Vietnam
Canh Củ Dền Recipe: Vietnamese Beetroot Soup with Pork

Canh Củ Dền Recipe: Vietnamese Beetroot Soup with Pork

Hanna Tran Hanna Tran | Updated October 16, 2026

Canh củ dền is a simple Vietnamese home soup: red beetroot simmered with minced pork and Napa cabbage. The beetroot brings its own natural sweetness, enough that the original recipe leaves out the sugar. Vietnamese people usually eat this soup with boiled rice.

Ingredients

  • 1 medium red beetroot
  • 200 g minced pork
  • 150 g Napa cabbage
  • Shallots (purple onion), minced
  • Cooking oil
  • 3–4 bowls of water
  • Salt and pepper
  • Sugar (optional)
  • Coriander, sliced, to finish

How to make canh củ dền

1. Marinate the pork and prepare the vegetables

Mix the minced pork with 1 teaspoon of salt and a little pepper, and leave it for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel the beetroot, rinse it and cut it into small cubes. Wash the Napa cabbage and slice it small.

Canh Củ Dền Recipe: Vietnamese Beetroot Soup with Pork

2. Fry the pork and make the broth

Heat the oil in a pot and fry the minced shallot until fragrant. Add the marinated pork and fry for 3–4 minutes.

Pour in 3–4 bowls of water and bring it to the boil. Skim off the foam from the surface with a spoon now and then.

3. Cook the beetroot, then the cabbage

Add the beetroot and cook over low heat until it’s soft. Only then add the cabbage, and cook for 2–3 minutes more.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. You can add sugar too, but the original recipe advises against it: the beetroot is sweet enough on its own. Turn off the heat.

4. Serve

Scatter a little sliced coriander over the soup and serve it with steamed rice, the way Vietnamese families usually eat it.

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