10 Popular Vietnamese Sweet Soups (Chè)

In Vietnamese cuisine, sweet soup (known as “Chè” in Vietnamese) is the most popular and familiar dessert among the people. Chè has a delicate sweetness with a wide variety of types, making it an essential treat to cool down on a summer day. Let’s explore 10 popular Vietnamese sweet soups (Chè) that you can easily make at home with simple and quick preparation.

Sweet Soup – A Signature Vietnamese Dessert

As a child, I eagerly anticipated the moments when my mother would return from the market with a type of Chè from the long list of available options. Some days it would be mung bean or red bean sweet soup, other days it might be glutinous rice ball soup or sweet potato soup. There was even a time when I was so obsessed with black bean sweet soup that my mother made it for me every day. For me and all Vietnamese people, Chè is a childhood dish that we continue to love even as we grow up, no matter how many other desserts exist in the world.

Chè can be made from various ingredients, from beans to sweet potatoes, tapioca flour, glutinous rice flour, and even pomelo pith. The ingredients are carefully prepared, then cooked with water and sugar, and finally enjoyed with shredded coconut, coconut milk, or condensed milk. Chè can be served hot or with ice.

10 Popular Vietnamese Sweet Soups

Below are 10 popular Vietnamese sweet soups that you can easily cook at home with familiar ingredients:

Red Bean Sweet Soup (Chè Đậu Đỏ)

The main ingredient of this soup is clearly stated in its name—red beans. After washing and soaking the red beans, they are simmered in sugar water to create the soup. You can also add tapioca tiny pearls or shredded dried tapioca to make the dish more interesting. Serve with shredded coconut and coconut milk. It can be enjoyed hot or with ice.

Check out my red bean sweet soup recipe.

Panna Cotta Sweet Soup (Chè Khúc Bạch)

This dessert only appeared in the last 10 years, originating in Saigon. Chè Khúc Bạch consists of panna cotta-like cubes, tropical fruits such as lychee and longan, roasted almond flakes, and sugar syrup. The taste of panna cotta sweet soup is refreshingly light and mild, making it a perfect match for Vietnam’s hot climate, which is why it is particularly popular among the younger generation.

Click to get my che khuc bach recipe.

Mung Bean Sweet Soup (Chè Đậu Xanh)

Mung beans are deeply rooted in Vietnamese cuisine. Many desserts are made from mung beans, such as green sticky rice cake (bánh cốm), mung bean cakes (bánh đậu xanh), and mooncakes with mung bean filling. Chè Đậu Xanh is also a popular and well-loved dessert thanks to its pleasant flavor. The soup can be made simply with mung beans or combined with ingredients like lotus seeds, tapioca pearls, or aloe vera for added texture and taste. Moreover, because mung beans are smaller than other beans, you can cook mung bean sweet soup more quickly as compared to other beans. 

Here’s the mung bean sweet soup recipe.

Pomelo Sweet Soup (Chè Bưởi)

In my opinion, this is the most difficult-to-make Vietnamese sweet soups. The reason lies in the time and effort required to transform pomelo pith—the usually discarded, bitter part of the fruit—into a delicious dessert. The pomelo pith must be repeatedly rinsed and squeezed to remove the bitterness, blanched in boiling water, and then coated with tapioca starch before being boiled to create chewy, crunchy cubes. Combined with peeled split mung beans and coconut milk, this dessert offer an amazing flavor that you should definitely try once.

Learn more: How to make pomelo sweet soup

Sweet Potato Sweet Soup (Chè Khoai Lang)

Vietnam, being a tropical country, grows an abundance of sweet potatoes. Besides being boiled or roasted, sweet potatoes can also become healthy and nutritious desserts. In Chè Khoai Lang, the sweet potatoes are cooked until soft, then mashed and mixed with tapioca flour to create a smooth, pliable dough. The dough is rolled into small cubes and boiled until cooked. You then serve these cubes with milk or coconut milk, and garnished with roasted peanuts, or sesame seeds. 

Let’s follow this easy recipe for sweet potato dessert.

Lotus Seed Sweet Soup (Chè Táo Đỏ Hạt Sen)

Like sweet potatoes, pomelos, and beans, lotus seeds are also very common in Vietnam. The lotus is Vietnam’s national flower, and lotus ponds can be found all over the country. From lotus seeds, the bitter core is removed to make tea, while the seeds themselves are used to make sweet soup, cakes, or preserves. The process of making lotus seed sweet soup is very simple: the lotus seeds are boiled with sugar water until tender. You can combine the lotus seeds with red dates, goji berries, aloe vera, or other ingredients to have a more flavorful and nutritious version.

Black Bean Sweet Soup (Chè Đậu Đen)

Here’s another sweet soup made from beans to add to the list. This is also one of my favorite desserts since childhood and remains so even now. Black beans have a unique flavor that pairs perfectly with ginger. Once cooked, the soup has a beautiful black-brown color. This black bean dessert can be enjoyed either hot or cold, making it a perfect dessert anytime of the year. 

Glutinous Rice Balls (Chè Trôi Nước)

This sweet soup is popular not only in Vietnam but also in other Asian countries such as China and Thailand. The main components of this dessert are glutinous rice flour, used to make the outer wrapper, and a filling typically made from mung bean, red bean, or lotus seed paste. The glutinous rice balls are served in a ginger sugar syrup and garnished with roasted peanuts, sesame seeds, shredded coconut, and other toppings.

Check out my glutinous rice balls recipe.

Corn Sweet Soup (Chè Bắp)

Chè Bắp is another unique sweet soup in Vietnamese cuisine. Sweet corn kernels are thinly sliced off the cob and then cooked in water. Don’t throw away the cobs, cook them with the soup to enhance sweetness and fragrance. Once the corn is tender, sugar is added to taste, and tapioca starch is used to thicken the soup. The result is a delicious and comforting dessert. Chè Bắp can be enjoyed either hot or cold, typically served with coconut milk for added richness.

Here’s an easy corn sweet soup recipe.

Tapioca Sweet Soup (Chè Bột Lọc)

The standout feature of tapioca sweet soup is the chewy, slightly bouncy texture of the tapioca balls as you bite into them. Tapioca starch is mixed with boiling water, then kneaded and shaped into small balls with a filling made of coconut or roasted peanuts. After being boiled until they float, the tapioca balls are served in a sweet ginger syrup and garnished with shredded coconut, dried coconut, and roasted peanuts. The combination of textures and flavors makes this dessert absolutely delightful!

Discover how to make tapioca sweet soup here.

In general, the 10 popular Vietnamese sweet soups, or “chè,” are desserts made from readily available and familiar ingredients such as beans, lotus seeds, sweet potatoes, pomelo, tapioca flour, and glutinous rice flour. These desserts are all refreshing, pleasantly sweet, perfectly suited to Vietnam’s tropical climate. With their simple preparation methods, you can easily try making these sweet soups at home with just a little time and effort.

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