp neutral oil — mashed and pressed into a flat cake, then cut in shards

The finish

2 shallots (about 60 g), sliced thin, fried crisp in 3 tbsp oil (the oil is the drizzle); or 20 g store fried shallots
A pinch of salt; optional: Chinese sausage, braised pork floss (ruốc), or a fried egg

Instructions

**Steam the rice (25 minutes).** Line the steamer with a cloth, spread the drained rice loosely, poke a few holes with a chopstick for steam, and steam over boiling water 25 minutes. At the 15-minute mark, sprinkle the turmeric water and salt over the rice and toss gently with the cloth's corners; continue steaming. Checkpoint — fully steamed glutinous rice is translucent and chewy-tender, the grains distinct but clinging; a grain pressed between fingers squashes flat. Under-steamed rice is opaque and hard at the center — keep going, checking every 5 minutes. The turmeric should color it a soft even yellow.
**Steam the beans (20 minutes, run alongside).** Steam the soaked beans until dry and tender (a grain crushes to powder between fingers), then mash with salt and oil while hot, press into a flat cake in a small dish, and cool. Checkpoint — the cooled bean cake should slice into shards, not crumble — that is why it is pressed while hot and cut cold. This "custard" layer is the dish's creamy heart; the texture target is like a firm, smooth hummus, firmed up.
**Build each portion in layers, warm.** Press a bowl of the hot yellow rice, upturn onto the serving, lay a shard or two of the mung bean cake on top, scatter fried shallots generously, drizzle the shallot oil over, and salt barely. Checkpoint — eating test: every bite should have all three — the chew of the rice, the cream of the beans, the crackle of the shallots — with the oil making it luxurious. In Hanoi this is a one-handed breakfast; at home it is brunch that costs almost nothing. Add sausage or egg and it is a meal.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Rice hard at the center	Under-steamed or under-soaked	Steam in 5-minute increments; soak fully
Bean cake crumbles when cut	Pressed cold or too dry	Press hot; a sprinkle of water when mashing
Dish tastes dry	Skimped the oil drizzle	The shallot oil is the luxury — pour it

Storage, Make-Ahead & Variations

- Steamed rice keeps 2 days refrigerated and re-steams perfectly (5 minutes over steam); the bean cake keeps 4 days. Fried shallots keep a week in a jar. - Variations: xôi gà (with chicken), xôi pate-chả (the full breakfast version), sweet xôi with coconut and mung bean for dessert. The fusion direction — a xôi bowl base under the karaage (#23) with the nuoc cham — is already Hanoi street tradition by another name.