Rice Cooker Xôi Lá Cẩm (Vietnamese Sweet Purple Sticky Rice)

Xôi Lá Cẩm is a popular breakfast option for locals in Vietnam. When you can’t sit down for a hearty noodle soup such as pho, grabbing purple sticky rice from a street vendor is the next best thing.

After cooking, the glutinous rice is tossed with coconut milk, a little salt, and sugar. It can be dressed up more with toppings like grated coconut, roasted peanuts, and muối mè, a sweet and savory mixture of roasted sesame seeds, sugar, and salt.

The result is delicious sticky rice with a deep purple color. Enjoy it for breakfast, as a snack, or a simple dessert.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

Traditionally, sticky rice is steamed. That usually means using a steamer with small holes so the rice grains do not fall through. Some people line large-hole steamers with cheesecloth, while Thai and Lao cooking often relies on woven cone-shaped bamboo steamers. I have previously shared a recipe that uses the traditional steaming method.

In this recipe, I focus on making sticky rice in a rice cooker. This method is great for home cooks who don’t own a steamer or a steamer with the right-sized holes but already have a rice cooker. It’s perfect for making a small batch of Vietnamese purple sticky rice in a jiffy!

What You Will Need

To make Vietnamese purple sticky rice (Xôi Lá Cẩm), gather the following ingredients and equipment:

• Sweet rice (nếp): Look for rice labeled sweet rice, Thai sticky rice, or glutinous rice. These are different names for the same thing. Glutinous rice has a hard outer shell, which typically requires soaking.
• Magenta plant: The leaves and young stems of the magenta plant (scientific names Peristrophe bivalvis, Peristrophe roxburghiana, or Purple Peristrophe) are boiled with water to extract their natural color. They are commonly used as a natural food dye in many Southeast Asian countries. The liquid is magenta (purple with a reddish hue), but the final rice color is a deeper purple, which somehow does not always photographed accurately through my lens. If you do not have fresh magenta leaves, no worries. You can use ube extract instead, which I also include in the recipe below.
• Salt, sugar, and coconut milk: To toss into the cooked rice.
• Rice cooker
• Optional toppings that makes sweet sticky rice awesome:
  • Roasted peanuts: Peeled raw peanuts, dry-toasted in a pan until fragrant, then lightly smashed or processed into a coarse mixture.
  • Vietnamese sweet sticky rice mixture: We call this mixture muối mè. It is a combination of roasted white sesame seeds, salt, and sugar.
  • Grated coconut: Fresh coconut is great if you have access to mature brown coconuts and can remove and grate the thick coconut meat yourself—though I can tell you from experience, it’s incredibly tedious and I almost lost an eye trying to pop out the coconut meat. So do yourself a favor and use frozen grated coconut from Asian supermarkets or dried grated coconut from the baking aisle of American grocery stores.

Transfer the rinsed and well-drained rice to a bowl or directly into the inner bowl of your rice cooker.

Strain out and discard the leaves and stems. Pour the hot magenta liquid over the rinsed rice and let it soak for one hour. If the magenta liquid is at room temperature or cold because it was made in advance, let the rice soak for 2 hours instead.

There should be more than enough liquid to cover the rice completely. The rice needs to be fully submerged for even coloring.

Dry-toast the raw peanuts in a pan (no oil) until lightly browned, then gently process or pound them into a coarse mixture. Set aside.

Dry-toast the grated coconut (no oil). I usually do this when using frozen grated coconut from Asian grocery stores to remove any off smell and make it more aromatic. Alternatively, you can use fresh or store-bought dried coconut as is.

FAQs

Where to find the Vietnamese magenta plant?

The magenta plant (cây lá cẩm) can be tricky to find. Try to locate them in nurseries using their more common gardening name Purple Peristrophe, or their more scientific names Peristrophe bivalvis and Peristrophe roxburghiana.

But really, the best way to acquire this plant is by asking a Vietnamese friend or neighbor who might have it growing in their backyard garden.

If you can get a small cutting, it’s easy to propagate at home. Simply place the cutting in water until roots develop, then transfer it to soil. The plant grows easily in warm, sunny conditions and hibernate in the winter.

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