There is a lot of healthy Vietnamese food. In Vietnam, people combine fresh ingredients and typical South East Asian flavours with… wait for it… French cuisine! If you enjoyed our exposition of Indonesian food, you’re going to drool over this list of the healthiest Vietnamese food we could find. Many of the dishes are quite low in calories because the Vietnamese culinary tradition shies away from oil and starchy carbs.
Healthiest Vietnamese Snacks
Vietnamese snacks satisfy both sweet and savoury palates, and the range of ingredients and colours is dazzling. Here are 6 healthy Vietnamese snacks which you might not be familiar with:
Cha Gio
Every Asian culture has its take on delectable fried delicacy. In Vietnam, Cha Gio is the perfect egg roll snack, ideal for Vietnamese people and tourists alike. It’s quite addictive; once you bite into one, you can’t stop yourself from eating a few more! They’re fantastic to bring to gatherings since they’re filled with shredded ham, yellow onion, wood ear mushrooms, and bean threads, coated in doughy wrappers made with wheat flour and eggs, but they’re also easy to prepare if you need a quick snack.
Vietnamese Pickles
This is what low calorie Vietnamese food looks like! It is a Vietnamese 7-ingredient pickle combination that is an excellent after-school snack or a great complement with boiled eggs or other proteins of your choosing. All you need to prepare this mouth-watering pickle mix are carrots, daikon radishes, jalapenos, sugar, kosher salt, warm water, and rice vinegar!
Goi Muc
Goi Muc, or the Vietnamese Squid Salad, is an excellent summer starter. What more could you want? It’s low-fat, refreshing and healthful, and not something that is only available in Vietnamese restaurants, but you can easily make this meal at home, all you need is to buy some squids.
Vietnamese Baguette
Nothing surpasses the aroma and taste of a freshly made and warm baguette. It’s the most basic of snacks to get you started in the kitchen. The baguette can be made into many different sandwich variations. In Vietnam, a short baguette with a thin, crunchy crust and a light, airy feel, frequently split lengthwise and stuffed with savoury ingredients, is served as Banh Mi and is a staple, healthy food.
Banh Khot
Banh Khot is a savory, fried batter with a faint coconut flavor frequently garnished with shrimp and green onion. They are often topped with roasted chopped dry prawns, adding texture and taste. These tiny morsels would not fail to impress!
Hat de Nong
This scrumptious street cuisine may be found all around Asia. The aroma of roasted chestnuts roasting over a large wok or open fire is highly delightful. Especially in Vietnam, it is so common that you’ll not miss them out if you follow your nose!
Healthy Vietnamese Breakfasts
Breakfast is essential since it provides energy for a whole day of hard labor. Most of Vietnam’s breakfast options are crafted to be both healthy food and naturally tasty. Here are 5 of the best Vietnamese breakfast choices:
Pho is healthy Vietnamese food!
Mention healthy Vietnamese food and most people immediately think of pho. Pho isn’t only the most common breakfast option in Vietnam, but it is also recognized globally as a hallmark of Vietnamese cuisine. It’s nearly impossible to travel a block in any of Vietnam’s main cities without coming across a mob of hungry customers slurping noodles at an improvised pho station. A salty broth, fresh rice noodles, a dusting of herbs, and chicken or beef, combine in this staple. Its prevalence in the local cuisine is justified as it’s inexpensive, delicious, and readily available at all hours.
Xoi
Although Pho is well-known worldwide, it is difficult to say if Pho or Xoi is preferred for breakfast in Vietnam. Even in the tiniest alleyways in Vietnam, one may discover a sidewalk stall selling Xoi in the morning. In Vietnam, savory sticky rice is more a meal than an accessory. The sticky staple is served with a variety of toppings (from thin pieces of chicken or pork to grilled or pickled eggs) and garnished with a sprinkle of dried onions.
Banh Cuo
Banh Cuo is one of the many exquisite Vietnamese cuisines made of rice flour. These rolled-up rice flour pancakes are best served hot and tender. Despite being seemingly skinny and hollow, they feature a tasty stuffing of ground pork and mushrooms. Dipping the slick pieces in a salty condiment adds some zest as well.
Cháo
Cháo, commonly known as rice porridge, is a popular breakfast, lunch, and supper dish in Vietnam. Despite its reputation as a poor man’s cuisine, Cháo can be considerably finer when prepared with a selection of meats, such as chicken, fish, beef, duck, or pig ribs. Vietnam’s rice porridge has a thick and creamy texture and is the finest choice when your body can’t tolerate much else.
Is this Healthy Vietnamese Food? Balut
Balut is a popular breakfast option in Vietnam and is found at nearly every breakfast shop. It is a duck embryo, still in the fertilization phase, resting in its shell, cooked in the steamy heat. This meal is ranked as one of the “weirdest” foods for Western tourists, and for obvious reasons. However, if you can overcome your anxiety about tasting it once, you (big maybe) might like it? According to many locals, it is thousands of times tastier than a regular chicken egg and contains a large quantity of protein.
Have some Healthy Vietnamese Food for Lunch!
Tentacles and other exotic seafood are common ingredients in Vietnamese cuisine, thus earning it a notorious image in the eyes of Western tourists. However, once someone takes a bite of Vietnamese food, they invariably love with the flavour. Here are 4 healthy lunch alternatives in Vietnamese cuisine.
Bot Chien
Originating from China, Bot Chien is the Vietnamese equivalent of Chinese chai tow kway and Saigon’s favourite street food. Bot Chien is made in a big wok out of crispy fried rectangular rice cakes, minced green onions, and an egg to hold everything together. After cooking, it’s topped with pieces of papaya, shallots, and green onions before being seasoned with pickled chili sauce and rice vinegar.
Bun Cha
While Pho is Vietnam’s most renowned meal, Bun Cha is the most popular lunch option in the city. At about 11 a.m., when street-side eateries begin cooking tiny patties of marinated pork and slices of flavored pig belly over a charcoal fire, the entire street fills with clouds of meat-scented smoke. These roasted and crispy morsels are served with a bowl of fishy sauce-heavy soup, a basket of herbs, and a portion of rice noodles.
Cha Ca La Vong
Cha Ca La Vong, one of Vietnam’s most famous meals, has been around for over a century and is so special to Hanoians that there is a boulevard in the city devoted to these crispy pieces of fish. Typically, the fish pieces, seasoned with turmeric, garlic, and ginger, are served in a pan on top of a portable burner, and guests cook the fish as they eat. The visitors may begin eating their fish with the addition of dill, scallions, and shallots, as well as rice noodles, peanuts, and a scoop of shrimp paste.
Banh Xeo
Banh Xeo, like Banh Mi, is influenced by French cuisine, this time the renowned Crêpe, so much so that “Banh Xeo” literally translates to “sizzling cake” in English. A fine Banh Xeo is a crunchy Crêpe stuffed with boiling pork pieces, shell-on shrimp, bean sprouts, and garnished fresh herbs. Chop it into reasonable chunks, wrap it up in rice paper or lettuce leaves, and enjoy it with the special sauce served with it in most restaurants.
Low Calorie Vietnamese Dinners
In Vietnam, most lunch options and certain breakfasts are frequently utilized as supper or dinner. There are, however, certain separate dinner dishes, the majority of which involve meat. These are the 3 most common, healthy Vietnamese food options for dinner:
Bo Kho
Bo Kho, or Vietnamese Beef Stew, is a Vietnamese dish that resembles beef stew. It has all the elements found in traditional beef stew, including daikon, lemongrass, Asian spices, and fish sauce. It is usually served with noodles, bread, or rice, which can soak up the delicious soup; therefore, Bo Kho is drier than our sort of beef stew.
Thit Bo Luc Lac
Thit Bo Luc Lac, or Vietnamese Shaking Beef, is made by tossing cubes of beef around a searing pan with garlic, pepper, and veggies. There’s nothing unusual about the meat that causes it to shake. The term is just a simple translation of the act of mixing the meat while it cooks.
Bun Ga Nuong
Bun Ga Nuong, also known as Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken or Vermicelli Noodle Bowl, is one of the many delectable Vietnamese dishes. It is a traditional Vietnamese cuisine consisting of cold rice vermicelli noodles topped with grilled pork, fresh herbs such as basil and mint, fresh salad, and bean sprouts, and is laced with Nuoc Cham, Vietnam’s famed dipping sauce given with everything.
The Healthiest Vietnamese Desserts
Desserts in Vietnam might include sweet soups, doughy rolls, cakes, iced delights, and much more, so if you enjoy sweets and are open to different culinary traditions, Vietnamese desserts are a must-try. You’ll find a wide range of delicious selections; most are lower in calories and cooked with natural ingredients. Among the numerous alternatives, these 6 Vietnamese desserts are the finest.
Chè Ba Màu
Chè Ba Màu translates directly to “Three Color Tea” in English, which aptly explains the dish as it has layers of three different colours: yellow mung bean layer, green pandan jelly layer, and red bean layer. The velvety coconut syrup on top is another enticing feature of this Vietnamese three-color delicacy.
Che Bap
Che Bap is a traditional Vietnamese treat prepared from sweet corn and glutinous rice or tapioca starch. It is best served in a bowl or cup with no supplementary ingredients, either hot or chilled; the sugary, luscious, and crunchy flavor of corn lends itself well to this dish. Although it is a basic recipe, it is rather tasty and satisfying, especially when cooked with fresh sweet corn from the farmer’s market.
Che Chuoi
Che Chuoi, or Vietnamese banana tapioca pudding, is a warm dessert to try in winter. This dish is difficult to resist due to its fruity scent, thick and creamy flavor of coconut sauce, and chewy texture of tapioca. It has a rich and creamy texture similar to Western puddings, but it has the added benefit of not being “too sweet” because it is prepared with the natural flavor and sweetness of fruits.
Banh Bong Lan
Banh Bong Lan is a popular Vietnamese treat, available across most Vietnamese bakeries throughout the world. Sponge cake is known for its light and fluffy texture and not too sugary taste. It originated in France and features eggs and cake flour as the main ingredients. Traditionally, Vietnamese sponge cake is cooked in a cake pan with charcoal to perfection.
Vietnamese Jello Mooncakes
Mooncake is the icon of the Mid Autumn Festival in Vietnam, which takes place on the 15th of the eighth lunar month. The exterior of jello mooncakes is coconut cream, while the internal filling is taro or green tea. If you don’t like taro and green tea in your jello mooncake filling, you may substitute any ingredient of your choosing. And if you don’t like coconut, you can use condensed milk instead.
Kem Bo
Kem Bo, or Vietnamese avocado mousse ice cream, is a sweet and creamy frozen treat popular as a street snack in Da Nang and many other towns in Vietnam. All of the components complement each other nicely. Place mashed avocados in the bottom layer, then pour ice cream as the next layer. Finally, drizzle some coconut cream and sprinkle toasted coconut flakes. This variety of flavors and textures will excite your taste senses and leave you satisfied.
Vietnamese food is healthy!
Thanks for reviewing this list if the healthiest Viet dishes! Whereas other nations are famed for their inventive new meals and sophisticated culinary talents, Vietnam is best known for simpler, time-honoured recipes. Healthy, heart-warming noodle soups and fresh Franco-Vietnamese banh mi baguettes. Taken as a whole, Vietnamese food is clearly a healthy cuisine with no-nonsense ingredients combined in tasty proportions.
In summary, healthy Vietnamese food includes:
Healthiest Vietnamese Snacks: Cha Gio, Vietnamese pickles, Goi Muc, Vietnamese Baguette, Banh Khot, and Hat de Nong.
Some of the Healthiest Vietnamese Breakfasts: Pho, Xoi, Banh Cuo, Chao, and Balut.
Healthiest Vietnamese Lunches: Bot Chien, Bun Cha, Cha Ca La Vong, and Banh Xeo.
4 of the Healthiest Vietnamese Dinners: Bo Kho, Thit Bo Luc Lac, and Bun Ga Nuong.
Healthiest Vietnamese Desserts: Chè Ba Màu, Che Bap, Che Chuoi, Banh Bong Lan, Vietnamese Jello Mooncakes, and Kem Bo.
Looking for even more healthy Vietnamese food and want to find out how many calories there are in your favourites? Well, then you need to use the calcount Food Search Box:
