Xôi Xéo

Name: Xôi Xéo
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Ingredients: For the sticky rice:; 400g (2 cups) glutinous rice (sticky rice), soaked in water 4–8 hours or overnight; 1 tsp turmeric powder; 1/2 tsp salt; 1 tbsp vegetable oil; 2 tbsp coconut milk (optional — adds richness); For the mung bean paste:; 200g (1 cup) split yellow mung beans, washed and soaked 1 hour; 2 tbsp sugar; 1/4 tsp salt; 1 tbsp vegetable oil; For the fried shallots:; 6 large shallots, very thinly sliced; 4 tbsp vegetable oil; Pinch of salt; For the scallion oil:; 4 scallions, thinly sliced (green parts); 3 tbsp vegetable oil (heated until shimmering); Pinch of salt; 1 tsp sesame seeds (optional); To serve (optional): crispy fried onion, a drizzle of soy sauce or maggi seasoning

Hanoi's golden breakfast: fragrant glutinous rice tinted yellow with turmeric, layered with a silky mung bean paste, topped with a blizzard of crispy fried shallots and a drizzle of scallion oil. Humble and extraordinary.

⏱20 min prep 🔥45 min cook ⏰65 min total 🍽4 servings 📊medium

The Cultural Story

On a Hanoi morning, before the city fully wakes, women carry baskets of xôi on shoulder poles through the lanes of the Old Quarter. Each basket holds several varieties of sticky rice — xôi gấc, lurid red from gac fruit, for celebrations; xôi đỗ xanh, pale and simply sweet; and xôi xéo, the golden one, tinted yellow with turmeric and crowned with mung bean paste and fried shallots that perfume the entire alley. A small portion, wrapped in banana leaf, costs a few thousand dong. It is breakfast, eaten while walking. Xôi — glutinous sticky rice — is the ancient food of Vietnam, older than written history. It appears at every major life event: at Tết, wrapped in bánh chưng with pork and beans; at funerals, colored black with gac rind; at weddings, colored red for luck. But xôi xéo is the everyday version — the street corner version, the one you eat on a Tuesday. The name xéo means "slanted" or "diagonal," referring to the way the mung bean paste is spread across the rice at an angle. The magic of xôi xéo is in the contrast of textures and temperatures. The rice is chewy and warm, faintly fragrant with turmeric and the nutty sweetness of the sticky grain itself. The mung bean paste is silky-smooth and slightly sweet, pressed over the surface in a thin layer. Then the fried shallots — deeply golden, crisp, and intensely sweet from their long caramelization in oil — shatter across the top. Scallion oil, green and grassy, is drizzled last. You eat it in layers, getting a little of everything in each bite, and it fills you up not with heaviness but with the sustained, confident satisfaction of a bowl of very good grain. This is the food of a civilization that has been farming rice for ten thousand years.

Ingredients

For the sticky rice:
400g (2 cups) glutinous rice (sticky rice), soaked in water 4–8 hours or overnight
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp coconut milk (optional — adds richness)
For the mung bean paste:
200g (1 cup) split yellow mung beans, washed and soaked 1 hour
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
For the fried shallots:
6 large shallots, very thinly sliced
4 tbsp vegetable oil
Pinch of salt
For the scallion oil:
4 scallions, thinly sliced (green parts)
3 tbsp vegetable oil (heated until shimmering)
Pinch of salt
1 tsp sesame seeds (optional)
To serve (optional): crispy fried onion, a drizzle of soy sauce or maggi seasoning

Instructions

1Cook the mung bean paste: drain soaked mung beans and place in a saucepan with just enough fresh water to cover by 1 inch. Simmer on medium-low, 20–25 minutes, until very soft and almost all water is absorbed. Remove from heat. Add sugar, salt, and oil. Mash vigorously until smooth and paste-like. If too wet, continue stirring over low heat to dry out. It should hold its shape when scooped. Set aside.
2Steam the sticky rice: drain soaked rice and toss with turmeric and salt until the grains are evenly golden. Add coconut milk if using. Steam in a traditional bamboo steamer or rice cooker steamer basket for 25–30 minutes until translucent and sticky. Halfway through, fluff with a fork and drizzle with oil for even cooking. The rice should be fully tender but still slightly chewy — not mushy.
3Make the fried shallots: heat oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add sliced shallots and a pinch of salt. Cook slowly, stirring frequently, for 12–15 minutes until deep golden-brown and very crispy. Watch carefully — they go from golden to burnt quickly in the final minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. They will crisp further as they cool. Reserve the shallot oil.
4Make the scallion oil: heat 3 tbsp of fresh oil in a small saucepan until shimmering. Place sliced scallion greens in a heatproof bowl with a pinch of salt. Pour the hot oil directly over the scallions — they will sizzle dramatically. Stir and set aside.
5Assemble: mound warm sticky rice into serving bowls or banana leaf portions. Spread a generous layer of mung bean paste across the top, angled diagonally (this is the xéo technique). Scatter fried shallots liberally over everything.
6Finish with scallion oil drizzled over the top. Add a pinch of sesame seeds if using. Serve immediately while everything is warm. The contrast of chewy rice, smooth bean paste, crunchy shallots, and fragrant scallion oil is the entire point.

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