The Viet Vegan

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Chè Ba Màu – Vietnamese Three Colour Bean Dessert

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 Chè ba màu, or as directly translated into Vietnamese: three colour bean dessert,
is one of my favourite childhood desserts. There’s just something about the combination
of different textures, flavours, and that crunch of ice,
swimming in a little puddle of sweetened coconut cream…

Che Ba Mau - Vietnamese Three Bean Dessert

Lunar New Year is always a complicated time for me. It’s mostly jubilant—what with red envelopes, an abundance of so many of my favourite foods, and my mom voice ringing through the house she draws out a big belly laugh out of even the most shy of babies. I’m not sure how she finds them, or how they find her, but my mom is a baby magnet that always manages to have someone’s baby on her hip or clinging to her leg because they’ve fallen in love with her charm.

As some of you may know, the Vietnamese calendar is based off of the Lunar New Year—so our new year changes each year. This year its on Jan 29th, and it’s the year of the rooster! It’s a fresh start, it’s a new year for opportunities and hopefully good fortune. I didn’t believe in horoscopes for a really long time, I just thought that they were generalizations. They’re always so vague so they apply to anyone, but when I turned 24, I started to really doubt that. Apparently, your “year” (for me it’s the year of the horse) is the year you need to be the most cautious and careful. It’s considered a rather “unlucky” year for people.

Me being me, I just ignored it and didn’t think anything of it and just lived my life as usual. That year was a pretty rough year with a lot of ups and downs. I got a new job; my eczema got a lot worse; I fell out of love with academia, then decided to stop pursuing my thesis and just finish my Master’s through coursework; and that year was the beginning of the end of my relationship with Chris. Maybe it was just a bad year in general, maybe it’s unrelated to the horoscope, but who knows. Maybe there’s some truth to the stars.

I made the mistake of reading my 2017 horoscope and now I’m really paranoid about my health. If you haven’t been following my Instagram or YouTube channel, you might not know that I’ve been experimenting with cutting out gluten for the a few months to see if it improves my eczema. My doctor suggested I try this last year but I don’t know, I had been hearing of so many doctors just telling everyone to go gluten-free and I didn’t take it seriously. I saw that same doctor again last week and I told him I’m giving it a try so who knows. I have a lot of plans for this year for both TVV and my health, so here’s hoping for prosperity, good health and good fortune =P

Anyway, I’ve joined up with a bunch of other amazing bloggers who want to celebrate a yummy and #SweetLunarNewYear! There are so many delicious sweet treats below—not all of them are vegan but they are all vegetarian recipes :)

I’ll be trying to record a video version of this chè ba màu recipe for Wednesday, so if you want to see how I make it, just stay tuned for that. I have another video where I had it from a restaurant if you want to see what it looks like and how to eat it. Otherwise, I hope you try this sweet three colour bean dessert out! It’s a little different from Western concepts of dessert, but it’s really delicious!

Che Ba Mau – Vietnamese Three Colour Bean Dessert

Che Ba Mau - Vietnamese Three Bean Dessert

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup split, hulled mung beans, soaked overnight

Pandan Jelly Layer:

  • 1 tbsp agar agar powder
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 cups water
  • 3 drops pandan flavouring

Sugar Syrup:

  • 1/2 sugar
  • 1/2 cup water

Sweet Coconut Cream:

  • 1 can of coconut cream (alternatively, you can refrigerate a can of full-fat coconut milk, then take the thick cream)
  • 2 tbsp sugar (you can add more if you'd like)

Other layers

  • 1 can red kidney beans, (try to find low sodium), rinsed very well and drained
  • 2 cups shaved ice

Instructions

  1. Soak the split, hulled mung beans (they're yellow) in about 4 cups of water overnight. Alternatively, you can just soak them for about 1 hour in warm water before you start making this dessert, it's better when soaked overnight though. Rinse and drain the next day.
  2. Using a steamer, arrange the mung beans on one of the perforated steam layers and steam over medium heat for about 20 or until they're very soft. If you prefer the soft, mung bean mash type texture, you could cook them in a pot in about 1 1/2 cups water until they're soft. You could then mash with a potato masher or hand blender until you get that really thick texture (adding water as desired).

Pandan Jelly Layer:

  1. In a small pot over medium heat, combine agar agar powder, sugar, water and stir well until the agar has dissolved (the water will look clear). Stir in the pandan flavouring and then pour into a glass container (you can use one of those glass sandwich ones, I ended up using a glass pie pan). Let cool and set completely in the fridge for about 2 hours.
  2. Once those are set, cut into jelly strips (about 1.5 inch long and maybe 1/4 thick). Set aside.

Sugar syrup

  1. In a small pot (or alternatively the microwave), heat sugar and water until sugar is completely dissolved (water will look clear). Set aside to cool.

Sweet coconut cream

  1. Combine the coconut cream and sugar and heat until sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

To assemble:

  1. In a tall glass, add 2-3 tbsp of crushed or shaved ice, 2 heaping tbsp of the kidney beans, another 2 heaping tbsp of the mung beans, a layer of the pandan jelly, more shaved ice, and 3 tbsp each of the sugar syrup and sweetened coconut cream.
  2. Enjoy immediately!
© Lisa Le
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About Lisa Le

Lisa is the thirty-something, nerdy, procrastinating, feminist blogger and photographer behind The Viet Vegan. She loves spicy foods, noodles, and food in bowls.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Anita says

    Happy Chinese New Year Lisa! I have never tried this, but being an Indonesian, we have quite a few desserts that look like this :) I am betting that this must taste just as awesome.

    Reply

  4. Christine | Vermilion Roots says

    Hey Lisa, I’m off gluten too but will have it once in a while if it presents itself as, say, a vegan birthday cake. ? I think dairy is the bigger problem for me. Hope you’ll manage to get to the root of the problem soon. Eczema is stressful. Thanks for sharing this dessert recipe. I’ve always wanted to know what goes in there. May your new year be filled with sweetness!

    Reply

    • Lisa Le says

      Oh man I am so sad about not having cake right now. I haven’t mustered the energy to bake a GF cake yet XD Thanks for organizing this party Christine! So great to be teaming up with so many Asian bloggers to celebrate <3

      Reply

  7. Lisa says

    This looks so colourful and exciting, can’t wait to make.
    I want to share this with my cousin as she was born in the year of the rooster :))
    Your youTube channel is so nice as well as your blog.
    THANKYOU
    Happy Lunar New Year ^_^

    Reply

  8. Sharon @Nut Free Wok says

    I loooooooove these kinds of drinks!! I used to work in SF’s Chinatown and there was a little shop called the House and they used to sell this dessert drink and I can’t find it anywhere any more as boba drinks have taken over the world, ha! Thanks for the recipe. Happy #sweetlunarnewyear

    BTW, I’m really sorry you are having issues with eczema. It could be caused by any food, you can probably figure it out faster by seeing an allergist and getting some skin tests or seeing a dermatologist. We deal with eczema in our family, f you want to email me, I can share what works for us and you can discuss with your doctor. Feel better!

    Reply

  10. Kim says

    What’s the texture of the pandan jelly like? Is it chewy like gummies, or is it more like the Vietnamese jellies that are more firm and a bit “crunchy”? I’ve been trying to look for a recipe that would be like Bambu’s pandan jelly, but haven’t cooked with agar agar before so I don’t know what to expect…

    Reply

  12. Mary Pfister says

    I can identify with your skin problems. I have very itchy skin which is going on for three years and causing me much distress. Allergists haven’t helped. I am going to get some information on Autophagy, a man won a Nobel prize on that. It has to do with blood cells and is an interesting concept.
    Good luck with your emphysema!
    Mary Pfister

    Reply

  15. Winnie says

    Can i replace the agar agar with gelatin? Also, what can be used to replace the pandan flavoring? Can’t wait to try this recipe! If no substitutes for the agar agar & pandan, I’ll have to go find some! Thanks! ?

    Reply

    • Lisa Le says

      Hi! Gelatin would completely change the texture of the jelly (also I’m vegan and I wouldn’t recommend using gelatin anyway haha). Pandan flavouring is kind of one of the key flavour components of this, but you could substitute it with vanilla if you can’t find anything at all. It’ll just be a lightly brown/clear jelly instead of the green.

      Reply

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