25+ Vietnamese Vegetables: Common Types, Uses and Popular Dishes

Vegetables are an important part of Vietnamese cuisine and appear in many everyday meals. They add freshness, texture and balance to soups, stir-fries and traditional dishes. This guide introduces common Vietnamese vegetables, their local names, culinary uses and practical buying tips. 

Common Vietnamese leafy vegetables 

Water Spinach (Rau Muống)

Water spinach is one of the most widely eaten vegetables in Vietnam. It has long hollow stems, narrow green leaves and a mild flavour, with crisp stems that retain some texture after cooking.

• How it is used: Boiled, quickly stir-fried, added to sour soup or served raw and shredded with noodle dishes.
• Popular dishes: Stir-fried water spinach with garlic (Rau muống xào tỏi), boiled water spinach, Vietnamese sour soup, and crab noodle soup with shredded water spinach. 
• Buying tip: Select bunches with bright green leaves and firm, crisp stems. Avoid yellow leaves, soft stems or slimy sections.

Water Spinach

Malabar Spinach (Mồng Tơi)

Malabar spinach is a tropical climbing vegetable with thick, heart-shaped leaves and succulent stems. It tastes mild and slightly sweet but develops a soft, slippery texture when cooked.

• How it is used: Primarily cooked in light Vietnamese soups, although young leaves can also be stir-fried.
• Popular dishes: Crab and Malabar spinach soup, Malabar spinach soup with shrimp, and stir-fried Malabar spinach with garlic.
• Buying tip: Choose fresh, medium-sized leaves and tender upper stems. Very thick stalks can be fibrous and should be avoided.

Mustard Greens (Cải Xanh)

Mustard greens have broad green leaves, crunchy stems and a peppery, slightly bitter flavour. Cooking softens their sharpness, while pickling gives them a pleasantly sour and crunchy texture.

• How it is used: Cooked in soup, stir-fried or fermented with salt and seasonings.
• Popular dishes: Mustard green soup with ginger, mustard green soup with climbing perch (Canh cải cá rô), stir-fried mustard greens with garlic, and Vietnamese pickled mustard greens. 
• Buying tip: Look for upright, crisp leaves with firm stems. Avoid bunches with yellow edges, holes, heavy bruising or wilted stalks

Bok Choy (Cải Thìa)

Bok choy has tender green leaves and thick, juicy stalks with a mild cabbage-like flavour. Baby bok choy is particularly tender and suitable for quick cooking.

• How it is used: Stir-fried, steamed, braised or added near the end of soups and hotpots.
• Popular dishes: Stir-fried bok choy with garlic, bok choy with oyster sauce), and bok choy soup with minced pork. 
• Buying tip: Choose compact heads with crisp stalks and fresh green leaves. Avoid soft stalks, brown spots and yellowing leaves.

Amaranth (Rau Dền)

Select tender growing tips with small or medium leaves. Avoid thick, coarse stems and leaves that look dry or heavily damaged.

• How it is used: Boiled, stir-fried or cooked briefly in clear soup with shrimp, pork or crab.
• Popular dishes: Amaranth soup with shrimp, amaranth soup with minced pork
• Buying tip: Select tender growing tips with small or medium leaves. Avoid thick, coarse stems and leaves that look dry or heavily damaged.

Jute Vegetable (Rau Đay)

Jute leaves are soft green leaves commonly used in northern Vietnamese home cooking. Like okra, they release natural mucilage and give soups a slightly thick, slippery consistency.

• How it is used: The leaves are removed from tough stems, chopped and cooked in crab, shrimp or vegetable soup.
• Popular dishes: Crab soup with jute leaves and Malabar spinach, jute leaf soup with shrimp, and crab soup with jute leaves, Malabar spinach and sponge gourd.
• Buying tip: Choose bunches with small, soft leaves and tender tips. Large leaves and mature stems may be coarse and less pleasant to eat

Sweet Potato Leaves (Rau Lang)

Sweet potato leaves grow on the vines of the sweet potato plant. The young leaves and shoots have a mild, earthy taste and become tender quickly when boiled or stir-fried.

• How it is used: Boiled as a simple side dish, stir-fried with garlic or added to light soups.
• Popular dishes: Boiled sweet potato leaves, stir-fried sweet potato leaves with garlic, and sweet potato leaf soup with dried shrim. 
• Buying tip: Rau lang luộc, rau lang xào tỏi and canh rau khoai lang nấu tôm khô.

Crown Daisy (Rau tần ô)

Crown daisy has feathery green leaves and an aromatic bittersweet flavour. It softens rapidly, so it is normally added during the final stage of cooking.

• How it is used: Cooked in soup, briefly stir-fried or placed in hotpot broth shortly before serving.
• Popular dishes: Crown daisy soup with minced pork, seafood hotpot with crown daisy, vegetable hotpot, and stir-fried crown daisy with garlic. 
• Buying tip: Look for aromatic, bright green leaves and thin, tender stems. Avoid yellow, wilted or excessively long and coarse bunches.

Vietnamese gourds and fruit vegetables 

Bitter Melon (Khổ Qua)

Bitter melon is an elongated green gourd with deeply ridged or bumpy skin. Its pronounced bitterness becomes milder when the seeds and white pith are removed or when the sliced vegetable is salted or blanched.

• How it is used: Stuffed and simmered in soup, stir-fried with eggs or thinly sliced for salads.
• Popular dishes: Stuffed bitter melon soup, stir-fried bitter melon with eggs, and bitter melon salad with dried shrimp. 
• Buying tip: Choose firm, evenly green melons without soft areas. Yellow or orange colouring usually indicates that the melon is becoming overripe.

Bitter Melon

Winter Melon (Bí Đao)

Winter melon is a large gourd with pale green skin and white flesh. Its flavour is very mild, allowing it to absorb the taste of broth, shrimp, meat and seasonings.

• How it is used: Simmered in clear soup, steamed, braised or stir-fried with seafood.
• Popular dishes: Winter melon soup with shrimp, winter melon soup with minced pork, winter melon soup with pork ribs, and stir-fried winter melon with shrimp. 
• Buying tip: A whole melon should feel heavy and firm. For cut pieces, choose clean white flesh that looks moist but not watery, translucent or brown.

Winter Melon

Chayote (Su Su)

Chayote is a pale-green, pear-shaped vegetable with crisp white flesh and a mild sweetness. Both its fruit and tender vine shoots are eaten in Vietnam.

• How it is used: Peeled and sliced for soup, julienned for stir-fries or pickled. Young chayote shoots are usually stir-fried with garlic.
• Popular dishes: Chayote soup with shrimp (Canh su su nấu tôm), stir-fried chayote with eggs, stir-fried chayote with beef, and stir-fried chayote shoots with garlic. 
• Buying tip: Choose firm, smooth chayote with fresh pale-green skin. Avoid shrivelled vegetables, deep cuts and soft or dark patches.

Chayote

Luffa Gourd (Mướp)

Luffa, also called sponge gourd or silk squash, is eaten while young and tender. Its soft, slightly sweet flesh releases moisture as it cooks and readily absorbs the flavour of soups and stir-fries.

• How it is used: Peeled and sliced for soup or quickly stir-fried with garlic, eggs, shrimp or meat.
• Popular dishes: Sponge gourd soup with shrimp, crab soup with jute leaves, Malabar spinach and sponge gourd, and stir-fried sponge gourd with garlic. 
• Buying tip: Select young, firm gourds with unblemished skin. Large or mature luffa may be fibrous, dry or bitter.

Bottle Gourd (Bầu)

Bottle gourd is a long, smooth-skinned vegetable with pale-green skin and mild, slightly sweet flesh. It softens easily and is particularly common in simple Vietnamese family soups.

• How it is used: Cut into thin strips or pieces for soups, boiled as a side dish or stir-fried with shrimp and eggs.
• Popular dishes: Bottle gourd soup with shrimp, stir-fried bottle gourd with shrimp, stir-fried bottle gourd with eggs, and boiled bottle gourd with caramelised fish sauce dip. 
• Buying tip: Choose a young gourd that feels firm and heavy, with smooth, light-green skin. Wrinkled skin, soft spots and oversized gourds may indicate tough flesh.

Okra (Đậu Bắp)

Okra is a ridged green pod containing small white seeds. When cut and cooked, it releases a slippery substance that can lightly thicken soups.

• How it is used: Added to sour soup, boiled, grilled or stir-fried. It can be cooked whole to limit the release of mucilage.
• Popular dishes: Vietnamese sour fish soup, boiled okra with dipping sauce, grilled okra, and stir-fried okra with garlic 
• Buying tip: Choose small or medium pods that are green, firm and easy to snap. Large, rigid pods are often woody and difficult to chew.

Eggplant (Cà tím)

Vietnamese cooking commonly uses long, slender purple eggplants. Their flesh becomes soft and creamy when grilled, steamed or braised and readily absorbs savoury sauces.

• How it is used: Grilled whole, braised with tofu, steamed or stir-fried with garlic and seasonings.
• Popular dishes: Grilled eggplant with spring onion oil, braised eggplant with tofu, steamed eggplant with fish sauce, and stir-fried eggplant with garlic. 
• Buying tip: Select eggplants with glossy, taut skin, a fresh green cap and no soft spots. They should feel relatively heavy for their size.

Vietnamese root vegetables, shoots and sprouts 

Bamboo Shoots (Măng)

Bamboo shoots are the young edible shoots of bamboo plants. Depending on the variety and preservation method, they may taste mildly earthy, slightly bitter or distinctly sour.

• How it is used: Boiled and added to soup, stir-fried with meat, braised or fermented as sour bamboo shoots.
• Popular dishes: Duck and bamboo shoot noodle soup, bamboo shoot soup with pork trotters, stir-fried bamboo shoots with meat, and noodle soup with pickled sour bamboo shoots. 
• Buying tip: Fresh shoots should be firm and pale inside, without slime or an unpleasant fermented smell. Packaged shoots should have intact seals and clear liquid without unusual cloudiness.

Bamboo shoot

Lotus Root (Củ Sen)

Lotus root is the underground stem of the lotus plant. When sliced, it reveals a distinctive pattern of holes and retains a crisp texture even after boiling or stir-frying.

• How it is used: Simmered in soup, stir-fried, braised or cooked in sweet desserts.
• Popular dishes: Lotus root soup with pork ribs, stir-fried lotus root with beef, vegetarian braised lotus root, and sweet lotus root soup. 
• Buying tip: Choose firm, heavy sections with smooth beige skin. Avoid roots with deep black marks, soft sections or cut surfaces that appear dry and heavily discoloured.

Daikon Radish (Củ Cải Trắng)

Daikon is a large white radish with crisp flesh and a mild peppery taste. Its flavour becomes sweeter and softer when simmered.

• How it is used: Pickled, cooked in clear soups, braised with meat or added to broths for natural sweetness.
• Popular dishes: Vietnamese pickled carrot and daikon, daikon soup with pork bones, and braised pork with daikon.
• Buying tip: Select firm, heavy radishes with smooth skin. Avoid flexible, soft or badly cracked roots.

Taro (Khoai Môn)

Taro is a starchy tuber with brown, textured skin and white or pale-purple flesh. Once cooked, it develops a creamy, slightly nutty flavour and can thicken soups, stews and desserts.

• How it is used: Simmered in soups and curries, steamed, fried or cooked with sticky rice and coconut milk.
• Popular dishes: Duck cooked with fermented tofu and taro, taro soup with pork ribs, taro sticky rice, and sweet taro soup. 
• Buying tip: Choose firm, heavy roots with dry skin and no mould, cracks or soft areas. Taro must be properly cooked rather than eaten raw.

Kohlrabi (Su Hào)

Kohlrabi is a round, pale-green or purple member of the cabbage family. The peeled bulb is crisp and mildly sweet, with a flavour between cabbage stem and turnip.

• How it is used: Shredded for salad, pickled, stir-fried or simmered in soup with pork and other root vegetables.
• Popular dishes: Kohlrabi soup with pork bones, stir-fried kohlrabi with eggs, Vietnamese kohlrabi salad, and pickled kohlrabi. 
• Buying tip: Choose smooth, consistently round and firm bulbs. Elongated or oversized kohlrabi is more likely to be woody.

Bean Sprouts (Giá Đỗ)

Bean sprouts are normally grown from mung beans and have crisp white stems with small yellow tips. Their fresh, watery crunch contrasts with cooked noodles, soups and savoury pancakes.

• How it is used: Served raw or briefly blanched with noodle soups, folded into pancakes, added to stir-fries or pickled.
• Popular dishes: Pho, Hue-style spicy beef noodle soup (Bun bo Hue), Vietnamese crispy pancakes, fresh spring rolls, and pickled bean sprouts. 
• Buying tip: Choose crisp white sprouts with pale-yellow tips and a fresh smell. Avoid wet, brown, slimy sprouts or packages with a sour odour.

Beansprouts

Flower vegetables used in Vietnamese cuisine 

Banana Blossom (Bắp Chuối)

Banana blossom is the large purple flower that grows at the end of a banana cluster. Its pale inner layers are shredded into thin strips and have a crisp texture with mild bitterness and astringency.

• How it is used: Shredded for salads, served raw with noodle soups or cooked in sour soup.
• Popular dishes: Banana blossom and chicken salad, Vietnamese banana blossom salad, Hue-style beef noodle soup served with banana blossom, and sour soup with banana blossom. 
• Buying tip: Choose a heavy, firm blossom with tightly closed purple bracts. Avoid flowers with mushy sections, heavy blackening or dried outer layers.

Banana Flower

Squash Blossoms (Hoa Bí)

Squash blossoms are soft yellow flowers harvested from pumpkin or squash plants. They have a delicate flavour similar to young squash and require only brief cooking.

• How it is used: Stir-fried, added to soup, steamed or filled with seasoned pork and mushrooms.
• Popular dishes: Stir-fried squash blossoms with garlic, squash blossom soup, steamed squash blossoms stuffed with pork, and fried stuffed squash blossoms. 
• Buying tip: Choose bright yellow flowers that look fresh and open or are just beginning to open. Avoid bruised, wilted or brown-edged blossoms, and use them soon after purchase.

Sesbania Flowers (Bông Điên Điển)

Sesbania flowers are small yellow flowers associated with the flood season in the Mekong Delta. They have a lightly sweet, slightly bitter flavour and retain a gentle crunch when cooked briefly.

• How it is used: Added to sour soup, hotpot and salads or eaten with fermented-fish dishes.
• Popular dishes: Sour soup with freshwater fish and sesbania flowers, Vietnamese fermented fish hotpot, sesbania flower salad, and pickled sesbania flowers. 
• Buying tip: Select bright yellow, recently opened flowers without browning, slime or damaged petals. Purchase flowers sold specifically for culinary use rather than ornamental plants.

Tonkin Jasmine Flowers (Hoa Thiên Lý)

Tonkin jasmine produces clusters of small pale-green flowers with a distinctive fragrance and mildly sweet flavour. The buds remain lightly crisp when they are cooked quickly.

• How it is used: Stir-fried with beef, shrimp or garlic and added to clear soups or hotpots.
• Popular dishes: Stir-fried Tonkin jasmine flowers with beef, crab soup with Tonkin jasmine flowers, stir-fried Tonkin jasmine flowers with garlic
• Buying tip: Choose tightly clustered buds with a fresh green-yellow colour and noticeable fragrance. Avoid flowers with dark, wet or slimy areas.

Where to buy and how to prepare Vietnamese vegetables 

Vietnamese vegetables are easy to find because they are widely used in everyday meals across the country.

• Local markets: Usually offer the widest range of fresh, seasonal and locally grown vegetables.
• Supermarkets: Provide packaged produce with clear labels and more consistent quality.
• Mini supermarkets: Convenient for common vegetables such as water spinach, mustard greens, bok choy, bitter melon and bean sprouts.
• Outside Vietnam: Look for them at Vietnamese grocery stores or Asian supermarkets. Less common varieties may be sold frozen, dried or pickled.

Before cooking, wash the vegetables thoroughly under clean running water and remove any damaged leaves, tough stems or inedible outer layers. Leafy greens are commonly boiled, stir-fried or added to soup, while gourds and root vegetables may need to be peeled, seeded and cut into smaller pieces. Tender flowers and leafy vegetables should be cooked quickly to preserve their colour and texture, whereas ingredients such as bamboo shoots and taro must be cooked thoroughly before eating.

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Vietnamese vegetables offer a simple way to understand the country’s food culture, regional flavours and everyday dining habits. Explore more Vietnamese food guides, local experiences and travel inspiration with HOP Journeys as you plan your next journey across Vietnam.

FAQ

What are the most common vegetables in Vietnam?

Water spinach, mustard greens, bok choy, bitter melon, winter melon, bean sprouts and daikon are commonly used in Vietnamese home cooking.

Can Vietnamese vegetables be eaten raw?

Some vegetables can be eaten raw, including bean sprouts, banana blossom and shredded water spinach. Other ingredients, including taro and bamboo shoots, should be properly cooked before eating.

How are vegetables commonly cooked in Vietnam?

Common preparation methods include boiling, stir-frying, steaming, pickling and simmering in soups. Some vegetables and herbs are also served fresh with noodles, grilled dishes and rice-paper rolls.