For every family, Tet is an occasion for everyone to gather together, and the Tet meal becomes important and needs to be carefully and thoughtfully prepared so that you have a complete, nutritious, and delicious meal at the beginning of the year. Let’s check out the Cooking Tips section to see 18 attractive dishes that need to be prepared early for Tet.
1 Pickled Onions
Pickled onions, or fermented onions, are a type of pickled food made primarily from onions, which are fermented using a microbial fermentation method. On the Tet meal table, pickled onions are often combined with square sticky rice cake, meat jelly, or plain rice,… making the dish more flavorful and appealing.
The round, crunchy, fragrant purple onions have a strong, pungent smell characteristic of onions. When eaten, you will experience a slight sourness and a mild spiciness on the tip of your tongue. During the traditional Tet holiday of the Vietnamese community, pickled onions are an essential dish for a full and warm Tet meal.
To achieve the desired deliciousness and flavor of pickled onions, they need to be fermented for quite a long time, about 3 to 4 days, so you need to prepare in advance to have a tasty and appealing side dish for the Tet meal!
2 Pickled Scallions
Pickled scallions are always a characteristic dish in families during the Tet holiday, often eaten with dried shrimp, sticky rice cake, or braised pork with salted eggs, effectively reducing the greasiness during meals filled with meat and fish. The crunchy, tangy, and fragrant pickled scallions will surely enhance the flavors of the Tet days.
Without scallions, the Tet meal seems to lose a very special and unique flavor and color. To let the pickled scallions absorb the flavors and taste delicious, you need to prepare and ferment them about a week in advance, so what are you waiting for? Check out the recipe from TasteVN to get started right away.
3 Pickled Bean Sprouts
This is one of the indispensable side dishes for the Tet meal. The light, sweet-sour taste and the crunchy deliciousness of pickled bean sprouts balance the flavors of a meal rich in fish and meat.
Pickled bean sprouts are extremely easy to make with readily available ingredients, quick pickling time, beautiful colors, and very tasty. Why wait any longer? Follow the method below to make perfectly delicious pickled bean sprouts.
4 Pickled Mustard Greens
Besides the side dishes mentioned above, you should also try pickled mustard greens, with a sour and salty flavor that helps balance your taste and makes your meal more delicious when eaten with sticky rice cake, braised meat,…
Pickled mustard greens have a crunchy texture and a light sour taste, making them the top choice for you to try during the Tet holiday with a simple recipe that anyone can make.
This pickled dish requires a fermentation time of about 3 – 4 days, so if you want to enjoy flavorful and perfectly seasoned pickled greens, you should prepare in advance!
5 Vietnamese Kimchi
If you are a fan of Korean dishes, then you definitely should not miss this super delicious Vietnamese kimchi, with a creative recipe that transforms the traditional Korean kimchi. You will enjoy a side dish with a sour, spicy, and crunchy flavor from various familiar vegetables such as napa cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, onions,…
This dish is simple to make, and with a little skill and patience, you will have a super attractive dish that anyone who tastes it will rave about.
6 Sausage
Sausage is a dish that originated from China but has been present in Vietnamese cuisine for a long time. Therefore, it is a very suitable dish for the Tet feast. Sausage has a fatty and fragrant flavor that makes it hard for anyone who tastes it to forget. This special characteristic has helped bring this seemingly simple and rustic dish to family meals or on the Tet banquet table.
While the making process may seem elaborate, creating delicious sausages is not as difficult as you think. You can completely make clean sausages at home using the very simple recipe below. This Tet, try your hand at it to treat your family!
7 Pork Head Ham
Pork head ham (also known as stir-fried ham) is a traditional Vietnamese dish, and it is an essential item on the Tet holiday feast. The main ingredient is pork head (the meat from the head of the pig such as ears, nose, tongue), stir-fried with some other ingredients, then wrapped and tightly pressed.
The combination of fragrant ham pieces, crispy from the pig’s ears and wood ear mushrooms, with the spicy flavor of pepper, delicious fish sauce,… will make your family’s Tet meal more appealing. A plate of ham symbolizes abundance and prosperity, with warmth inside and peace outside.
8 Vietnamese Pork Sausage
A complete Tet meal must definitely have a plate of delicious, chewy Vietnamese pork sausage. Each slice of sausage is incredibly rich in flavor, fragrant with meat, seasoned with all the necessary spices, making it a light dish that many families love during Tet.
However, if you are worried about buying it from outside and not ensuring quality, try making it right at home with a very simple, easy recipe. With just a bit of patience, you can treat your family to a quality, delicious, and nutritious plate of pork sausage. Check out the recipe from TasteVN to make it right away!
9 Cinnamon Sausage
Or change things up for the new year with the super unique, aromatic cinnamon sausage for a year full of success and good luck. This dish has a simple preparation method, though it takes a bit of time, so you can make it in advance and store it in the refrigerator, to enjoy gradually in the early days of the year.
The cinnamon sausage, with its unique aroma, will surely delight everyone when enjoyed. The sausage has an eye-catching color, enhancing the meal, and is suitable to be served with sticky rice, Tet cake, square cake, or plain rice.
10 Century Egg
Century egg is a dish that has ancient origins from China. Nowadays, Vietnamese people often use duck eggs soaked in a solution of strong black tea, lime, salt, wood ash, etc., to make century eggs. After soaking for about 3 months, the egg white turns dark brown, dark gray or gray-green, slightly translucent like jelly, while the yolk becomes dark green-black and smooth.
Century eggs not only have an appealing flavor but are also extremely beneficial for health. Try making this dish for your family to enjoy. The dish requires a considerable amount of time to ferment, so make sure to plan it well to have it ready for the Tet festival!
11 Dried Beef
Dried beef is a dish that families really love during Tet. For fathers who often have guests over, serving a plate of dried beef while chatting is just perfect, isn’t it? This dish will also be very popular with the little ones. The beef, fragrant and well-marinated with spices like lemongrass and five-spice powder, will make them enjoy their rice a lot.
You can personally go to the kitchen to prepare this beloved dish with the very simple recipe below, and you will definitely succeed, ensuring quality and hygiene, while bringing meaning for the New Year and surprising the whole family.
This incredibly enticing dish is simple to make, but you need to wait a bit longer for the pork to absorb the spices, so it requires some time. If you want your family to enjoy this dish in time for the beginning of the year, make sure to prepare it right away! This dish will surely win over all family members, even the pickiest ones.
15 Pickled Radish
This rather unique dish will enhance your family’s Tet menu with its full flavor and deliciousness. The pickled radish is simple to make, visually appealing, crispy, flavorful, and just right, often served with traditional Tet dishes like banh chung, banh tet, braised pork,… it not only reduces richness but also adds flavor that makes you more delighted.
The pickled radish is easy to make, similar to many side dishes during Tet, and needs time to marinate so that the radish absorbs the flavors, so remember to schedule your preparation time in advance to enjoy it during the early days of the year!
16 Cold Meat
Cold meat is a delicious, aromatic dish often chosen to treat guests during Tet. The cold meat is sweet, soft, and looks clear and beautiful, with spices blending together to create a harmonious dish that stimulates the taste buds.
This dish pairs excellently with hot rice, making it a wonderful combination for your Tet meal. Click to see the detailed recipe to easily succeed in making cold meat!
17 Braised Pork
Braised pork is a signature dish for the Tet holiday, and to make it more flavorful and delicious, you should prepare it in advance so that by the first day of the year, the dish is perfectly seasoned, with each piece of meat being savory, fatty, and melting in your mouth when enjoyed.
The dish has many different cooking methods, depending on the region. You can refer to some recipes below from TasteVN to show off your cooking skills for your family during the upcoming Tet holiday! In addition, you can combine it with some side dishes mentioned above to make the braised meat dish more balanced in flavor and less greasy.
18 Coconut Jam
And the last dish is a snack that many families love, often made at home to treat guests on the first day of the new year. The fragrant coconut jam, coated with a layer of fine sugar on the outside, and soft, creamy, chewy on the inside will surely delight many people.
The preparation of this dish is somewhat complicated, from the ingredient preparation to the cooking process, requiring your patience and time, so try to make it early to be ready for the upcoming Tet holiday!
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Hopefully, through this article, you have been able to come up with a complete menu for Tet and start preparing to try 18 dishes that need to be prepared in advance before Tet for a thoughtful meal! TasteVN wishes you success.
